
Maintaining proper financial records is crucial to business health. Not only is it important for your bottom line, but it could help reduce your tax liabilities when tax season comes around.
Keeping the books in top shape means a much smoother first quarter for business owners — more time can be spent running the business, instead of searching for paperwork before the tax deadline.
If your records are disorderly, you could incur additional fees to ensure accurate reporting. Don’t be caught off guard with higher tax liabilities — with proper planning and accurate record-keeping, you can avoid the headache.
Responsible record-keeping = saving time & money at tax time
Most small and medium businesses get audited by the IRS for a handful of factors, most notably: revenue discrepancies across tax forms, declaring business income that’s significantly higher or lower than others in the industry, or large business expenses. If you have the proper documentation in place, explaining your case will be no problem at all.
While it’s probably not high on the to-do list, being meticulous with your records can be a big benefit in the long run. Pushing off an undesirable task doesn’t make it vanish — it just makes it a bigger headache the longer you wait to work on it. And since paperwork for your financial records should be taken care of monthly, it can pile up fast.
January-March is typically the busiest time for tax accountants as they are filing returns for all of their clients. If you have all of your paperwork in order and can submit it at once, you’re well on your way to an easy tax season.
Get back to doing what you love
It can be a tedious task to keep track of your business financials. It’s not just payroll, but also tracking deductions, claiming expenses and coordinating invoices and follow-up that take up a fair amount of office time for a business owner.
Where are your passions? You should be living them out every single day. If bookkeeping is slowing you down, consider your opportunities to offload that work.