Creating the most beneficial procedures in your bookkeeping function takes time and trial and error. The procedures that work for one company might not be what works best for your business. As a result, understanding common bookkeeping procedures that should be completed on a monthly basis provides you with a great starting point to add to or adjust your current policies.
Reconcile Bank and Credit Card Accounts
The first bookkeeping procedure that all businesses should complete on a monthly basis is the reconciliation of all bank and credit card accounts. This may include business checking accounts, savings accounts, and active credit card accounts. Every account that you receive a monthly statement for should be reconciled.
Reconciling these accounts helps control the cash flowing in and out of your company by providing you with valuable insight into past transactions to make changes going forward. In addition, monthly reconciliations help ensure accuracy in your accounting function by comparing preliminary transaction entries to what actually cleared the bank. Not to mention that a reduced risk of fraud appears when you frequently review your accounts.
Review Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable Schedules
After reconciliations are completed, you should go through your accounts payable and accounts receivable aging schedules. Reviewing the accounts payable aging schedule allows you to understand what upcoming obligations your business has to remit timely payments. Maybe there’s a large bill that you forgot about or you realize that you never remitted a payment to a vendor. The more insight you have into operations, the better.
Equally as important is the accounts receivable aging schedule. This statement details who still owes you money. Part of effective cash flow management is collecting customer payments as soon as possible. You don’t want to be left struggling to pay your obligations because customers aren’t paying on time. Seeing who still owes you money gives you the opportunity to implement follow-up procedures or factor your receivables.
Prepare Financial Reports
Next, you want to be preparing financial reports on a monthly basis. The two primary reports you want to create are the income statement and balance sheet. The income statement goes through how profitable your business was during a specified time period. This gives you the ability to compare data to prior periods to track growth and progress towards goals.
The balance sheet is also vital to tracking your business’s financial health. Investors and lenders want to see a strong dollar amount in assets compared to your liabilities. If your current breakdown is unfavorable, you can implement strategies to purchase more assets or pay down liabilities.
Summary
These three monthly procedures are only the start of the value that regular bookkeeping can provide to your business. Having transparent insight into operations allows you to implement effective change, such as through a budget or new operating strategy.
Many business owners struggle to find the time to go through the list of monthly procedures necessary to derive valuable insight, which is why they choose to work with Gordian Financial. The team of bookkeepers at Gordian Financial can take the bookkeeping burden off your plate while still giving you access to valuable information. Reach out today to learn more.
