What You Should Do To Your Books Daily, Weekly, Monthly

We always say you should be paying constant attention to your books, so we decided to break it down based on what you should be doing daily, weekly, and monthly. What you do in these short periods of time can impact the overall state of your books and your knowledge of your company’s financial standing. The more often you work in your books, the less time you’ll have to spend on them come the year’s end. You’ll thank yourself come December! If not, we’re here to help.

Daily

-Check where you stand with cash. Cash is the fuel of your business. You should start every day knowing exactly how much you have and where you stand.

Weekly

-Record transactions. Record every transaction made in the past week in the proper account.

-Document and file receipts. Better yet, add them as attachments to the rightful transaction. Be sure to keep a copy of every invoice sent, all cash receipts, and all cash payments. Don’t wait until tax time to give your receipts the attention they deserve.

-Review unpaid bills from vendors. It’s helpful to have an “Unpaid Vendors” folder with records of each of your vendors and their billing date, amounts due, and payment due date.

-Pay Vendors. Take a look at your accounts payable and make sure you have funds to pay them on time. Sign any checks for payments that are due and keep a copy of the invoice.

-Review your projected cash flow statement to see where your company stands in the coming week/month.

Monthly

-Reconcile your account(s). By doing this, you’ll be able to catch any mistakes and correct them before it’s too late.

-Review any past due customer payments (receivables). Send out past due reminders to anyone who owes you money.

-Check inventory. Are you low on anything? Is something selling out quickly? What’s selling slowly? You can adjust your ordering accordingly.

-Meet payroll tax requirements. There are certain things you need to do at different times. Make sure you’re on top of things.

-Review your profit and loss statement. Check it monthly and compare it to the year’s statement thus far. Where are you spending too much? Where should you increase spending? This is when you’ll review and adapt according to your statement comparisons.