Having a solid accounting plan is the best way to avoid any financial oversights in your first few years of business. From my experience, here are three important accounting tips for small businesses:
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- Speak to an accountant early: Ideally, you’d like to know your accountant at the start-up phase of your business, or at the start of a new fiscal year. If that’s not possible, then you will at least want to speak to an accountant as soon as possible. Yes, generally you can wait to find an accountant until it’s time to prepare your year-end financial statements and tax return, but it is always a good idea to meet them early, especially to get an understanding of your tax filing, government filings and tax payment deadlines (and to attempt to avoid CRA interest and penalties), which can all differ based on your year-end date, sales volume, net income etc. You also want to consult with them to ensure you are accurately collecting adequate financial data from your business transactions, which leads to the next point.
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- Get organized: Collecting data about your business finances isn’t always easy and straight-forward. Sometimes this means simply having an accordion folder for your expense receipts. For larger operations, this could be a binder + spreadsheet or for an even higher volume of transactions (most small businesses) this entails full bank account records, credit card statements, loan statements, sales invoices and expense receipts with bookkeeping done in an accounting system such as Quickbooks or Sage. Your accountant will advise you on the best way to keep your records organized throughout the year so that you’re not knee-deep in a year’s worth of expense receipts and sales invoices two days before your tax filing deadline.
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- Establish financial objectives: Are there financial goals, targets, metrics etc. that are important to you and your business? Let your accountant know what they are as early as possible. Once you do, your accountant can ensure that you are tracking the required data accurately during the year, before it’s too late to go back. An example would be if you are looking to track and compare profit margins on various services you offer, this is best tracked during the year in your accounting system and your accountant will help you maintain records to facilitate this.