When the New Year arrives, you should be getting ready for the excitement of the year ahead.
Instead, many business owners are being haunted by their taxes from the previous year.
This year, we're stopping the cycle! No delays, no last-minute rush, no lingering questions.
If you're a fourth quarter entrepreneur and you're busy from now until December 31st, waiting until January (or later) to get your bookkeeping in order isn't going to benefit you at all. Doing the work now is going to benefit you, and if you get your financial system set-up and your process started, your bookkeeping will be much easier to keep up-to-date going forward.
Of course, you'll always need to devote a little bit of time each month to keep your financial records caught up, but if you maintain that schedule, you’ll be ready to file your taxes right after the first of the year.
Having a solid bookkeeping system that's easy-to-use and easy-to-file-taxes is going to benefit you not only financially, but it’s going to benefit you in your mindset for the New Year (and every New Year to come).
Let's be honest: the only reason you’re not thinking about your taxes now is because you’re procrastinating, and why are you procrastinating? It’s gotta get done anyway. Tackle the beast now and every tax season from here forward will be a walk in the park.
Trying to get all your documents and records together last-minute is a huge waste of your time and money. Many banks will only allow you to electronically download your activity for 90-120 days. After that, you will have to pay the bank for copies, and wait for them to arrive.
Are you using Paypal to accept online payments? Paypal will only allow you to retrieve the last 30 days of activity before you have to start manually running and importing reports.
The Bookkeeping System We Use & Trust
With a easy-to-use system like Xero you can connect your bank accounts, your credit cards, even your online shopping carts so that every penny your business earns and spends is automatically imported.
Most importantly, once you have Xero all set-up, you're going to save tax dollars. You’re going to capture expenses that you might forget about if you wait. You’re going to be able to take advantage of the year-end because you know where you are financially versus if you waited until after the year, and then you’re too late to take advantage of some things that you might otherwise be able to, such as making year-end purchases.
For many small businesses, this should be the time of the year where the sales are flowing in and you’re getting excited and pumped for what’s going on in the New Year, but you'll be even more excited when you know your actual numbers!
If you don’t have any numbers, you don’t have a business.
You never know when sales are going to jump, and if you don't have a strong bookkeeping system in-place, you won't be able to track that jump and build your business to deliver what customers have paid for.
If you want to be first impression ready all the time, then you will prepare, and there will be no other planning to do until you get your prep done.
Find out what online bookkeeping services The Bottom Line CPA offers and how we could help you!
