Bookkeeping 101: Bookkeeping Basics for Small Businesses

A guide to help you work through the big decisions around starting a bookkeeping business. You should consult your own professional advisors for advice directly relating to your business or before taking action in relation to any of the content provided. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can all help you reach prospective clients. Set up a Facebook business page that clearly outlines the services you offer. Online accounting software will let you look at accounts at the same time as your client.

• Non-accounting degree holders who would like to pursue a bookkeeping career can take bookkeeping courses online.
• The key to time management is creating an effortless bookkeeping accounting system.
• You might also consider applying for a business credit card to help cover expenses until you start making money.
• If you’re considering becoming a bookkeeper, read our guide to learn how to start a bookkeeping business in 2024.
• The American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers has some great tips.

Keep in mind that you don’t need something complex, just a simple one-page website that looks professional. With SquareSpace templates, you should be able to get your site up and running easily, even if you don’t have design experience. We put together the top solutions you need after working with thousands of bookkeeping firms.

How Much Should I Charge My Bookkeeping Clients?

And since it takes equity, assets and liabilities — on top of expenses and income — into account, it typically gives you a more accurate financial snapshot of your business. As businesses grow, it becomes easier to let small activities slip. Since good record keeping relies on accurate expense tracking, it’s important to monitor all transactions, keep receipts, and watch business credit card activity.

Finally, don’t forget to check in on your business’s financial performance periodically. Otherwise, even with a well-oiled accounting machine running in the background, you could lose sight of short-term goals. Or, you could fail to notice as your longer-term trajectory begins to run off course. If you run a retail store with multiple cash points of sale, you need a standardized system for tracking which cash (and how much) came through each vector. With this type of service, you can communicate completely by email or phone without having to set aside time to meet in person.

Launch a Thriving Bookkeeping Business

However, it can be difficult to catch up if you fall behind on reconciling transactions or tracking unpaid invoices. Regardless of your small business’s complexity, bookkeeping will still take time out of your week, so be sure you have the resources before committing to handling it yourself. Accounting software makes it possible to do much of this on your own, though you may decide to outsource some basic bookkeeping tasks to an online bookkeeping service as your small business grows. You need to remember you’ll be on your own as far a liability goes when you run your own bookkeeping business. Don’t accept anything less than two-step authentication and cloud based solutions.

That said, it needs to happen regularly, at minimum once per year and better yet once per quarter. If you allow too much time to pass without paying close attention to your company’s financial performance, its problems could eventually grow too big to ignore. But you can bet that those successful leaders invested in basic accounting training sooner or later for themselves and their leadership teams. As a leader, you know that you can’t effectively analyze something if you don’t have a general understanding of it. That applies to just about any aspect of business you can think of. On the other hand, you also know that great challenges often bring great opportunities.

Get Business Insurance

The specific tasks and responsibilities of a bookkeeper may vary depending on the company they work for and the nature of their role. Even if you’re just planning to offer bookkeeping services remotely as a sole startup bookkeeping proprietor, it can still be helpful to flesh out the exact steps you’ll need to take to succeed. Accounting software is one of the most helpful and powerful tools you can add to your startup accounting toolbelt.

In this regard, pharmacy faculty and clinical practitioners must make the commitment to provide … Increase your desired income on your desired schedule by using Taxfyle’s platform to pick up tax filing, consultation, and bookkeeping jobs. When you’re a Pro, you’re able to pick up tax filing, consultation, and bookkeeping jobs on our platform while maintaining your flexibility. Small Business Administration takes time to honor America’s top small businesses. As one of the country’s 33 million small businesses, you are the engine of the nation’s economy. Share your story and grow new business by leveraging your connection with your community.

When creating a bookkeeping business, start by figuring out what kind of business you want to be. Next, you will want to choose a bookkeeping software and learn how to use it properly. Of course, becoming a competent and proficient bookkeeper still takes time and money.