Fundamentals To Being Better Organized for Tax Season
Tax deadlines feel ominous. In looking back, do you wish you had setup better systems for your receipts last year so your tax paperwork would be less complicated? Does it feel like SO MUCH WORK to get paperwork together? Whether you are planning to file your own tax documents or not, you must have a way to gather all the necessary pieces by April 15th. Easier said than done, right?
1. Develop a filing system
Being ready for tax season every year will alleviate stress! Gathering the necessary documents, when they are out of reach, can make the process seem more difficult. Rather, you need to develop a filing system for invoices and receipts, bank and credit card statements, reimbursements and vendor payouts. If you can find a way to keep those organized, you’re on your way to success.
2. Touch your receipts only once
Understanding broad accounting categories is a good place to start when storing your receipts during the year. By knowing what category each receipt should go into will promote a one-touch approach. As soon as you have it in your hand, make it a once-and-done action by using technology to make it more efficient. Smartphone apps are geared to digitally capture the image of your receipt & post it to a category. Then, your accountant or CPA can easily retrieve the category receipts and amounts. As you can see, it’s much easier if you do the task only once and store it in a safe digital place for future access.
3.Deal with your accounting on regular basis
So many business owners make this HUGE mistake. They procrastinate and neglect to deal with receipts on a regular basis. In my experience, never allow your receipts to pile up! I know you may think you’ll get to them in one swoop at a later date. But, later rarely happens. You will end up misplacing receipts or miss out on the tax saving because the ink fades away. That is money down the drain. Therefore, think of your receipts as “money savers”. By placing importance and value on their content, it will become easier to make it a priority to record them more frequently.
4. Get help with your receipts!
Filing and decluttering your home office work space on a regular basis will have you feeling ready for tax season. If you find yourself being neglectful of these duties, just be honest with yourself. It probably means it’s time to hire help. Therefore, outsource your bookkeeping and accounting needs and let us help you stay on top of your record keeping tasks. We specialize in small businesses in Canton, GA; Woodstock, GA; Marietta, GA; Alpharetta, GA; and Kennesaw, GA.