Small Business Bookkeeping Basics

The year-end reports prepared by the accountant have to adhere to the standards established by the Financial Accounting Standards Board . These rules are called Generally Accepted Accounting Principles . Even though you may be operating a one-person company, it’s best to keep the financial activity of the business separate from your personal finances. At the end of every month, reconcile each business bank account statement and keep it in your files along with the cancelled checks themselves . Contrary to popular belief, reconciling a bank statement is not useless busy work—it’s an important process. It brings your records and the bank’s records into agreement at the end of each banking period.

A bookkeeper handles the day-to-day tasks of recording transactions and making sure everything is represented correctly. An accountant focuses more on the big picture, producing high-level financial statements and helping you with things like filing taxes and securing financing. So in this tutorial, you’ll learn the basics of keeping your business accounts in order. We’ll go through the fundamentals of double-entry bookkeeping, and explain how to set up a chart of accounts, balance the books, and prepare financial statements. Sales ledger, which deals mostly with the accounts receivable account. This ledger consists of the records of the financial transactions made by customers to the business.

Bookkeeping, like accounting, is one of the necessary evils of running a business. Despite what many may think, those two terms refer to different processes.

At least once a week, record all financial transactions, including incoming invoices, bill payments, sales, and purchases. You may do this every month, but at the very least, balance and close your books every quarter. The P&L helps you compare your sales and expenses and make forecasts. This document summarizes your business’s assets, liabilities, and equity at a single period of time. Your total assets should equal the sum of all liabilities and equity accounts.

However, annual financial statements may not be enough to help you keep tabs on your business. You may want financial statements every quarter, or even monthly. Preparing your income tax return.Whether your business is a sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation, you must file an income tax return and pay income taxes. With good bookkeeping examples records, preparing an accurate tax return will be easier and you’re more likely to be able to do it on time. Poor records may result in your underpaying or overpaying your taxes and/or filing late . If your accountant prepares your income tax return, poor records will almost certainly result in your paying higher accounting fees.

Doing so lets you produce financial statements, which are often a prerequisite for getting a business loan, a line of credit from a bank, or seed investment. As a rule, for every transaction, you will debit one or more accounts and credit one or more accounts, with the total amount of your debits and credits equal. Other transactions might affect only two accounts, such as a rent payment.

When each invoice is added to the sales journal, it is officially recorded as business income for the month in which it was issued. While you are waiting for client payments to arrive, the open items are called QuickBooks your accounts receivable, which is carried on your books as a business asset. When you receive payment, write the payment information on your copy of the invoice and then move it to a file marked paid.

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In most cases, with a little study and familiarization with your bookkeeping software, you should be able to manage your most basic financial records without the help of an accountant. This includes thedaily recording of transactions, maintenance of ageneral ledger, and maintenance of yourcash records. There are some other records you may need to maintain, depending on your business, such asaccounts receivable ledgersand accounts payable ledgers. Bookkeepers can log a business’s financial transactions using single-entry or double-entry bookkeeping. In single-entry bookkeeping, you report profits and expenses for all expenditures in a cash register.

Single-entry bookkeeping is a type of accounting system that records the financial transactions of a business. The system uses one entry per transaction to record cash, taxable income, and tax-deductible expenses going in or out of the business. Businesses can use accounting software or even simple tables to perform single-entry bookkeeping. Single-entry bookkeeping is much simpler than double-entry bookkeeping, which requires two entries per transaction.

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Bookkeeping refers mainly to the record-keeping aspects of financial accounting, and involves preparing source documents for all transactions, operations, and other events of a business. Good bookkeeping is an essential part of good business management.

When noting transactions, use double-entry bookkeeping to see exactly where your money is coming from and going to. For example, if you purchase inventory using cash, record it as an increase in inventory and a decrease in cash. Then, when that inventory sells, note it as a decrease in inventory but an increase in accounts receivable.

The goal of accounting is to interpret, categorize, analyze, report, and summarize all financial information accurately. Bookkeeping, on the other hand, is an integral part of the accounting process. It zeroes in on the administrative side of a business’s financial history and present. Also called net earnings or net profit, net income is the amount an individual or business earns after subtracting deductions and taxes from gross income. To calculate the net income of a business, subtract all expenses and costs from revenue. Sometimes called the bottom line in business, net income appears as the last item in an income statement.

Before you post them to your books, review all incoming bills for accuracy and match them to any packing slips that you’ve accumulated or any purchase orders that you’ve issued. A chronological listing of all the bills that came in during the month is called your purchases journal.

Write your check number, date and payment amount on the bill itself and move it to a paid file for the year, arranged alphabetically by vendor name. When your business is new, some vendors may require you to pay for materials or services on a C.O.D. basis. Activity will statement of retained earnings example be charged to your account and the vendor will later send a bill to you in the mail. Be sure to go through your incoming business mail on a daily basis. Some of the bills that you receive will relate to client projects and some will be for general operating expenses.

Cash Flow (cf)

The way you categorize transactions will depend on your business and industry. Generally speaking, your transactions fall into five account types—assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses. Individual line items are then broken down into subcategories called accounts. In our ice cream shop example, some accounts in your ledger might be “revenue-ice cream sales”, “expenses-ice cream ingredients”, etc. Lenders and investors want a clear idea of your business’ financial state before giving you money. They can’t do that without looking into things like revenue, cash flow, assets and liabilities, which they’ll search for on your balance sheet, income statement and statement of cash flows.

The single-entry method is similar to a checkbook; there are only debits and credits. When you ledger account make a deposit, your balance increases, and when you write a check, your balance decreases.

• You’ve learned how to record simple transactions using double-entry bookkeeping, and how to set up an accounting system that makes sense for your business.
• A journal is a formal and chronological record of financial transactions before their values are accounted for in the general ledger as debits and credits.
• For every debit journal entry recorded, there must be an equivalent credit journal entry to maintain a balanced accounting equation.
• This helps ensure the accuracy of companies’ reports for given time periods, including their income statements and balance sheets.
• The general ledger includes balance sheet accounts and income statement accounts .
• A general ledger is a collection of accounts that classify and store all records associated with a company’s financial transactions.

Businesses and investors analyze financial performance over time by comparing different accounting periods. Accounting cycles track accounting events from when the transactions first occur to when they end, all within given accounting periods. So start getting your books in order, using your preferred accounting software (or old-fashioned ledgers if you prefer).

Computerized Bookkeeping

Most companies have temporary revenue and expense accounts that are used to provide information for the company’s income statement. These accounts are periodically closed to owners’ equity to determine bookkeeping the profit or loss associated with all revenue and expense transactions. An account called Income Summary is created to show the net income or loss for a particular accounting period.

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This pertains to an accounting system, designed for your company. This chart aligns your financial structure by recording the income and expenses of the company. At its most basic, bookkeeping systems are used to record a business’ financial information and transactions. It typically involves maintaining a general ledger, managing bank reconciliations, and staying on top of accounts receivable and payable. Some types of accounts normally carry negative balances, but others normally show positive balances.

Our bookkeepers here at Bench can do your books for you entirely online. We’ll also give you simple software to produce financial statements, keep track of your daily expenses, and help make tax time a breeze. Try setting aside and scheduling a ‘bookkeeping day’ once a month to stay on top of your financials. Use that day to enter any missing transactions, reconcile bank statements, review your financial statements from the last month and make any major changes to your accounting or bookkeeping.

Later, this information will be categorized and added to the ledger. However, for now it is only important to record the information for later use. Entries should be made according the company’s chosen accounting method .The introduction of accounting software has made the two-step process of journals and ledgers almost obsolete. The software will automatically update the ledger, making the process one of simply inputting transactions as they occur.

Closing entries means reducing the balance of the temporary accounts to zero, while debiting or crediting the income summary account. Bookkeeping involves keeping track of a business’s financial transactions and making entries to specific accounts using the debit and credit system. Every accounting system has a chart of accounts that lists actual accounts as well as account categories. There is usually at least one account for every item on a company’s balance sheet and income statement. In theory, there is no limit to the number of accounts that can be created, although the total number of accounts is usually determined by management’s need for information. Bookkeeping is the task of recording all business transactions—amounts, dates, and sources of all business revenue, gain, expense, and loss transactions. Having accurate financial records helps managers and business owners answer important questions.