Small business bookkeeping is the foundation to running a profitable business. Sound boring? It’s actually fun.
No, I’m not kidding. Do you play a sport like tennis, basketball, or even ping pong? Guess what–they all keep score. Why does a football stadium have yard lines? Because each team needs to know how close they are to the goal!
You need to know where you are on the playing field, too, except with a business, you get to make a profit and keep the fruit of your labor.
Why do quarterbacks have dozens of plays they can implement at a moment’s notice? Because things happen on the field, and the teams have to make course corrections to get that egg-shaped ball across the goal line.
Small business bookkeeping helps you see your progress down the field. Accurate books keep you motivated and help you see the roadblocks to your revenue and expense goals, so you can make course corrections too. Sometimes these course corrections will help you make more money. Sometimes, they will help your business avoid bankruptcy.
So, here’s the deal. Small business bookkeeping has three steps to it:
Step 1: Setting Up the Books
Step 2: Logging Expenses, Revenues, and Debits (Updating the Books)
Step 3: Interpreting the Books (For Management Decisions)
This series of articles will take you through how to set up your books, log expenses, revenues, and debits, and interpret the books so you can make better decisions.
We’ve got a great article on How to Set up your Books: Small Business Bookkeeping Made Simple. After that, check out our post on Recording Revenues and Expenses Made Quick and Easy.
Our training videos will be invaluable to you as you read through these articles. They’re chock full of small business stories that are fascinating to watch. For the price of three Venti lattes from Starbucks, you get the best of small business training available online.
And if you get stuck, hit the Panic Button. Experts are waiting to help you. No nonsense, no kidding.
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