12+ Bookkeeping Checklist Samples and Templates in PDF MS Word

Bookkeeping services are the work of keeping up with your general ledger—the recording of all your expense and income transactions. Said another way, bookkeeping is the process of “keeping the books”—recording the day-to-day transactions of a business. Depending on how many transactions your business incurs on a monthly basis, you may need a part-time or full-time bookkeeper. Bookkeeping is an essential administrative function of small business success that many business owners and founders don’t know how to manage. 60% of business owners admitted they aren’t confident in finance and accounting, including bookkeeping. Even those who are confident may simply not have time to give their books the attention they need.

However, he also provides in-depth reviews on a wide range of software solutions to help businesses find suitable options for them. Through his work, he aims to help companies develop a more tech-forward approach to their operations and overcome their SaaS-related challenges. If you’d like to read more about how accounting software can help businesses, check out our article about the importance of accounting software to businesses and organizations.

Zoho Expense

For example, if the restaurant buys $1,000 worth of beef, Beth will debit the appropriate asset account and credit the supplier’s account. A bookkeeper is responsible for identifying the accounts in which transactions should be recorded. The income statement is developed by using revenue from sales and other sources, expenses, and costs. In bookkeeping, you have to record each financial transaction in the accounting journal that falls into one of these three categories.

There are two standard systems of accounting you can use for your business, cash basis accounting and accrual accounting. Cash accounting records transactions at the time cash actually changes hands and is usually only recommended for businesses which do business strictly in cash payments. The chart of accounts is a different category group for the financial transactions in your business and is used to generate financial statements. They make sure that a business’ financial records are up-to-date and accurate. Without bookkeeping, accountants would be unable to successfully provide business owners with the insight they need to make informed financial decisions.

Accounting and Bookkeeping Tasks for a Small Business

Equity is the investment a business owner, and any other investors, have in the firm. The equity accounts include all the claims the owners have against the company. The business owner has an investment, and it may be the only investment in the firm. If you use cash accounting, you record your transaction when cash changes hands. FinancesOnline is available for free for all business professionals interested in an efficient way to find top-notch SaaS solutions. We are able to keep our service free of charge thanks to cooperation with some of the vendors, who are willing to pay us for traffic and sales opportunities provided by our website.

• For instance, one of the most important features of QuickBooks Online is that it helps businesses streamline invoice management.
• In the inventory record you must include the origin of the goods, type, quantity, date purchased or obtained and the code.
• The accounting equation means that everything the business owns (assets) is balanced against claims against the business (liabilities and equity).
• If ever there was an industry where it’s ok to be a little conventional, then it’s probably accountancy.

The history of accounting has been around almost as long as money itself. Accounting history dates back to ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Babylon. For example, during the Roman Empire, the government had detailed records of its finances.

Bookkeeping Services Custom-Created for the Entrepreneurial Journey

The table of contents must also be present in your business plan especially when you are creating a lengthy business plan. This can guide the users and the readers of the different sections in your business. If you are creating a business plan digitally, you may create a clickable table of contents linking the items in your table of content to their respective contents. Lastly, close the books of the accounts by eliminating the nominal accounts by transferring them to their respective real accounts.

If ever there was an industry where it’s ok to be a little conventional, then it’s probably accountancy. As an accounting professional, you want to convey a sense of professionalism and trustworthiness. In your executive summary, you must summarize the whole document in a way that the readers can be easily acquainted with your business plan without having to read it all. It must contain a brief statement of the problem or subject covered in the business plan, background information, concise analysis, and main conclusions. In creating a business plan for a professional goal that you have in mind, you must make a formal paper, detailing all the necessary information that would lead you to achieving your predetermined goal. Internal and external auditing are the two auditing procedures that must be performed on the financial statements of an entity.

Bookkeeping

Professional, elegant and modern, this website ticks pretty much all the boxes. In addition to the great design, they also feature some Yelp customer testimonials, which is always a good way to create a sense of reliability and trust. Both contain valuable information and common tax guide for independent contractors queries, which can be a great way to increase the time users spend on your site. This will lower your bounce rates and help your site rank better in search results. A website like this one is a great way to go if you’re looking to impress those high net worth clients.

• Instead of recording a transaction when it occurs, the cash method stipulates a transaction should be recorded only when cash has exchanged.
• Bookkeeping can help the auditor easily check the financial information of the company.
• You must carry out all the steps above to be able to get the correct example of sales bookkeeping.
• Financial statements are essential for making sound business decisions.

This is one of the best accounting firm websites to check out for site layout inspiration. They pair dense blocks of texts with big images, and the balance works great to provide a pleasant user experience and instill a sense of professionalism and trust. The website has a terrific hero section pairing a very simple background with a hero image and great copy that helps them to connect with their target audience (small business owners). What is great about this website is that it would work equally well with cautious small business owners and larger firms, because it represents the industry quite well. This section of your general business plan is where you present your competitor analysis.

Here are 10 basic types of bookkeeping accounts for a small business:

The software also comes with a consult feature so legal, finance, and IT teams can provide input when needed. When payroll is then run for your company, it is automatically posted inside QuickBooks, pulling in allocated information from what’s on the timesheet. We set it up to code time at the economic unit, the customer or job level, so you can generate true profitability reporting by tagging each job. You invested $15,000 of your personal money to start your catering business. When you deposit $15,000 into your checking account, your cash increases by $15,000, and your equity increases by $15,000. When you pay for the domain, your advertising expense increases by $20, and your cash decreases by $20.

In cost accounting, money is cast as an economic factor in production, whereas in financial accounting, money is considered to be a measure of a company’s economic performance. Bookkeeping is a more entry-level position than accounting and requires less education and training. Accountants are responsible for advising businesses on important financial decisions, analyzing source documents, preparing tax returns, and auditing and preparing financial statements.