Aloe vera is a wonderful plant that provides natural remedies for all sorts of pain and discomfort. Unfortunately, it can’t take away the pain you might feel whilst you’re growing your business and struggling with your financial records. The good news is that we can soothe away some of those sore points.
To keep your business finances healthy, good record keeping is important. However, we know bookkeeping isn’t everyone’s favourite pastime. It often surprises our clients how quickly delayed financial tasks can cause problems.
Here are five of our clients’ most common financial record keeping pain points and how we can help.
One. Inconsistent information
When you’re already short on time, you don’t want to spend hours working out why your figures don’t make sense. Your bank statements may not match your invoices, for example. You might have information about income and expenditure in different places that you can’t fit together. Sometimes your balance sheets and cashflow statements simply don’t match up. These sorts of inconsistencies can lead to:
Uncertainty about your profitability which might mean you can’t make important decisions.
Errors going unresolved; you may even miss fraudulent activity or theft.
You’ll spend more time and money at the end of your financial year preparing your accounts and company tax returns.
We can update your income and expenditure information regularly to make sure it’s all accurate. Because we understand your business, we can let you know promptly if we notice any unusual transactions.
Two. Financial errors
Accurate reconciliation of your bank statements with your business transactions takes time and concentration. The longer you leave it, the harder it is to match up your records. You can soon find your good intentions to tackle the job every day or every week under pressure. Just a few delays can lead to several problems:
Undiscovered errors can lead to mistakes due to duplicate entries or missed transactions.
Without a clear view of your day-to-day income and spending, you could run out of cash for your business. Then it’s tempting to pay yourself a little less or use your personal bank account, leading to longer term problems.
Important bills might go unpaid, which could damage your reputation and affect important supplier relationships.
Keeping track of all the transactions in your business bank accounts is often frustrating. Because this is part of our everyday work, we can save you a lot of time and make sure all the details are correct.
Three. Missed deadlines
When your financial information isn’t up to date you can miss important deadlines for VAT and Companies House, for example. You could also find you don’t have the information you need to make important decisions.
Depending on your business, the financial compliance information you need can become out of date.
If you have investors, they could become concerned about late or inaccurate financial information.
We work as part of your team, so we’ll know what information you need to submit and when. We can make sure you have all the right details at the right time.
Four. Financial control
It’s easy to lose track of occasional business expenses and you can miss opportunities to reduce your tax bill. You need your receipts or purchase invoices properly allocated and documented. Mystery invoices could lead to several problems.
Unexplained expenses may suggest fraud.
Uncontrolled expenses make it difficult to set and keep to budgets.
We help you create good financial processes for your business so you’re always in control. With helpful financial reports you can see the most important information at a glance.
Five. Cashflow
All businesses depend on a healthy cashflow. Making sure you receive all due payments in good time is important. You must also know what you must pay and when. Without accurate records you can quickly use up all your available business cash and credit.
Late payments to your suppliers can damage the relationships you have built. Then you may have to make payments in advance or on delivery, putting your cashflow under further pressure.
Without a clear picture of your income, you might delay important business purchases and miss valuable offers and discounts.
Good financial record keeping makes sure you’re in control of your business. With easy-to-use accounting software in the cloud like Xero you can see the latest information wherever you are. It’s the best way to manage your business and plan for growth.
Please get in touch if you would like to take the pain out of financial record keeping for your business.
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