What is bookkeeping?
Bookkeeping is the procedure of recording a business or company’s financial transactions on a regular basis. One of the key aspects of bookkeeping for your business is managing a general ledger. Keep in mind that this is the main document where bookkeepers maintain all their records, receipts, and expenses.
Bookkeepers or business owners record data of business activities by checking the supporting documents and following the company’s accounting principles and standards.
Note that these documents can be receipts, bills, purchase orders, invoices, or financial reports that can give you records of transactions. Based on your needs and requirements, you can store data in Microsoft Excel or a journal.
However, due to modern technology and the growing need to maintain data, it’s best to use bookkeeping software to minimize various risks.
Plus, saving all the accounting data in cloud-based bookkeeping software minimizes the risk of losing data in the future. The best part is that business owners can check the financial records of their business at any time they want.
Importance of Bookkeeping
Whether you have a small startup or a massive corporation, the importance and significance of bookkeeping can’t be ignored. Proper bookkeeping is important for your business as it gives companies a reliable and dependable measure of their profitability and performance. And it also offers information to make key strategic decisions.
Helps You Budget Accurately
This process of storing your data is important for your business because it helps you create your budget. When your expenses and income data are appropriately organized, it will be easier for you to review your costs and financial resources.
Keep in mind that a budget develops a financial roadmap for your company. If you know your monthly or yearly budget, you can determine which expenses you will likely incur so that you can act accordingly. Moreover, if you don’t maintain your books, it will be challenging for you to estimate expenditures.
Makes Tax-filing Simple
We all know that tax preparation can be a challenging and tricky task, especially for small businesses. But it should not be. You will understand the importance of bookkeeping when the tax season comes.
Instead of finding receipts and checking each document in the pile of papers, bookkeeping ensures that you get the information you need in an organized way. Bookkeepers prepare invoices and other documents required for taxes beforehand. This way, you will know any possible tax write-offs and prepare your tax return in less time.
Meets Government Regulations
The state or national government establishes new laws and regulations every now and then, aiming to make taxing businesses and other tasks easier for them. When your records are maintained precisely and accurately through the bookkeeping process, you will not struggle to comply with the laws.
All you need is to have the right information about the company’s finances, which you need to use according to government laws.
Additionally, a trained and experienced bookkeeper can help you follow government rules and laws, as it can be hard for you to understand the regulations.
Protect Small Businesses in an IRS Audit
You need to understand that the IRS can audit small businesses, even if they are fully compliant with the laws. Well, only 2.5% of companies are audited, but you never know when you might have to get audited. Bookkeeping can protect you from IRS fines and penalties.
Well-maintained and accurate books can give answers to all the questions the IRS may have. They can easily determine your losses, income, tax deductions, product prices, and other things from the recorded data.
Helps with Business Analysis
Analyzing your business and its profits, loss, capital, and other things are crucial to estimate its value in the future and make strategies. Bookkeeping is the best procedure that helps you analyze your business whenever you want. You can say that it is a tool that enables you to understand your business performance and profitability.
Furthermore, the most important part of the bookkeeping procedure is preparing financial statements. You need to regularly prepare financial statements so that you can use them for analysis and reporting purposes.
Also, bookkeeping offers you information about which business lines or segments are not operating profitably. Analyzing your company through this method will help you focus on your business’s strengths and work on its weaknesses.
Provides Better Cash Flow Information
Recoding expenses, revenues, receivables, and liabilities regularly allows you to track how much money you have paid your vendors and when your customer invoices are paid.
It is important to pay customer invoices on time. On the other hand, you should pay vendors’ invoices on 3time to prevent penalties and late fees.
Moreover, bookkeeping helps you improve your cash flow by giving your information about your invoices, such as issue date, vendor or customer name, due date, and amount. You can use this information for creating cash flow policies.
Bottom Line
While bookkeeping is an important procedure for any business, not many business owners have the ability, time, and skills to do it on their own. In other words, bookkeeping requires an understanding of accounting procedures, taxes, state regulations, and business goals. Only a trained and qualified bookkeeper who knows bookkeeping can store your data and prepare your financials securely and accurately.
We, My OC Bookkeeper, offer you a broad range of bookkeeping services, such as power BI modeling and financial modeling that help you access organized and well-maintained data. Our team of experts uses modern techniques to record your company’s financial information. Contact us here for more information.
On top of that, we help you file taxes, so you never have to deal with these challenging tasks on your own. So, are you ready to learn how you can improve and strengthen your business with reliable bookkeeping services? Schedule a consultation right now.
Sources
https://lyfeaccounting.com/blog/bookkeeping-is-important/
https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/accounting/bookkeeping-definition/
https://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/bookkeeping/what-is-bookkeeping/
https://www.easybooksapp.com/blog/reasons-why-bookkeeping-is-important-for-your-business
https://www.nationalbusinesscapital.com/importance-bookkeeping/
