If you’re a small business owner near Fort Collins, whether you’ve only been in operation for 6 months, or you’ve been around for many years, good bookkeeping is foundational to your success. Staying clear and organized can free up your energy to invest in your growth, it can prevent mistakes, and can give you tremendous peace of mind. Too many entrepreneurs lose track of paperwork and finances, leaving them scrambling, especially come tax time. Here are some small business bookkeeping tips for your Fort Collins small business.

Bookkeeping Basic Tips

There are three things that are very important for your small business near Fort Collins. You need to have an understanding of these bookkeeping basics or your business won’t succeed. When you think of doing well with your small business you think of being happy, earning a good amount of money, and the work becoming easier right? Well, that won’t happen if you do not have these basics for bookkeeping thought-through. If you need a refresher on what bookkeeping is, look here!

What Are Some Tips??

To understand your small business accounts there are three things that make up your bookkeeping in Fort Collins. These things are your assets, liabilities, and equity. These 3 items combine on your balancing sheet so you can understand how well you are actually doing.

Tips About Assets

Your small business in Fort Collins has assets. Assets are things your company owns. It can be inventory or even things such as equipment or land. There are also such things as tangible assets and nontangible assets. Nontangible assets are assets that you cannot really touch.

Tips About Liabilities

Liabilities are things that your small business owes. This can be anything from loans, mortgages, and debt. You can have long-term and short-term liabilities. But these are what your Fort Collins business owes to others whether it is suppliers or banks.

Tips About Equity

Equity is your investment. There is an equation that helps you balance your books, and it is:

Assets = Liabilities + Equity

Good bookkeeping basics are essential to maintaining a thriving Fort Collins small business. Here are five tips to shore up your accounting practices:

1. Keep business and personal separate

Separation is a basic key for bookkeeping. This can be easier said than done, especially for sole proprietors, but it is critical that you keep your personal and business income and expenses separate. Open up a separate business bank account, linked with its own debit or credit cards, and resist the urge to move money around to cover costs! This will help your small business be able to keep track of finances.

2. Organize your records

It might sound obvious, but make files for all of your important documents. This is a very basic task but this includes paper copies if you still use them, but certainly digital ones as well. Make separate sections for things like licenses and regulatory paperwork, tax documents, employee files, financial records, and more. Clearly, name/label your digital files for easy access to your small business documents.

3. Digitize your payroll

Bring your small business from Fort Collins into this century, and make things easier on yourself with a digital payroll service. With this basic change, you will be able to clearly see all of your employees, their pay rates, their benefits, their tax withholdings, and other vital information, along with knowing that they’re getting paid correctly and on time.

4. Plan for major expenses

In the world of small businesses and the self-employed, being able to plan ahead is key. Don’t scrape by each month, hoping to be ready to handle large expenses down the road. Plan ahead for major costs like taxes, inventory, repairs, and other business maintenance; work these things into your monthly budgets, so you’re always prepared. By making sure to flow this basic plan of action, your small business will fill better prepared.

5. Work with an accountant

Oftentimes, small business owners find that a qualified accountant is worth their weight in gold, especially when tax season rolls around. This basic task of outsourcing to an accountant in Fort Collins is easy and the best choice for you. If you’re struggling to maintain good bookkeeping, need help maximizing your investments, or need guidance on growing your company, find a local CPA near Fort Collins to help you. They can end up saving you significant money, and headaches, in the long run.

Want to talk with a qualified financial consultant about your small business? Reach out to us at Steven J. Wick & Associates today.