The January Check list: Start As You Mean to Go on.
At Calculated Accountants we pride ourselves on our quality service and always ensure that whatever our client’s needs may be, we start as we mean to go on. Whether bookkeeping, payroll services or yearly tax support; when it comes to business finance, the way you begin may dictate the way things pan out for the year. For this reason, we constantly advise our clients to keep an eye on every area of their finances and rigorously keep on top of it all.
With the first month of 2014 nearly complete, now is a great time for you as a business owner to evaluate the strategies, attitudes and level of attention you have given the financial side of your enterprise. Ensuring that you are doing the right things and as often as possible will hopefully pave the way for a smooth year however, neglect your finances and put them to one side this early in the year and you may struggle to ever gain control.
Below are a few of the issues to consider before we move any further into the year...
- Files- Have you created new files for your finances e.g. tax documents and so on and have you stored your old files away? Filing can be a difficult but crucial aspect to stay on top of so if, over half way through January you haven’t yet sorted this out then you must do so now before it begins to get too much.
- Bookkeeping- We can never reiterate enough the importance of regular, accurate and detailed bookkeeping but we so often see many business owners regularly letting this slip. Have you been keeping a solid record of your finances? Do you have some sort of plan or strategy to keep on top of it all?
- Payroll- The first monthly payroll of the year is not long away and if you outsource then luckily you are free from the stress. However if your payroll is in-house you need to ensure all details are accurate, you are prepared for tax deductions and so on and most importantly your payroll software of choice up to date.
- Budgets- Whether for the entire year or just for the first half; have you established a budget and if so have you developed a strategy to stick to it? Regular cash flow statements are a great way to keep on top of your incomings and outgoings, so if you haven’t already; learn to keep on top of this as it is all too easy for things to get out of control.
- Payments- From customer payments that you may still be waiting on to payments you yourself are required to make to your suppliers; have you been keeping on top of it all? Again if you are one of those business owners who struggles to gain control, it is important that you learn how to do it all before the year continues as it is far too easy for debt to build up. A great way to keep on top of this is to ensure you have a breakeven point in mind; this is the figure you will always need in order to cover monthly costs; by remaining aware of this figure you can determine how many invoices you need to send out/receive a month in order to cover this.
The above are just a few of the financial issues that business owners can easily lose track off but by keeping control early, you have a better chance of staying on a smooth and stress free path for the remainder of the year.
Start as you mean to go on and save yourself a great deal of hassle!
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