Four Ways to Help Yourself With Your Annual Accounts

It’s that time of year again – self-assessments are almost due, and many self-employed people are beginning to stress about the deadline that is looming. However, getting your annual accounts completed doesn’t have to be a stressful time. There are a few tips and tricks I can give you to help you out with completing your accounts so that you can focus more time and energy on working on your business and even save money. Here are four ways you can help yourself get your annual accounts done. 

Keep your receipts

Business isn’t just about your income – you are also going to have a lot of expenses to keep track of. While some might seem more obvious, like bigger pieces of machinery and equipment, it can be really easy to lose track of the smaller supplies that you purchase. Everything down to the pens you use when you’re working can be listed as a business expense, so make your job much easier by keeping a regular log of your expenses and keeping all of your receipts. 

Little and often

I used to have a teacher who told me that writing an essay should be a process, rather than an event – in other words, it is something you consistently work towards in small chunks, rather than sitting down and trying to finish it in one session. As much as it pains me to say it all these years later, he was right – and the same applies to getting your annual accounts done. If you try and do all of your accounts at once, you are going to feel overwhelmed more easily, which could lead to mistakes. Keep track of your accounts on a monthly basis to make the end of your financial year much less stressful. 

Set a reminder before the deadline

there’s nothing worse than remembering a deadline the day before it’s due, or worse after it has been and gone. That’s why it is worth diarising a time slot that is in plenty of time of your deadline so that you don’t need to have that initial panic when you remember about it. You can set multiple reminders to guide you along your way; I would at least set a reminder a month in advance, and then a week in advance. 

Don’t be afraid to work with a professional

It can be tempting to save yourself some money by doing your accounts yourself, but help from somebody who is qualified to work in finance is well worth every penny to a successful business. Getting help from a professional to do your accounts means that you are free to spend more time working on your business, and it could save you fines for late filing or even refunds to customers whose items couldn’t get to them quick enough because you were too busy. They will also be able to guide you in your future finances to make annual accounts even easier in the future. 

 

Do you dread your annual accounts every year or do you end up saving money? Let us know your tips to stay on top of it in the comments.