6 Ways an AAT Bookkeeper can help you.
• Save you time
• Save you money
• Help you with cashflow, VAT returns and tax bills
• Bring order to your receipts, invoices & bills
• Sort out your expenses
• Allow you to make informed decisions
Bookkeeping is a legal requirement.
If we put this to one side for the moment bookkeeping is also a very useful tool for looking into your business. It can be very informative idetifying trends and forecasting needed change. It seems that many business owners see bookkeeping as the above, 'legal requirement' and ignore its business potential. A colleague of mine has also identified this and has set up a training course for business owners. To help them use the accounts they spend good money preparing only to give them to the 'Tax Man' and hide them in the filing cabinet. Business owners too are realising that they should understand what the accounting industry produce on their behalf. Whilst good bookkeeping is about keeping good accurate records it is also about arranging these for the business owner to be able to interpret, the information they provide.
Below is an example of a typical space plan for a serviced office. How is this relevant? It is an example of a well illustrated office scheme. All to often stored in the filing cabinet with accounts and not used in any further meaningful way. You may have noticed that this space plan has charges assigned to various offices and was used as a tool for promoting office space sales. It could also show welfare facilities, fire escapes and shared work spaces such as photocopying. You may have already thought of other uses and realise why the presentation of your bookkeeping is equally important. Seeing the issues in reality is far easier to manage than guessing what they actually are.
Bookkeeping Space Plan
It is not, a way for you to find your archived files, although this too could be useful. It is a plan identifying, to you, the owner of the business where the important items should or could be. The reason you are in business how this information can help you achieve it. Information is valuable as recent media events, Facebook and the likes have revealed. It should be obvious that you are also collecting information that you are legally obliged to do. Why not put it to good legal use? You have the information legally, present it in a meaningful way and improve your business.
Bank Accounts
These are essential to most businesses but do not tell you how the business is actually doing. What they tell you is do you have money or not. Your bookkeeping can tell you how much cash you will need, how much cash you have got and where it is currently committed.