Improving Individual and Household Bookkeeping

Since financial management is vital to long-term success, many small business owners must learn to adopt good bookkeeping habits early so that they can stay organized and manage a cash flow with the least amount of time and energy involved. Individuals and households, too, benefit from good bookkeeping and financial management, and some things that business owners do to keep the bookkeeping running smoothly and efficiently can be applied to individuals, as well, for better personal finance.

If your individual or household finances are falling into neglect, take a few cues from professionals about getting fiscally organized:

Record transactions

Good record-keeping is an important part of personal and professional financial management. When you need to trace a payment or show documentation for tax purposes, it is helpful to have receipts and statements somewhere easily accessible. When storage and space become an issue, cloud-based apps are available for quick scanning and uploading of important documents, records, and receipts that can later be retrieved as needed.

Reconcile spending

Going over your credit and bank statements every month can get tedious, but it is important for analyzing your spending and for spotting errors. Taking the time to review your spending statements, bank account balances, and check registries to make sure numbers match will alert you quickly to errors, overdrafts, or fraudulent activity, while also educating you on where your money is going each month. Small business owners who do their own bookkeeping often have to set aside a designated time each week, month, and/or quarter to go over statements and reconcile accounts. Individuals and households benefit from the same discipline, and their account reconciling often takes far less time.

Budget

While you may not think your personal expenditures necessitate an official or formal budget, you may be surprised to discover how much organization—and savings options—a budget can add to your personal financial management. Even small purchases and indulgences can add up, and if they are unexpected or go unaccounted, they can eventually wreak havoc on financial savings and planning. At the very least, your personal budget lays out in black and white your actual expenditures each month and year so that you can make more informed decisions about spending and saving. Successful businesses operate on budgets, and well-run households do as well. Knowing monthly costs helps people spot places to cut down on or find new ways to save.

Make payments on time

Late fees are a waste of money, and they can accrue to waste more money if you let your personal bookkeeping fall into neglect. Instead of paying costly penalty fees and interest charges for your purchases, put yourself on a bookkeeping schedule that best matches the due dates of your bills. Autopay options can help deadline certain types of payments, and other automating options may be necessary for those who travel a lot or have trouble keeping on top of all the various payment due dates.

Online check printing can be a helpful addition to both professional and personal bookkeeping systems; for those times a paper check is the preferred payment option, online check printing can have a printed check in your hands in only a few clicks. Checkeeper, the premier online check printing and mailing software, enables customized check printing from anywhere. Cloud-based and mobile-optimized, Checkeeper is the ideal solution for keeping bills and payments on time for those individuals who:

·       travel a lot

·       have moved or plan to move

·       pay bills at the last minute

·       don’t have blank, ready-to-go checks on hand

·       have trouble finding or keeping organized payment records

·       don’t want to pay for, wait for, and store checkbooks

Checkeeper offers a mailing service with four priority mailing options for those individuals who don’t have consistent access to a printer or to mailing supplies. Checkeeper can print your needed checks on demand and have them in the mail—typically within that day—according to the delivery speed of your choice.

Personal financial growth can be substantially compromised without organized and accurate bookkeeping. Financial management is one of the most important operating tasks, not only for business owners, but also for individuals and households who strive to meet personal financial goals. Planning, budgeting, expense tracking, reconciling, and analyzing are helpful management tasks to add to your personal bookkeeping system.