7 Record Keeping Tips for Small Business Owners

hi guys Sarah here from Merida glue and today I want to do a video about record keeping now if you are an entrepreneur self-employed work out of your home you know that record keeping can be kind of a daunting task especially if you put it off until the end of the year so because it is a new year I thought this was the perfect time to talk about seven tips to make record keeping an easier task for you and something that you can stay on top of now I personally run a daycare out of my home so I have all kinds of record-keeping things to keep track of I have to keep track of my mileage my expenses payments bills for utilities food program attendance and meals I've served state-sponsored assistance paperwork and all kinds of Licensing documents for myself and for the children today I thought it'd be best just to talk about those expenses and things for tax related purposes because that applies to anybody who's self-employed not just daycare workers so I thought this would be a great topic that could help out a lot of people and I have created a system that works really well for me and has really helped me stay on top of it so that the beginning of the year I'm not phased at all I just have to do a few things that I wasn't able to do all year but I don't have to do all my expenses and mileage and all that kind of stuff from back January 2016. so tip number one is to have a bin in a central location where you can just dump all those receipts all of those things that you need to file any check duplicates anything that you need to get to that you don't need to do right away but you know you would want to look at you know in the next couple weeks you can put in that bin and know that you'll be looking at it monthly this is just wonderful so that you know where everything goes if you have other people in your family or people that come into your home that have other receipts like my husband brings home receipts from when he went grocery shopping or whatever he knows exactly where to put it so it doesn't get lost and I know where it is when it comes time to record everything tip number two is to plan a day that's easy to remember that happens once a month where you can go through everything thing now for me what I do with a daycare I just plan a theme day where we will have a certain theme for that month like let's say in January we're going to have a snow day because there's snow in Minnesota and it's January so on that day we do snow related activities and that is my one day during nap where I sit down and do all the stuff for my expenses it's easy to remember because it's always on the calendar for the daycare I always plan it for the last day of the month so it's easy to remember to put it on the calendar in the first place and it's something I just can't forget about it's something that when that day comes I know it's tax day for other self-employed people maybe the first Wednesday of every month or maybe there's a certain day where you don't have anything in your schedule and you just know that day is going to be your business day and you're going to dedicate it to this kind of task that's a perfect day to get your tax stuff done my third tip is to have a checklist to use on that day that you just go through and mark down everything that you did and it has all the steps of what you need to do and your particular situation and it really helps you to not get sidetracked and to know exactly what you need to do after a couple months of daycare I created my own where I just have things like enter receipts grocery store mileage to make sure I keep track of that look through emails for receipts in case I forgot to print one for something I bought online file my receipts file other items clean out the secretary desk I do that on a monthly basis and then any mileage for any trainings that's all the stuff I need to do on a monthly basis so I have this little chart and I have a few spots where I can add something extra that I haven't thought of yet then I also have a place for what I need to do at the end of the year because I wait until the end of the year to do all my utilities because I could just call up the company and they can give me an invoice for the whole year instead of having to do a monthly and other things that are build monthly and things like that but this chart really helps me stay focused stay on track not get distracted and know exactly what to do when I sit down tip number four when you have your bid out you have your checklist before you go in and enter anything what I do with all my receipts and stuff is I go through and I categorize it all now that's going to look different for every situation but for my particular situation I go through and I categorize it by grocery receipts standard purchase receipts like things from Target you know things we buy on a normal basis I have non-standard receipts things that we don't buy often like tires or whatever it may be that's not a common purchase and then any checks I have separately that way I know that's kind of a different kind of purchase as well so I go through and I separate it all by category and then what I do is I go through and I organize those by date because it's much easier to enter them in chronological order so I go through each of those piles and put them in the right date order and then I can go on to the next step tip number five is before you sit at your computer or your book where you keep everything make sure you go through each receipt now that it's organized and in its category and by date and go through and write on there what type of expense it was do any adding then so it's kind of like assembly line style you're doing just one thing at a time you're not sitting at the computer adding it up entering it and then going to the next one you're having each step is taken care of on its own as a group so for this step you just go through you write on there like for my grocery bills I only have to do those as mileage so I just write down mileage because I deduct that in a different way if you're familiar with daycare I just do the standard meal allowance I don't keep track of what actual I what I actually purchased for groceries but I do use those receipts to prove that I drove there and to deduct the mileage so just rate mileage for any personal related receipts I just write personal and I know I'm not deducting anything on those and then for the ones I am deducting things off of I go through and circle them I Write Time slash space if it's a time space deduction which is particular to daycare settings or if it's a hundred percent business expense and then I write that on the receipt so when I do sit down it's already there and I could just quickly go through and enter each receipt tip number six is to use a program that you really really love that makes your life easier for daycare hands down that program is minute menu I'm not sponsored in any way but it is something that I've used since day one and it is wonderful because it's a program specifically designed for daycare and daycare is a unique situation because you can deduct pretty much anything you buy not anything but a lot of the things you buy that you use in your home on a regular basis you can deduct because you're also using them for the daycare so that program has wonderful idea as tips suggestions and it's set up so that every time I enter an expense it asks if I want to add mileage for that receipt and it's just wonderful helping me remember all those extra things I can deduct now that program that will help you may be different and maybe QuickBooks and maybe something else online you might have to test out a few or do some research but it really does help to have a program that's really good and streamlined that can help save you money because at the end of the day that's what it's all about is saving you time and money and then my very last tip tip number seven is just to reward yourself in some small way after you've completed all your tax related tasks for that month just sit down relax maybe have a cup of coffee maybe have a cup of wine depending on what type of job you have and what you're doing at that time I obviously can't do that when the kids are here just find something small maybe sit down and watch a show just give yourself a little break go for a walk go out to eat with a friend or something just have something that you look forward to after you do this because not only will you benefit and just feeling good and rewarding yourself but you also feel so good after you do this for the month because it's one last month that you have to worry about come next January and that is a wonderful feeling trust me so those are my seven tips for helping you stay on top of your taxes and your record keeping I would love to know what you do to keep track of your expenses if you're a small business owner and if there's any tips that you could share with my audience as well I want to help them in the best way possible and help you guys so leave your tips in the comments and we will look there for more advice if there's any other daycare or small business related videos you would like from me please leave those suggestions in the comments and I would be happy to film more videos on these topics thank you guys so much for watching bye guys [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: Homeschool Glue

Views: 241,791

Keywords: Marital Glue, Sarah, San, Celia, daycare, small business, tax, record keeping, paperwork, expenses, deductions, tax time, Minute Menu, child care provider, save time, save money, accountant

Id: fVb4438VCPg

Length: 8min 23sec (503 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 11 2017