As a business owner, you juggle multiple tasks each day. Some tasks are deemed important enough to be placed at the top of your to-do list. Others, mainly the ones you dislike, get pushed to the bottom. One of those tasks at the bottom of your to-do list may be bookkeeping. It is the one task that all business owners must do. Yet it is the one that no one enjoys doing! Today, I am going to share how to catch up on your bookkeeping quickly and efficiently. 

How to Catch Up on Your Bookkeeping

1. Gather All of Your Receipts

One of the first things you will want to do is gather up all of your receipts. Search for customer invoices, expense receipts, vendor receipts, and any other receipts that pertain to your business. This is also the time to take a look to see if you have any bad debt expenses. You know, those invoices that clients never paid and you now need to write them off. 

2. Reconcile Your Bank Accounts

Now that you have all of your receipts together, it is time to reconcile your bank accounts. It is important to do this, so you can see if you, or the bank, made any errors. 

To reconcile your bank accounts, simply compare each transaction from each account to the transactions in your accounting records. If you discover any errors, you will need to fix them. Sometimes, this is as simple as fixing transactions on your end. Other times, it means calling the bank. 

3. Separate All Your Personal and Business Expenses

Combining personal and business expenses can get confusing when it comes to business finances. This is why I always recommend keeping these two types of expenses separate. 

If you haven’t been strict about this yet, now is the time to get started with keeping everything separate. Start by removing all of those personal expenses from your business. Then, from now on, only use your business accounts for business expenses. Keep your personal expenses paid for from your personal accounts. 

You may be unsure of whether a specific expense qualifies as a business expense. In that scenario, it is best to check with your bookkeeper. 

4. Start Going Paperless

At this point, you probably realize how bad it can be to fall behind in your bookkeeping. Especially if you are still gathering paper receipts. 

To stay caught up on your bookkeeping, I recommend choosing the paperless route in the future. 

You can begin this process now by scanning all of your receipts and important documents and storing them digitally. Most programs will organize these documents by month or type. This makes it much easier to find them when you need them. 

5. Find Those W-2s, W-9s, and 1099s

Depending on how far behind you are on your bookkeeping, you may need to find any W-2s, W-9s, and 1099s. The W-9 is necessary for paying independent contractors. The 1099 is a form that is issued to independent contractors at tax time. 

Since you are catching up on your bookkeeping, this is an excellent time to make sure you have these items in order. 

It is going to be time-consuming to catch up on your bookkeeping, especially if it has been a while since you have tackled this task. You can easily do it on your own. However, contact us today to schedule a consultation to see how we can help keep your bookkeeping up to date permanently.