Welcome to our new 5-part series on how you are probably losing money if you are not doing regular bookkeeping & reporting within your business. This is part 4 – The Time Freedom Edition.
What is Bookkeeping?
Bookkeeping is essentially the financial record-keeping for your business – done properly, it will tell you everything that’s come in, everything that’s gone out, everyone who owes you, everyone who you owe, how much tax you will need to pay, and the list just goes on.
Reporting without accurate bookkeeping is about as useful as an accountant without a calculator … but – paired with good bookkeeping, checking out your business reports regularly will enable you to plan for the future, see how to scale and when and will stop you from falling into any financial pitfalls.
Now we’ve got that cleared up, let’s get into it…
Part 4 – The Time Freedom Edition.
When you started your business, what was the dream? I mean, I’m sure you knew there would be a hustle along the way, but was it…;
- Travelling the world,
- Spending more time with the kids,
- Being able to focus on your hobbies,
- Just having time to cook dinner & do the ironing??
Yep, a major reason for many in starting their own business is having ‘time freedom’.
Work smarter, not harder!
Here’s a principle that we’re all probably more than happy to apply in some areas of our lives, but not so much in others … doing a little every day is 100x better than Doing a lot one day.
This applies to housework, exercise, diet, and yes, your bookkeeping!
Setting aside 15 minutes at the end of each working day to finalise your bookkeeping & ‘business admin’ will save you from spending your Sunday afternoons, or your time off over Christmas, or you time on vacation(!) figuring out your taxes.
But this isn’t just about saving time on the actual admin… to get to that true level of ‘Time Freedom’ that you desire, you need to be working smarter, not harder, right?
It’s only by having a clear understanding of what’s going out, what’s coming in and where it’s all ending up, that you can fix any ‘money leaks’ in your business, and ‘time leaks’ too!
Ultimately, if you don’t know where it’s all going, you’re probably spending a lot more time working for the same amount of money that you could earn if you had a better grasp of the business.
Blog Suggestion: The Three Freedoms Business Owners Strive For
The best way to keep up-to-date and accurate is to use accounting software (sorry, but spreadsheets just don’t cut it anymore!), and get clued up on how to understand the data and what it’s telling you.
If having more time to do what you love with who you love isn’t enough to convince you to keep your records up-to-date, go back and see:
Part 3 – The Business Structure Edition
or move onto
Part 5 – The Mind Freedom Edition.
If you’d like to get some training on how to do accurate bookkeeping & reporting for yourself, or you’d like to outsource this to the experts, fill in our Quick Questionnaire and we’ll be more than happy to help you.
For more Tax Tips & advice, check out PPF on YouTube!
