Accounting and Bookkeeping
An organized accounting and bookkeeping system is vital to keeping your small business running smoothly and efficiently. Not only does the government require that you keep accurate records of your financial transactions, but doing so ensures that you can monitor your cash flow and tell quickly:
- How much money enters your business during a given period and from where
- What happens to your money once it enters your business
- How much money leaves your company through expenditures doing a given time.
Bank statements aren’t always accurate; you should go through your statements and see if their figures match yours, and report the figures that don’t match!
Managing Your Finances
A few companies offer easy and affordable ways for businesses to do accounting and finance management. Your best choice depends on:
- Your budget
- Whether you’re willing to learn a new system
- Whether you’ve got an employee willing to learn a new system and the resources for them to do so.
Investigate alternatives before making a choice.
Wave Accounting
Wave Accounting is an online, cloud-based accounting software offering a basic level of service:
- invoicing
- Reporting
- Accounts receivable
- Expense tracking.
Wave Accounting has free and paid plans.
Excel Spreadsheet
Doing accounting work and managing finances in Excel isn’t ideal. However, Excel does come equipped with templates to help track business expenses such as:
- Expenses
- Mileage
- Sales Tax
A centralized software is arguably superior. However experienced Excel users might use the spreadsheets as part of another system as part of an accounting system that they develop in Excel itself.
A web-based version of Excel is free with a Microsoft email address, and the full version is included with the MS Office Suite.
QuickBooks –> $100+ or monthly fee
Depending on sales and place of purchase, QuickBooks can cost over $100. The cloud-based version, available in Canada and the United States, costs approximately $15 per month. Accountants like QuickBooks because it’s easy to use and has advanced reporting capabilities.
Year-End Accountant –> $1000 – $1500
The cost for a year-end accountant depends on a number of variables:
- How much of the year’s finances have you tracked yourself?
- Did you track your finances correctly?
- How many transactions have you done?
An accountant typically charges a corporation over $1000. A sole proprietor can expect a charge of less than $1000.
Bookkeeping –> $25-40/hour
Prices vary by region. Assume that a bookkeeper will work a few hours each week or month, at a competitive rate, to reduce the work required at the end of the year and help maintain the books on a regular basis.
