Bookkeepers and Mobile Bookkeeping Services

Do you want to know a simple way to reduce your bookkeeping costs? Many Business operators could reduce their bookkeeping costs immediately just by being a little more organised in their daily routine.

Do you shove all your paperwork into a shoebox and hand it to your accountant at the end of the year? You have all the best intentions, and each week you believe you’ll put some time aside to sort the paperwork out. The only thing that is stopping most people is having a simple system in place.

Here’s some tips to get you started

They are very simple, and will have your bookkeeping organised in no time at all.

Visit your local stationary store (you can even do it on the internet).
1. You need a large ring binder (we recommend the Foolscap size which is slightly bigger than A4)
2. Divider cards (marbig or similar)
3. A4 clear plastic sleeves
4. Stapler
5. Pen
6. Pencil

Now comes the organisational process

(You may need an hour away from all distractions)

Organize your ring binder into the following sections:

Bank Statements

Keep your bank statements in date order with the oldest at the bottom, and the newest on top. Separate the different bank accounts

Credit Card Statements

Again, keep then in date order with the oldest at the bottom, and the newest on top. Separate the different Credit Card accounts

Invoices

There’s two subsections here, paid and unpaid
Unpaid Invoices
These are all invoices that are awaiting payment, including supplier invoices. We recommend that you write the due date at the top of each invoice, and then place all unpaid invoices in ‘date to be paid’ order with the earliest one on top.

Paid Invoices
This is where you put all invoices once they’ve been paid, in date order with the oldest at the bottom

You should include invoices that you paid at the time of purchase, such as the stationary that you’ve just bought to set up this system

Staple each receipt to the front of the invoice – i.e if you pay an invoice by credit card, staple the credit card payment docket to the invoice of goods purchased.

ALWAYS

Remember to write the date, amount and method of payment on each invoice. This will save so much time (and therefore money) at the end of the month / quarter or financial year

Receipts

Some purchases will be made without an invoice – such as fuel and miscellaneous “petty cash” expenses. Make sure that you keep all theses receipt dockets to claim the GST etc at each Tax reporting interval. Again, write on the top date payment is due and put them in date order so that it’s easier if you have to chase overdue invoices.

Often these are smaller than A4, so we suggest you keep them in an envelop (for each month) inside plastic A4 sleeve in the Foolscap Ringbinder

Allocate a regular Time

Having the system in place is great, but will not be effective without regular attention. Make sure you schedule in each week/month to keep your bookkeeping binder up-to-date.

So where do you keep everything until you file it each week?

You can put all your paperwork in a plastic sleeve at the front of your ringbinder so that everything is together when you come to update your system. Otherwise it’s too time-consuming to add each receipt as you get it!

A simple easy-to-manage book keeping system to save you time money

Does this really save time?

You may think that you’re doing the work that you pay your bookkeeper to do. That is true, but your bookkeeper will take far more time than you, particular if you make payments from a number of different bank accounts and credit card accounts.

You would otherwise be paying your bookkeeper to sort all the documents then cross check each invoice and receipt against each bank and credit card statement.

If you’ve written on the top of each receipt and invoice the method amount and date of payment at the time of the transaction, what took you a couple of seconds at time of payment could save your bookkeeper a few minutes.

You may have one hundred dockets which could equate to two hundred minutes of your bookkeepers time compared to a few minutes of your time!

Follow this simple book keeping system that’s easy-to-manage and it will save you time overall and reduce your bookkeeping costs