How to Get Your Bookkeeping Done Fast
One thing that’s happening in The Financial Forecasting Experience class is that people are catching up on their bookkeeping! Having up-to-date bookkeeping is a beautiful side effect of doing Forecasting.
Something about putting the numbers into the colorful cells on the Forecast and anticipating the results of increased profitability is damn exciting! They are motivated and feel the weight of undone bookkeeping lifting away. I want that for you too!
One person said they feel more caught up than behind! That’s a good feeling.
It made me think about how to support entrepreneurs like you in getting their bookkeeping done.
I want to share the idea that bookkeeping can take a lot of time or a little time. It depends on how often you do it. The more often you do it, the less time it takes.
If you were to log into QuickBooks at least once a week or even a couple of times a week and use bank feeds, you can click, click, click, and record many things fast, especially if you have the kind of business where most things are on auto-pay.
Some businesses have more complex bookkeeping, but for many online businesses, almost everything comes in via a bank feed.
Another advantage of doing your bookkeeping more often is remembering what happened because it just happened. You save a ton of time not trying to remember or research something that happened months ago.
The financial rhythm I suggest is:
Update your bank feeds at least once a week. Set a timer and go. It may take less than 30 minutes, which might be a high estimate.
If you don’t use accounting software, update your bookkeeping spreadsheet (or whatever you use) every month once the statements are ready.
Reconcile all your bank and credit cards once a month.
Update your Financial Forecast once a month to plan to be profitable.
Don’t get discouraged if you have a lot of catching up to do. You might want to set your weekly timer for longer as you catch up. The hardest part is getting started. I have difficulty starting things, and timers help cut through the resistance and bring focus.
So, the question is, do you want your bookkeeping to take a little or a lot of time?
I hope what I have shared about the advantages of doing your bookkeeping more often to save time has inspired you to try it.
Consider this: Would it serve you to take a minute to put a recurring 30-minute block of weekly time on your calendar? I invite you to do this, and when that time comes, set a timer and go! You’ve got this!