Bookkeeping for interior designs can feel like a chore. It may leave you wondering – is this even worth it? Is there really a point to crunching numbers for every little transaction and comparing and contrasting every statement?
We get it. We’ve all had those feelings of frustration over the tedium of bookkeeping responsibilities countless times.
We know you’ve heard it before, but we’re here to tell you again – yes! It IS worth it to stay on top of even the smallest financial details of your business.
We’re here to share two ways you can optimize your business’s bookkeeping – and why it matters that you do.
1. Input transactions weekly
Expenses can pile up in an instant when you own a business. Maybe it’s only been two days since you thought about your bank account, but you’ve probably made more purchases than you realize in that amount of time!
Whether your money is going towards paying employees, business operating expenses, buying supplies or hiring subcontractors, there are a lot of places your money can run off to.
It’s also easy to forget what exactly you spent money on, or who that vendor is that has a weird name on your credit card.
That’s why it is so important to keep track of your transactions – not just whenever you remember or feel like it, but every single week. It doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated, you just have to get it done consistently.
That’s right. No skips. Not even on “slow weeks.”
Lastly, entering your transactions weekly also serves as a preventative and safety measure – if you aren’t paying attention, you may not catch fraud as quickly as you need to.
Once you begin this habit, your financial information will be easily maintained, and keeping track of it won’t be so overwhelming. We promise it’s worth it!
2. Reconcile statements monthly
Reconciling your statements monthly means that you are taking your bank or credit card statement and essentially double-checking the accuracy of the transactions you’ve been entering all month.
It’s easy to skip this step, or to believe that “reconciling” simply means entering those transactions that come through the bank feed in QuickBooks. But you should actually be comparing your bank statements to your own separate records
The act of reconciling should also alert you to transactions that have been entered but not cleared. That’s when it’s time to look into those transactions – perhaps there’s a check that was written but not yet cleared, and you need to follow up with the vendor to find out if they have it. Or maybe someone manually entered a duplicate transaction that needs to be deleted.
Even though it can be tedious work, it is so worth it in the long run to catch typos and forgotten transactions in the moment, rather than trying to find hidden mistakes in your records at the end of the year.
Implementing these small steps in your interior design bookkeeping will take you one step closer to freedom and peace of mind in your business’s finances!
If you still feel overwhelmed about your business’s financial situation, or if you simply have questions about more best practices for bookkeeping, schedule a call with Account Solve today!
