Your books, expenses and records, and what the mess is costing you

Small expenses are not worth recording.

Is this you?

• Receipts for small purchases are thrown away or lost
• Your records never quite match the bank statement
• You suspect you are missing deductions but do not know which

Why it happens

Each small expense feels too minor to bother with, and nobody adds them up over a year.

Read next

• What a business expense tracker actually needs to do
• How to deduct business mileage, with a simple log
• Mileage deduction calculator (free tool)

My bookkeeping is a shoebox of receipts.

Is this you?

• Receipts pile up in a drawer, a bag or a car
• Year end means a weekend of sorting
• Your accountant's fee goes up because of the state of things

Why it happens

Recording feels like a job for later, and later arrives all at once at year end.

Read next

• Receipt scanner apps: what actually matters
• What a business expense tracker actually needs to do

I mix personal and business spending.

Is this you?

• The same card pays for groceries and supplies
• You cannot say what the business costs to run each month
• Year end means going through every line to split them

Why it happens

Starting out with one account is convenient, and separating them never feels urgent until tax time.

Read next

• Do you need a business bank account before your first invoice?

I only look at my numbers when something is wrong.

Is this you?

• You open the accounts when the bank balance frightens you
• Decisions get made on feel
• Problems are already large by the time you see them

Why it happens

Looking at the numbers feels like bad news waiting to happen, so it gets avoided until it cannot be.

Read next

• What is a good profit margin for a small business?
• How to work out your burn rate and runway

I do not know which clients or jobs actually make money.

Is this you?

• You are busy all year and profit is thin
• Some jobs feel like hard work for little return, but you cannot prove it
• You price every client the same way

Why it happens

Costs and time are tracked for the business as a whole, never per job, so the unprofitable work hides inside the total.

Read next

• How to calculate profit margin for a service business
• Profit margin calculator (free tool)

My accountant sorts it out at year end.

Is this you?

• You see your real numbers once a year
• The accountant's report tells you about problems months too late
• You could not say today whether this year is better than last

Why it happens

Handing the books to a professional feels like handling them, and it leaves eleven months without any view of the business.

Read next

Guide coming soon.