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Accounting Tips

Start-up businesses can often experience difficulties with both finances and business planning. However, there are several ways to stay on top of your accounting and bookkeeping, allowing your business to prosper. Our accounting tips should always give you a helping hand as a start-up business.
Roger Hatherall & Co support all individuals and start-up businesses. Whether you require advice or accountancy services, your expectations should always be met.

Preparation & Planning

A big problem for many start-up businesses is that they only begin accounting and bookkeeping after it should have been started. This means from the beginning of your bookkeeping, you are already playing catchup and therefore completing accounting properly becomes much more difficult.

By making sure you plan and prepare your business for accounting, your finances are always up to date. Finances also become much easier to manage in the long-term when they have been prepared in advance, ensuring you are not constantly going back to make amendments and make sure all finances are correct.

Use Accounting Software

Whether you decide to outsource or purchase accounting software yourself, you must make sure you have good software available to make the accounting process so much easier. Accounting software will assist with a range of different processes, saving you time on bookkeeping and make these processes much easier for all businesses and individuals.

This will also help you prevent regular errors as software should assist in record keeping, making your finances and accounting accurate at all times. If you decide against using accounting software, you could find it hard to continue managing your finances without any errors. You also want to make sure this never takes up too much of your time which is why effective software is so important.

Accounting Bath
Accounts Preparation Bath

Separate Business & Personal Finances

For many start-up business owners, combining business and personal finances seems like the easy option to help you manage all finances as one. However, it is best to keep these finances separate, ensuring your limited company is deemed a separate legal entity and therefore you do not regularly use business money for personal reasons. As there are also strict rules regarding your financial activity, having a dedicated company bank is best for every business.

Regardless of whether you are a sole trader, partnership or limited company, this should always be the best option for your needs. When it comes to creating the end of year accounts and annual tax returns, having all your business finances in one account will make this process much easier. This allows you to clearly show your business finances and always submit the correct amount of money to the HMRC.

Accurate & Updated Records

Similar to preparing for your initial accounting as a start-up business, you must continue to keep financial records accurate and up to date. By having an effective method for accounting, as well as making sure all transactions are recorded through invoices and therefore can be immediately tracked and recorded.

By regularly updating your books, this reduces the number of errors you will make and means you are not constantly backtracking with finances. You should also make sure these records are kept safe and if future changes do need to be made, you have all your records easily accessible to avoid future problems.

Outsource Your Accounting

One of the best accounting tips for start-up businesses is to outsource your accounting. If you are struggling to manage your finances or unsure of what is required as a start-up business owner, outsourcing could be the best option for you.

Roger Hatherall & Co work throughout Bath and the surrounding areas, ensuring your requirements are always met no matter what accountancy services you require. Make an enquiry and call us on 01225 429610 or fill in our contact form today for a fast response.