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No one has ever leapt out of bed on a Monday morning and thought, “God, I hope I get to reconcile some bank transactions today.”
But messy books have a habit of quietly becoming expensive books. 💰
They take longer to reconcile. Your BAS takes longer. Your accountant asks more questions. You pay more accounting fees.
And when you actually want to know how the business is going, the numbers are about as useful as a chocolate teapot.
The good news is you don’t need to become a bookkeeping expert.
You mostly just need to stop creating extra work.
This is the big one.
Your business account is for the business.
Not groceries. Not dinner. Not the kids’ shoes. Not the suspiciously large Dan Murphy’s transaction you’re about to explain as “client entertainment”.
Can we sort it out?
Of course.
But every personal transaction running through the business is another transaction someone has to look at, understand, code and reconcile.
And the maths is pretty simple:
More transactions = more accounting fees.
Transfer money to your personal account and spend it from there.
Your bookkeeper and accountant will love you. 🙌
Paying business expenses from your personal account is just as annoying.
Because now the business expense is hiding somewhere we can’t see it.
So three months later we’re all playing a fun little game called:
“Was this $347 at Officeworks for the business?”
You say yes.
We ask what it was.
You say, “No idea.”
Great.
Business spending should come from the business account or business card.
Keep the two worlds separate.
The shoebox full of receipts had a good run.
It can retire now.
Take a photo. Forward the invoice. Upload it into Xero or whatever bookkeeping system you use.
The best time to do it is when the purchase is still fresh enough that you know what it was.
That makes bookkeeping quicker, gives us better records and saves everyone hunting for a receipt six months later.
Good luck with that.
Bookkeeping gets harder the longer you leave it.
Something you bought yesterday?
Easy.
Something bought six months ago called “SQ *GEELONG 84729” different story.
Keeping things up to date means questions get answered while you still remember the answers.
It also means when you look at your numbers, they are actually your numbers.
Not your numbers from three months ago plus a bunch of stuff we haven’t figured out yet.
If you’re transferring money around, give us something.
Anything. 🙏
“Transfer” is not particularly helpful.
We can see it was a transfer.
That part of the mystery has been solved.
“Equipment loan repayment”, “Director reimbursement” or “Office rent” takes you about five extra seconds and can save someone a decent amount of time later.
Think breadcrumbs.
We don’t need a novel.
Just enough to know what happened.
Every bank account needs reconciling.
Every credit card needs reconciling.
So does PayPal.
And Stripe.
And the random account you opened three years ago because they gave you 80,000 Qantas points and a free toaster.
Sometimes you need multiple accounts.
Fine.
But if an account serves no real purpose anymore, consider closing it.
Because someone is still dealing with it every month.
Fewer accounts. Fewer transactions. Less mucking around. And, everyone’s favourite, lower accounting fees.
Every bookkeeper knows the feeling.
You send a client five questions.
Nothing.
You follow up.
Nothing.
You follow up again.
Still nothing.
Then BAS is due tomorrow and suddenly everyone is extremely interested in bookkeeping.
If your bookkeeper is asking you something, it is usually because they need the answer to finish the job.
Answer the questions while everything is still fresh and your books keep moving.
There’s no bookkeeping hack here.
It’s mostly boring stuff.
👉 Keep personal spending out.
👉 Put business expenses through the business.
👉 Keep your receipts.
👉 Don’t open unnecessary accounts.
👉 Answer questions.
Clean books take less time.
Less time means lower accounting fees.
And, as a nice little bonus, you can actually trust your numbers when you look at them.
Which is sort of the whole point.
Disclaimer: This article is here to give you general info only, not professional advice specific to your unique situation. While efforts are made to ensure accuracy, the content may change over time. We can’t take responsibility for any decisions based on the contents of this article, so be sure to chat with your accountant or advisor first!
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