Bookkeeping is the cornerstone of accounting and financial reports management. It’s a tedious task that can easily take your attention away from other aspects of running your business. However, it’s an important responsibility that must be managed correctly to ensure the success and longevity of your company. To this end, we’ve compiled some strategies to help you establish reliable financial processes without sacrificing efficiency. Here are a few key tips to streamline your company’s bookkeeping:
#1: Minimize Cash Transactions
Regardless of the type of company you operate, minimizing the usage of cash is one of the most important actions you can take to automate your bookkeeping. Cash not only has significant handling and storage expenses, but it also takes a long time to reconcile.
If you manage certain types of businesses, such as retail stores, you won’t be able to completely remove cash payments. Still, there are several steps you can take to promote non-cash transactions. For example, you might reward customers who use cards or mobile payments with loyalty points or discounts to discourage cash transactions.
#2: Go Paperless
It’s tough to organize sticky notes, handwritten bills, and paper bank statements, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed when managing financial documents from numerous sources. One way to ensure that your bookkeeping operates as smoothly as possible is to get a centralized, automated accounting solution.
With accounting software, you can easily manage files in a single location and will no longer have to dig through stacks of paper to find the right documents for tax season or financial reporting. In addition, accounting software enables you to back up all your files for an added layer of security.
#3 Automate Your Tasks
Technological advancements have removed the need to manually log transactions for hours on end. Many modern bookkeeping solutions, like QuickBooks, use artificial intelligence to progressively learn from your actions so that they can record and categorize transactions automatically. You can also use accounting software AI to set up automation rules for certain activities, such as sending invoices when a certain amount of time has passed, sending reminders to internal team members, and paying recurring suppliers. Most accounting software also includes automated tools to help you identify common errors and close your books on time.
#4 Maximize Integrations
Your accounting software is not merely a stand-alone platform. It can also help keep your books in order by sending and receiving data from other business software applications, as well as cash flow information from your bank statements. Integrating your bookkeeping software with other applications may help you create and distribute invoices, schedule bill payment reminders, manage inventory, and generate financial reports, all from a single automated accounting platform.
#5 Educate Your Team
Streamlining your bookkeeping doesn’t end when you have a neat and orderly accounting system. Although automation has its advantages, there’s always a need for human intervention. Therefore, you need to ensure everyone in your accounting department is well-versed in not only your chosen bookkeeping software, but also accounting best practices and regulations.
Hiring an experienced accountant can be an excellent starting point for ensuring that everyone is on the same page. With their extensive knowledge of bookkeeping tools and practices, they will be well-equipped to help develop the optimal bookkeeping process for your business.