Beyond the Margins Podcast

5 Ways to Better Manage Your Bookkeeping

Keeping good books for your company can feel overwhelming at times. As soon as you get behind, it seems impossible to catch up or keep up. I wanted to discuss 5 ways to get ahead and stay ahead.

Separate Business and Personal

In general, you should not have any personal expenses running through the business. I wont even touch on the legal implications of this, but they can be severe. Everything gets muddy when you are using bank accounts and credit cards for business and personal use. Not only that, it just creates even more transactions to sort through each month. You should have separate bank accounts and credits cards for your business. Are there times when you make a mistake or simply need to use those for personal purposes? Sure. But that should not be the norm and you need to avoid that at all costs.

Weekly Bookkeeping

I know this appears to be adding more work but in reality, it can really help to stay on top of things. If you can, set aside some time each week to enter transactions. The further you get behind, the harder it is to catch up. Every day/week/month you don’t have your books up to date, the workload only grows. Even if you plan to do it weekly and miss a few weeks here and there, you will still be way ahead of the game.

Use the Right Accounting Software

Having a good accounting software can make all the difference. We use QBO but that might not be the right solution for you. There are plenty out there and some make accounting extremely easy. If you are having to fight with your software, it will deter you from doing your bookkeeping and you won’t get it done.

Utilize Technology

Technology has come such a long way as it relates to accounting. There are so many good app integrations that can save you time. The best way to approach this is to figure out where your pain points are and then look for apps to help. One thing that is crucial is setting up the bank and credit card feed. This will bring all the transactions into the accounting software and all you need to do is categorize things. Not only does this make it easier but it all but assures that you have captured all the transactions.

Hire a Bookkeeper

Lastly, we always feel it is best to hire an outside bookkeeper to help you. There is just so much you need to be doing as the business owner. Bookkeeping is something that is so important, you do not want to get behind.

How do you make sure that the bookkeeping in your business is getting handled in a timely fashion?

In this episode we discuss the future of the accounting industry and the importance for financial professional to build their brand online.
Katie Thomas, CPA is the founder and owner of Leaders Online LLC. She is a digital marketing strategist, content creation expert, and national speaker.

Katie’s superpower is helping leaders implement the right marketing strategies to reach their target audience in a way that they're sure to captivate their attention, cultivate a genuine relationship, and grow their business.

Have you ever seen a hawk flying in the sky with a few crows close on its tail, bothering it? I never really understood this. A hawk is much more fierce predator capable of destroying the crows if he chose to. But for some reason he doesn’t. He just continues flying and focusing on his task at hand.

If you pay close attention, you will also notice that many times when a crow is by himself, smaller birds will follow him around and bother him. A little but of karma if you ask me.

Why am I telling you this?
Check out the podcast to find out!

On Episode 5, John Tooher takes a deep dive into transitioning from the corporate world to starting his own business. He also discusses moving from overseas to the United States and some of the challenges that entailed.
John Tooher is the owner of HeadRoom, a successful Business Accelerator and Consultancy Practice with two locations in suburban Philadelphia. As well as leading a center used by more than 100 businesses and start-ups, John applies his considerable experience to helping companies develop medium-term roadmaps to reinvigorate their business or cope with disruption. Through his association with British company Youd-Andrews, he also helps companies such as Salesforce, VMware and Avanade improve their ability to sell to C- level executives.
He began his career in 1986 as a process engineer with General Electric. From 1988 to 1997, he worked for 3M in multiple European countries holding various senior technical and manufacturing management roles. From 1997 to 2002, he worked for a 3M spin-off, Imation and was responsible for European technical, manufacturing and service operations for a number of divisions.
John then moved to the US to take up a roll as President of Yell Adworks Inc. Starting with a workforce of 150 he grew the company to a 3,000-person global 24/7 operation engaged in the production of print and on-line advertising solutions.
John has experienced two major industry transformations in his career: First, the advent of Desk Top Publishing and secondly, the move from traditional print media to online advertising and outreach. This experience has given him tremendous insight into how business cope or otherwise with change.
He holds a B.Sc. in Science from the National University of Ireland and a M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Trinity College in Dublin. John and his wife Kirsten have two adult children and enjoy living in the beautiful countryside of West Chester, Pennsylvania.

On this episode we discuss the future of accounting, why it is important to have a strong understanding of your numbers and one big mistake many business owners make when it comes to the finances of their business.
Terrell Turner, CPA is the host of a show called Business Talk Library. Business Talk Library is a series of shows and resources created for business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals that address important business topics and issues relevant to you and your business.
Terrell also is able to use his experience from Fortune 500 companies to consult with start ups and mid sized companies through his Fractional CFO company, TLTurner Group.