You’ve just spent days, months, or years creating a service or product. As a startup business owner, your passion is probably focused on achieving your primary business goal. For many entrepreneurs, bookkeeping is not necessarily the first thing that comes to mind when expanding the business.
Bookkeeping Checklist for Startups
Bookkeeping tracks and maintains your business’s financial data, such as invoices, receipts, expenses, and bank statements. You should implement a sound bookkeeping system as soon as your business starts. Here is a startup bookkeeping checklist that you can use to succeed in your industry.
Bookkeeping checklist for startups
Day-to-day bookkeeping checklist
- Reconcile cash and receipts.
- Organize and classify your expenses
- Check financial data
Weekly bookkeeping checklist
- Examine outstanding bills
- Prepare all the invoices
- Project your cash flow analysis
Monthly bookkeeping checklist
- Review your cash position
- Update your bookkeeping software
- Review your inventory
Yearly bookkeeping checklist
- Track internal activity
- Monitor payrolls
- Collect your account receivables
- Plan your tax payments
Final thoughtsÂ
Day-to-day bookkeeping checklist
Reconcile cash and receipts.
At the end of each day, reconciling cash and receipts makes it easier to quickly identify cash shortages or overages, allowing you to track down where the money went and spot mistakes or theft.
Organize and classify your expenses.
It’s simple to handle finances immediately because many accounting software packages let you report expenses and upload receipts. Rather than sorting a heap of receipts during month-end, take a picture of the receipt and write a detailed note about it.
Check financial data
You must verify your financial information at the end of each business day. Ensure that it is aligned with the previous day.
Weekly bookkeeping checklist
Examine outstanding bills
Reviewing your unpaid bills is one of the most crucial tasks on a weekly bookkeeping checklist. Not paying your payments on time can increase your loss. So, clear and track them on time to increase your profits.
Prepare all the invoices.
Preparing all invoices is also a crucial step on the weekly bookkeeping checklist. Invoices are like the timeline of your company processes; you can easily track your expenses if you have overlooked them.
Project your cash flow analysis
You should project your cash flow analysis at the end of each working week. It will enable you to examine your weekly spending, transactions, and cash flow and plan accordingly.
Monthly bookkeeping checklist
Review your cash position
Even though it seems relatively simple, this task is frequently neglected, resulting in unnecessary difficulties or emergencies if there isn’t enough cash to spend. You must assess your monthly cash requirements and set aside at least that much amount as a reserve.
Update your bookkeeping software
Updating your bookkeeping software is a big part of not letting anything slip through the cracks. Ensure everything that needs to be categorized, recorded, and uploaded is properly organized and that you haven’t missed anything over the past month.
Review your inventory
Check the state of your inventory every month to avoid getting caught off guard by a supply shortage. If you’re in or have recently finished a peak period, you might want to examine your inventory more frequently to ensure things go smoothly.
Yearly bookkeeping checklist
Track internal activity
Tracking all internal activities is essential for evaluating the performance and development of your startup at the end of the financial year.
Monitor payrolls
Review and keep track of the payroll payments at the end of your fiscal year. Make a profit calculation, and don’t hesitate to reward your small workforce with incentives or gifts.
Collect your account receivables
Collecting your account receivables is one of the most crucial tasks on your year-end bookkeeping checklist. Sometimes, the receivables get delayed, so you try to clear them before the end of the year.
Plan your tax payments
You will be able to track your company’s growth, highs, and lows after reviewing the accounting history of an entire fiscal year. Use this as a road map and a strategy for paying your taxes.
Final thoughts
Understanding the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly bookkeeping checklist will make it easier for you to ensure that your company’s operations are free from accounting errors. However, you can hire startup accountants if you do not have enough time or the required skills.