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How to Simplify Small Business Finances

Small business accounting is complicated at the best of times, especially when keeping track of the constant inflows and outflows of cash, employee payroll, monthly bank reconciliation and so much more. Simplifying your finances is an essential step in the management of small business accounting and can save you serious time and money in the long term. To streamline your finances, we’ve listed five finance tips to help organise your finances.

Keep your Finances Separate
It’s often tempting when operating as a small business or freelancer to mix your personal and professional finances, but it’s a costly mistake that can damage your business. Not only does it make it harder to track your income and expenses but complicates your tax lodgement as it’s easy to miscalculate gross income and sales records and can impact the deductions you can claim for business operating costs. If you mix finances, make sure to get in touch with a small business accountant who can keep track of your books and prepare your tax lodgements to avoid losing time and money.

Accurate Invoicing
Keeping track of your invoices and money received is essential to managing your finances and ensuring your business will reach its KPIs and business goals. Accounting programs like QuickBooks and Xero are cost-friendly and easy to use with features that can track inventory management along with invoicing. Seeing your invoices on the one platform can help you visualise your incoming cash flow and reduce billing inconsistencies which can affect your client and customer relationships. However, not all accounting programs are suited to small businesses, such as freelancers, so a small accounting professional can help with advice if accounting programs aren’t for you.

Weekly Bookkeeping
Tallying up your invoices and receipts can feel like a complicated task if you’re balancing your books once a year or every quarter. Regular bookkeeping can take the hassle out of your finances and give you a clearer view of your business performance. The more regularly you check your books, the less likely you’ll have issues later when inconsistencies creep into the numbers. Doing monthly bookkeeping means you’ll always be up-to-date and tax compliant and will provide a better snapshot of your business performance, so you can plan and grow your business with confidence.

Hire a Professional
While it's not impossible to simply your finances alone, sometimes a professional can offer an outside perspective and provide advice with regards to budgeting and financial targets. Plus having a professional small business accountant on board means you’ll have more time to dedicate to your business and less worry on bookkeeping. Depending on the size of your business, a professional accountant can be beneficial during tax time or on a quarterly basis to ensure your books are in order.
If you’re looking for a small business accounting in Sydney, M.A.S Partners is Australia’s original small business accounting firm and has almost 60 years of experience, with our team dedicated to small business goals. To get in touch with our professional team, contact us here or call us on (02) 9211 5000.

 

 
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