Is your New Year’s resolution to spend less time staring at numbers? Preparing your small business’s bookkeeping for 2016 doesn’t need to be a headache, but now is the time to ensure you have a plan ready to go. Square Point of Sale allows you to integrate all your valuable sales data with cloud-based accounting software like Xero, which can go a long way toward making the process easier.
Here are our tips to get your business (and point-of-sale) bookkeeping ready for the new year.
Start the year organised
Cleaning house after a busy December is the first step towards simpler bookkeeping. Opening separate accounts for your business and personal use is a good start. Then spend some time in early January reconciling your accounts and expenses from the previous year as an efficient way to wrap up any outstanding activity.
Schedule time to attend to the books
Accounting is a year-long activity, and laying the groundwork early on will help you save time (and minimise avoidable stress.) Schedule a recurring event in your calendar to spend time managing your books. If you’re employing an accountant or bookkeeper to do this, make sure that you’ve allocated time to meet with him or her and keep abreast of the the ins and outs of your business finances.
Review your biggest expenses from 2015
What unexpected spending caused you the biggest pain last year? It’s impossible to plan for the unknown, but by reviewing your sales receipts and expenditures you can identify a bit of a pattern to your business spending, and perhaps some potential areas of savings. Whether it’s employees, electricity, wastage or shrinkage, using this information to shape your planning will help you operate more effectively in 2016.
Streamline
There’s always room to improve your current business processes, and your accounting software is a great place to start. Square Point of Sale can automatically integrate your point-of-sale data with Xero’s powerful accounting software, saving you from having to manually enter sales data twice. This is a great example of the type of automation that saves you time and money.
Putting in a little time now will help you simplify your bookkeeping process and give you access to more valuable information about your small business. Prepare now for a successful 2016!
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