Do you manage a financially healthy business? How do you track monthly expenses including the smallest ones like postage? Are you 100% sure that your business is not wasting money? Are you using the most effective strategy to achieve your financial objectives? How do you prepare for the least favorite season of the year, namely the tax season? Have you ever paid taxes that you simply do not owe? Have you ever mingled funds?
These questions have the purpose to help you realize the importance of tracking every single expense of your business, whether we are talking about advertising costs or daily coffee, which represents the fuel of your employees. If you have any doubts, ask any financial expert out there and he will tell you the same thing. Taking into account all your daily responsibilities and obligation, it is more than understandable if you did not succeed to create an expense tracking and management system, but now is the time to make a change.
The perquisites of tracking and managing your business expenses
The bright part about this crucial process is that apart from avoiding money loss, you also get cash back. What more can you ask? With the advanced technology today, handling your business expenses is easier than you imagine. If you do not want to hire an accountant, whether because you do not afford it or you do not trust outsiders, then you can create a spreadsheet, use one of the numerous apps available for this exact purpose or opt for modern software. The choice is yours, but keep in mind that regardless of your decision, the most important thing is to get started as soon as possible and organize your business finances.
Consequently, besides gaining a deeper understanding of your spending habits, you have the possibility to make the necessary changes in order to shorten the path to reaching your financial goals. Since we discussed the tax season, you should know that tracking your expenses will allow you to be prepared for that unpleasant time of the year and benefit from all the possible deductions by showing receipts and documentation regarding all the necessary expenses made throughout the year.
Use a spreadsheet to process your daily or monthly business receipts
Tracking recurring expenses and getting on top of your business receipts does not have to be a daunting mission if you create that expense tracking and management system. Common business expenses include bank and service fees, utilities and supplies, telephone and internet, advertising and insurance, meals and entertainment so how do you keep track of all of them? Well, the first option refers to using a spreadsheet once you find a free template. A basic spreadsheet includes multiple columns like date, income, expense type, tax and description. All you have to do is entering all your business receipts into the respective spreadsheet. Of course, you have to make sure that you perfect your receipt handling so that you do not lose or misplace them.
If you decide to opt for this expense tracking solution, then you have two methods available: complete the receipt processing daily or let them pile up and complete the same process monthly. It is a matter of convenience or preference, but regardless of your decision, make sure that you stick with the established plan. Otherwise, your efforts will be in vain.
Automate business operations to ensure accurate accounting records
Even though the spreadsheet method is useful, it comes with a big disadvantage – human error. Since you have to approach expense tracking manually, you do not have the guarantee that all the results are accurate. Maybe at the end of the day you are too tired to pay close attention to all the confusing numbers and you make a small but impactful mistake. For this reason, you should automate as many operations as you can. Going paperless in the business world has become mandatory for increasing efficiency and productivity so you should not resist this current. Instead, you should explore the multitude of solutions out there in order to facilitate your business processes. For instance, Timesheet Portal is a very good online-based solution that will undoubtedly help you maximize profits while impeding financial loss. It will not only give you back some cash, but also valuable time to focus on other crucial business operations.
More specifically, you benefit from various configurable options like overtime calculations and time limit rules. You have the possibility to keep all your business expenses in one place by uploading receipts using your mobile phone, tracking mileage and client expenses. In fact, it comes with many other benefits including holiday bookings, client invoicing, document storage and signing, not to mention that you can access it remotely, regardless of your location. Thus, you will not only have good control over your employee expenses, but also over any other tiny expense that could bring down your profits.
Timesheet Portal is a very good online-based solution
