How Often Should You Really Do Your Bookkeeping?

Unless you’re a qualified bookkeeper or certified accountant, you may not know all the ins and outs of bookkeeping. There’s plenty to be done, but when should you do it? We often say things like, “reconcile regularly,” but what does “regularly” actually mean? How often should you really be doing your bookkeeping? Some tasks need to be done on a daily basis, while others can be done monthly or quarterly. Let us help break it down for you…

Daily

  • Check in on your cash. Know how much you have available at all times. This is the fuel to your business. 
  • Stash away any receipts or important documents from the day in a place you will be able to reference them later. 

Weekly

  • Pull out your saved receipts and record all transactions made throughout the week. Consider saving the receipt as an attachment to the matching transaction (feature available on QuickBooks). 
  • Make sure your account receivables and account payables are up-to-date, as well. 
  • Pay all vendors or bills for the next week ahead. 
  • Reviewed your projected cash flow. Are you in a good place? 

Monthly

  • Review any past-due account receivables. Send out any payment reminders, if needed. 
  • Run inventory. Where are you running low? Stock up on necessary items. 
  • Reconcile your accounts. Make sure what’s in your bank matches what’s in your books. If it doesn’t, get to the bottom of it now before it’s too late and becomes more complicated to fix. 
  • Meet your business’ payroll tax requirements by the deadline. 

Quarterly

  • Run reports (Profit & Loss Statement, Cash Flow Analysis, and Balance Sheet), analyze, and compare to past performance. Has your business progressed or regressed since the previous quarter? Where are you trying to go next quarter? Take the time to sit down and see where your business stands in regards to your goals. 

Annually

  • File your business’ state and annual taxes for the year. 
  • Distribute the correct tax document forms to all employees from the past year. 
  • Run reports (Profit & Loss Statement, Cash Flow Analysis, and Balance Sheet) and compare to the previous few years.

Maintaining your bookkeeping is no small feat. If it becomes too much to take on and stay on top of, consider outsourcing a trusted and established company whose expertise is bookkeeping!