Your Bookkeeping Upkeep Timeline

Your bookkeeping requires regular and detailed maintenance. There’s plenty you should be doing to your bookkeeping on a regular basis, but what exactly should be doing when? Rather than overwhelm yourself by doing everything at one time, break it down into separate sittings. 

Daily

• Check in on your cash. It’s the fuel of your business and keeps it running. You need to know your financial position every day. 
• Stash away any receipts or documents you need to add to your books later in the week.

Weekly

• Record any transactions from the week into the proper account. This includes account payables and account receivables. Keep your books up-to-date so when you reconcile later, you shouldn’t run into issues. 
• Document and file receipts. Add each receipt as an attachment to its rightful transaction - you may want to access it at a later date. The attachment feature is available on QuickBooks. 
• Review any unpaid bills from vendors. Keep an “Unpaid Vendors” folder with records of each vendor and their billing date, amount due, and payment due date. 
• Pay any vendors and bills. Check out your accounts payable and make sure you have the funds to pay your vendors and bills on time. Keep a copy of any and all signed checks and/or invoices. 
• Review your projected cash flow. Where does your business stand financially in the next week/coming weeks?

Monthly

• Review any past due customer payments (receivables). Send out any payment reminders, if needed. 
• Check inventory. Are you running low on anything? Stock up on necessary items, or put in an order. 
• Meet payroll tax requirements. There are certain deadlines business owners need to meet, and it’s vital to stay on top of it. 
• Review your Profit & Loss Statement and compare to past statements. Where are you losing money? Where are you spending more than you should? Where should you increase spending? Based on your findings, adjust accordingly. 

Quarterly

• Run these three reports: Profit & Loss Statement, Cash Flow Analysis, and Balance Sheet. Take the time to sit down and analyze them. What are they telling you about your business? Compare your findings to past reports, and determine where you stand in reaching your goals for the year. 

If you don’t have the time or interest to give your bookkeeping the attention it needs, consider outsourcing to the professionals at Skynar Bookkeeping.