Accounting is something small businesses should do on a regular basis. Small business owners often put off accounting when they become busy with assisting customers. However, when audit season comes small business owners will likely spend hours catching-up and trying to identify and resolve any accounting discrepancies.
Accounting isn’t a monthly, quarterly, and yearly task, accounting should be completed daily and weekly as well. Small business owners’ primary focus should be assessing how much cash they have available each day. This will allow them to keep track of when money is coming into and leaving their account. Completing a daily accounting checklist helps to ensure small business owners aren’t caught by surprise from a low account balance or worse, overdraft fees.
Daily Checklist
- Reconcile cash and receipts- Completing this task daily helps you to locate cash shortages or overages quickly, this helps you determine where the money went or where overages came from.
- Review/reconcile transactions- If your accounting software is connected to your bank and synced daily you don’t have to wait for monthly bank statements. Just log in to review and approve.
- Record received inventory- Entering inventory daily helps you to have a more accurate look at your inventory. This assists in reordering delays and allowing your employees to know what is on-hand at all times.
- Check account balance- Always be sure you are aware of your account balance, as well as checking the money moving in and out of your account.
Also, a separate weekly checklist will help keep you on track with your accounting and bookkeeping. This checklist is a bit more extensive than the daily accounting checklist, but once you get into the rhythm you will be more organized and have the ability to quickly check from your list. Plus, come audit season your hard work has been done throughout the year.
Weekly Checklist
- Make deposits- Deposit earnings weekly to ensure a healthy cash flow for your business.
- Record payments received- Record payments received and deposited to keep up-to-date records. Also, this allows you to view any electronic payments.
- Send invoices- It is essential to ensure invoicing is completed once per week. Billing clients regularly helps them to be more-likely to pay on time.
Managing your business’ finances can be a big task if not done systematically. Creating realistic accounting checklists helps to give you a real-time view of your business’ activities. Adding daily and weekly accounting checklists will keep you attuned with the money your business is making, what your business is spending money on, and tax return preparation.
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