Why is bookkeeping so important ?

Without adequate kept records, your business is susceptible to not only cash flow issues, but potential legal problems as well. So, whether you keep your books on paper, through computer software, or hire our bookkeeping experts... proper bookkeeping practices are important to the operation and survival of any business.

You may start with a blank ledger page (a sheet with lines) or, more often these days, a computer file of empty rows and columns; an excel spreadsheet. On some regular basis like every day, once a week, or at least once a month, you should transfer the amounts from your receipts for sales and purchases into a ledger. Called "posting," how often you do this depends on how many sales and expenditures your business makes and how detailed you want your books to be. 

To get started on a hand-entry system, Morinville Business Centre offers an excel based ledger called Simplified Ledger Business.  We advise all new businesses to use this ledger to help keep their books because once you've entered your daily, weekly, or monthly numbers, Simplified Ledger Business makes preparing monthly and yearly financial reports incredibly easy.  To purchase a Simplified Ledger for Business you may visit www.c2online.ca - affiliated with us.  Alternatively, you can purchase an accounting software program that will generate its own ledgers as you enter your information.    We accept this ledger as an acceptable bookkeeping tool and offers a discounted rate on their bookkeeping services when provided with the Simplified Ledger - Business.

Generally speaking, the more sales you do, the more often you should post to a ledger. A retail store, for instance, that does hundreds of sales amounting to thousands or tens of thousands of dollars every day should probably post daily. With that volume of sales, it's important to see what's happening every day and not to fall behind with the paperwork. To do this, the busy retailer should use a cash register that totals and posts the day's sales to a computerized bookkeeping system at the push of a button. A slower business, however, or one with just a few large transactions per month, such as a small Web site design shop, welder, or an applicance repair company, would probably be fine if it posted weekly or even monthly.

Check out some of our free tools that have been specifically designed to assist you with your business and your bookkeeping needs.