A business owner is already so busy that getting down to the nitty-gritty of accountancy can be almost impossible. There is a myriad of smaller steps that you can implement into your accounting and business regimen to set you up for success, both long and short term. Remember that you can hire North Wales accountants to assist you in your finance management.
Here are several tips to help you on your way:
- Separate your personal and business finances.
Rather than income or other funds coming into a personal account, if you are a business owner, it would be best to have your business base finances in a separate bank account. If you have personal accounts mixed with business, it can be expensive, time-consuming and tedious. Searching through your finances for that one receipt for business expenses multiple times a month will get annoying. To keep it hassle-free, just make a new bank account for all business matters.
- Organise your records, and keep them that way
Some people can’t handle any clutter whatsoever, and others are quite happy working in it. This might be great in your personal life, but when it comes to your bookkeeping you should keep them in fantastic shape so you aren’t looking for them when they are all over the place.
Both neat and tidy records mean that you waste less time searching, and more time running your business and doing the real things that you enjoy.
- Remember and hold yourself to deadlines
Regarding those sneaky tax deadlines – whatever helps you remember that the tax deadline is moving forward – just do it. Reminders a countdown or just about anything else you should just crack on. An ever-approaching deadline can prove so stressful. This is particularly true if you are rushing – mistakes can take even longer to sort out. You want to be making a note of tax deadlines and giving yourself enough notice to fill in your tax returns, without any of those pesky mistakes. What follows is an absolute breeze – you won’t have HMRC giving you a hard time. Your records will be pinpoint accurate and you can put them to one side until the next deadline.
- Retain all receipts
Any business-related purchases should be kept so you can claim for any business expenses, these can then be filed in your now flawlessly organised system (after reading point 2). This can be anything from stamps to computers. If you are working from home you can claim back some domestic bills.
- Attend HMRC workshops – they are free!
These are fantastic workshops which are held all over the nation. Find out if there is a workshop in your area. You could tag along or check out their tutorials so that you gain additional knowledge on aspects that are very relevant to you. It can vary from Introductions to VAT, setting up a limited company, filing online. You might learn something that will make all the difference to you and your business.
- Budget
Even if you are doing well in business, not all of that money is yours, the taxman must have his due. Set a little bit of income aside so that you can pay the tax bill off without any worries, to enjoy the rest of your profits.
- Get up to speed with Tax Rules
Different taxes apply to different people in various scenarios. Be it income tax, national insurance, corporation tax, VAT or even business rates, you should do your research into all of them so you know where you should pay.
- Create profit and loss statements
A profit and loss statement provides a snapshot of the finances of your business. It gets the expenses, revenues and costs of your businesses that HMRC requires from you.
It includes information like gross profit, net profit, and profit before tax. It also makes it a lot easier to show revenues costs and the amount of profit that has been made over the last 12 months.
- Make use of technology
There are so many programmes and apps these days which exist solely to make your life easier when it comes to accounting and taxes. Make use of this important tool, there is a range of them online and on the app stores.
- Hire an accountant
Accountants are going to make all the difference by providing a comprehensive service is doing a lot of the legwork in filing your returns and tax efficiency – you could even save money with the use of a qualified professional stepping in and showing you where you can make improvements. They can also be a valuable advisor when it comes to business strategy.