Financial Software
Quicken, Quickbooks, and Money have automatic reminders to tell you when to pay bills. If your income is regular, have your bills deducted directly from your bank account. Writing checks through your financial program will force you to record all entries. Do not use programs like Versacheck, My Check Writer, etc. that print checks from blank stock unless you buy a MICR cartridge for your printer. Also, make absolutely sure that they will print all those squiggly lines in exactly the right place. I used to make my own business checks until I got some of them returned as unreadable. When this happens, whomever you wrote the check to marks it down as “NSF,” even though that’s not the case. Many stores now refuse to accept computer-printed checks.
Most banks offer you the capacity to download your statements directly into your check-writing program. Do it every day. It is almost painless, even for the mathematically-challenged of us. Backup your financial data daily, on a separate disk or CD.
According to the IRS, one-third of small businesses incur penalties for incorrect bookkeeping of more than $1,300 annually. Consider an online payroll system like www.paycylce.com to relieve you of the burden. Le expensive, and powerful is Simply HR by Elibrium Software (www.elibrium.com). While this doesn’t do the payroll for you, it alerts you of potential errors and is available online. It can help you keep on track and is easy to use.