When you start your business, marketing, core administrative tasks, clients, and the workforce are at the top of your priority list. Bookkeeping and accounting are often the last things you think about. Although not always obvious, they are among the most crucial aspects of a business, helping you maintain an effective record of your business finances. It is vital that you keep a thorough record of every transaction, as it will be required for taxation and managing your finances.

If you don’t understand the basics of bookkeeping and want to keep your focus on expanding your business, you must consult a bookkeeping professional, such as  CPA in Louisville KY who enjoys crunching numbers and can help you understand beyond the numbers.

This article will help you understand the best practices, important components, and terms of bookkeeping so that you can avoid headaches later.

What’s Bookkeeping?

Recording your company’s financial information, transactions, and other related activities is referred to as bookkeeping. It helps businesses maintain accuracy with proper details and documentation for taxable returns. Moreover, it aims to create a financial net for the business while opening the doorway to future opportunities. With bookkeeping, you can better understand your finances, credit, assets, liabilities, losses, profits, and overall expenses.

What Activities Bookkeeping Includes:

Bookkeeping is more like a subset of accounting, where the staff members of the company perform activities such as:

1. Recording business financial transactions
2. Producing invoices
3. Completing the entire payroll
4. Posting debits and credits
5. Maintaining the business’s current account and the ledgers
6. Managing any unpaid loans and repayments
7. Managing your business accounting systems
8. Preparing necessary financial statements
9. Recording the tax return files
10. Reconciling accounts and drafting reconciliation reports
11. Preparing forecasts for your business

Managing all these essential activities alone can feel like climbing a mountain, and if left undone, they will only pile up. That’s why you need to start bookkeeping as soon as you begin your business in Kentucky.

Best Practices for Bookkeeping:

Separate your business and personal finances:

You must maintain separate bank accounts to manage your personal and corporate affairs. Never use your personal account for business transactions, as this will complicate your finances and business operations. This separation will also simplify your taxation process. You can use a business credit card or loan for upfront payments.

This separation will also provide you with a clear 360-degree view of your business, personal balances, and finances.

Establish your chart of accounts:

The chart of accounts in your books includes a list of all accounts, including their account numbers, descriptions, and other transaction details, for consistent and more accurate reporting.

Regulate Your Accounting Method with GAAP Principles:

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) refer to the commonly stated accounting rules and standards required for financial reporting. Most publicly traded companies, domestic businesses, and corporate organizations in Kentucky and across the USA use these standards to ensure transparency and accuracy in their financial reports.

You may also opt to invest in advanced accounting software to automate the financial reporting process while minimizing manual errors that might be overlooked.

Track Your Profits and Hard-Earned Money:

As a business owner, if you only focus on the core tasks, you will never fully understand the financial worth of your business or where you stand in the market in terms of economic value and financial health. You need to keep track of every business transaction, no matter how small or large, so you can use those expenditure details to reduce your net tax deductions.

Track your:

1. Business inventory
2. Employee wages
3. Safety appliances
4. Necessity supplies
5. Transportation costs
6. Electrical utilities
7. Vehicle mileage

By understanding your business accounting methods, taxation, underlying rules and regulations, and other key factors listed above, you will be able to record the day-to-day financial operations of your business.