If you take care of your own bookkeeping, there are multiple steps you can take to streamline your bookkeeping and make your bookkeeping efforts go more smoothly this year. Often, it is the little steps that you take that make the biggest differences towards running a smooth financial operation.

#1 Have a Dedicated Storage Box for Paper Records

First, you need a dedicated storage box for paper financial records. As much as you may try to go paperless, you are still going to end up will paper bills and receipts. For all of your paper bills and receipts, you need to have somewhere to put them.

Have a dedicated box, drawer, or cabinet for your paper records. Give them their own home, and make sure that the home or area is organized. Group similar financial documents together and keep them in chronological order by document type. Setting up a space will ensure that your paper documents don't just get shoved all over the office throughout the year.

#2 Create a Petty Cash Box for Your Business

Second, create a petty cash box for your business. Your petty cash box doesn't need to have a lot of cash in it; it is supposed to be a small amount of cash. Put $100 in a cash box, and make sure that it is in small bills and also includes small coins as well.

When you have a small purchase, use the cash box to make that purchase. When you make a purchase with the cash from the petty cash box, be sure to put the receipt into the box. Once a month, expense all the receipts and refill the cash.

#3 Always Review Bank Statements & Credit Card Statements

When you get a bank statement or credit card statement, do not just put the statement in your cash record box or download the statement for your records. Instead, when you get a bank or credit card statement, sit down and review the statement. Make sure on the bank statement that all the purchases and deposits line-up with your own records. On the credit card statement, make sure you know what each purchase was and can classify each purchase. Take the time to make sure that there are no unauthorized charges, and if you find any, investigate them right away.

Get off on the right foot this new year by dedicating a storage area for your paper records, creating a petty cash box for small supplies, and setting up a bank and credit card statement review process. These are just three small steps that will help improve your overall bookkeeping. For more help, contact local bookkeeping services like Watson & Company Inc.

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