𝟲 𝗘𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀

1. Keep Your Personal And Business Finances Separate

Rather than your income and other funds being thrown into a personal account, being a business owner means some business-based finances will combine with your personal funds.

The last thing anybody wants is to sit down and search through every single shopping list or personal transaction to find that one particular piece of business. To keep it all hassle-free, take the simple step of opening a new bank account for all of your business stuff.

2. Get Bookkeeping Software (and a Bookkeeper)

Bookkeeping is the organised process of tracking all income and expenses. It’s a critical component of financial management that ensures business owners have the information they need to make sound business decisions. For many small business owners, accounting is not among their skill set. Hiring a person dedicated to the task or, for smaller businesses, outsourcing the function is often a wise investment.

If you're doing it yourself, remember that these sheets should include information such as your gross profit, net profit, operating profit and your profit before tax. This makes it a lot easier to show revenues, costs and how much profit your business has made, usually over the last 12 months.

Organised records mean you waste less time searching and more time doing, well, whatever else you want to do. When those sneaky tax deadlines are getting closer, you’ll be glad to have professional assistance.

3. Remember and Stick to Tax Deadlines

Speaking of those sneaky tax deadlines, whatever will help you remember that the tax deadline is approaching, do it. Phone reminders, a countdown - anything. A looming tax deadline can be quite stressful, especially if you’re rushing because you forgot and any mistakes made can take longer to process.

It’s really quite a simple step. Note down the tax deadline, set a reminder beforehand so you give yourself enough time to actually fill your tax returns without any mistakes and the rest is a breeze.

4. Keep All of Your Receipts

We’re not saying keep and file every single receipt following each purchase, but keep any business-related purchase receipts so that you can claim for any business expenses. It all depends on the type of business yours is. If you’re working from home, then you can claim back some domestic bills, for example.

It can be anything from stamps to stationery. Keep hold of any business-related purchases or expenses and file them in those neat and tidy records we mentioned earlier.

5. Budget for Tax

Even though you might be rolling in the big bucks and made a profit, not all of the money is yours as you’ll need to hand some over to the taxman. A good rule to follow is that you budget for this as you go along so that you’re not massively shocked at the end of the financial year.

If you have a savings account or something similar, set a little bit of your income aside so that you can easily pay off your tax bill without any worries and enjoy the rest of your profit.

6. Get to Grips With Tax Rules

When it comes to tax, it’s important you know exactly which ones apply to you and your business so you know which types of tax you’ll actually need to pay. Do your research, so you know what you need to pay. Your bookkeeper should be able to assist you here.

By taking steps to establish strong accounting processes from the beginning, small businesses and startups increase their likelihood of success. Studies show that the more often a small business reviews its financial numbers, the better its financial health, which should ultimately drive long-term success. Although bookkeeping is not the passion of most small business owners, they must frequently review these critical financial metrics to capitalize on opportunities to grow and ensure their company is not on a path to insolvency.