Bookkeeping is the bane of many business owners. Keeping clear financial records is important for budgeting your business and ensuring that you’re paying the right amount of tax. It can be a huge headache for many self-employed people and eat away into time spent doing other business activities. Fortunately, there are now many ways to make accounting simpler. Here are just a few ways that you may be able to improve your bookkeeping methods and reduce the burden.
Hire an accountant
An accountant may be able to use your financial records to effectively calculate your taxes and organise it in a way that’s clear and concise if the taxman ever comes knocking by. You can hire a freelance accountant or go through an accountancy firm. Chartered accountants are worth looking out for as they have had to be screened and tested to achieve this merit, making them more credible. You may of course know a friend or family member with financial experience that can do your books for cheap. Financial advisors meanwhile can be hired for helping you make cuts to your spending including notifying you of any expenses you can be claiming.
Speed up with software
If you’re manually calculating all your taxes with a pen, paper and a calculator, it may be time to graduate to the digital age. There are now specialist accountancy software programmes that can automatically calculate your taxes and expenses. These programmes only cost a small fee and can take some of the headache out of bookkeeping. Some programmes are also available as apps. This allows you to do your accountancy on the go – if you’ve just had to fuel up your business vehicle and want to make a record of it as an expense, you can do it there and then at the gas station.
Take a course
Accountancy can be complex and you may want to fully get to grips with it by taking a course. There are online MBA accredited programs that may allow you to get higher level education in accountancy without having to attend a campus in person, so that you can keep running your business alongside. There are also shorter courses out there and even day workshops if you’re simply looking to get filled in on the basics.
Buy books on bookkeeping
It’s useful to read up on finance tips to see if there are any ways that you could be cutting costs or organising your financial records more efficiently. There are plenty of books on accounting out there that you can buy online or rent from your local library. Of course there are other forms of reading too – blogs can often carry some handy advice. Financial magazines can be a good source of tips and tricks too. Just make sure that any advice you read is current and from a good source so that you know you’re getting the best financial tips for your business.
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