Five Bookkeeping No No’s

We’ve been Setting Up, Cleaning Up, and Keeping Up our clients’ bookkeeping long enough to notice some common mistakes people make. The good news is these can be easily avoided. 

Putting off your bookkeeping. 

This is something we often see, whether it’s from lack of interest, time, energy, or knowledge. People let their piles add up until it becomes a maze of entering all the money that has been in and out. Not doing your books will only make the situation worse! Staying on tops of your bookkeeping is vital. 

Having one account for business & personal. 

Having one only account for both business and personal weaves a complicated web! Every statement becomes a game of guessing if something was a business or personal expense. Reconciliation becomes an absolute headache. 

Entering information incorrectly. 

It’s easy to fat finger your keyboard or misspell a company or client name, but by taking the time to double and triple-check your entries, you can save yourself a mess later on. Inaccurate books are a nightmare to fix. Save yourself the time down the road by taking the time today. 

Not categorizing expenses. 

Failing to categorize or inaccurately categorizing expenses can lead to a mess within your books. Your financial reports and their measurements won’t necessarily be correct if transactions and expenses are labeled incorrectly or not at all. Categorizing your expenses helps not only keep your books organized, but leads to more specific data in your reports. 

Spending too much time on your books. 

If you don’t know how to accurately and efficiently complete your bookkeeping, the process can be long and frustrating, which usually results in time wasted. If you aren’t sure what you’re doing, either turn to a professional or invest in tutorials and classes. 

There are plenty of resources out there to help you with your bookkeeping. Sometimes all it takes is setting aside the time to learn more about your books!