I recently set up QB for a client and over the course of entering and reconciling a years worth of data I found that 40% of the information I entered was found on bank statements. She thought she was a great hoarder of receipts, but that was not the case. The main culprit was online transactions.
Category Archives: best practices
Knowing when to do what, when you are the person in charge
It’s hard to remember when to do what when you are self-employed. There’s no boss telling you what your daily/weekly assignment is.
I find it’s best to keep a to-do list that has dates assigned to tasks (I use google calendar’s task feature. I can access it on the web and on my phone). I also use monthly happenings like the day that bills/bank statements arrive in the mail or specific days of the week as a reminder.
For example.
- I try and make time to do bank reconciliations in QuickBooks the day that I get my bank statement. USAA sends me reminders via email. If I can’t get to it that day, I will star the email and leave it in my inbox as an action item.
- My business week ends on Monday. On Tuesdays I take care things in QuickBooks. I enter in my mileage for the week, along with entering the receipts from my business wallet (I keep a 2nd wallet in my purse for business transactions). I also go through and take care of deposits, figuring out what invoices are over due, etc…
Since my business is service based, I try and get to projects in the order that they were received, unless there is a specified deadline involved. Rather than invoice on a specific day. I invoice customers as I go and notify them that their project has been completed. If I wait around, there is a high probability that I will forget to invoice them.