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Banking & Book Keeping Help

by neotecc
3 replies
I am an absolute newbie at this so I need some seasoned advise from those who have been there. I am a one man SOHO starting an on-line business. I have a shoe string budget so I'm looking for all the no cost or low cost options. I do understand it takes money to make money but I'm just out of the gate. I sure I will spend when it's warranted.
Which banks are you guys using? On-line is fine but I need no fees lots of on-line services, the ability to scan checks for deposit and an ATM / charge card. I don't have a smart phone but will at some point.
I need a simple book & record keeping system that I don't have to spend tons of time with. I will take it to my tax preparer so I just need to get organized. My goal is to be able to teach anyone else the business set-up this also to help them succeed so K.I.S.S. is the word of the day. I think many people want to do something on their own but have no clue about the logistics of a small business. You all know that lack of attention to detail can kill any business if they don't have their act to together. An on-line tool would be good but a paper version (Dome's products) would suffice.
Thanks for any input or links!
James
#banking #book #bookkeeping #keeping
  • Profile picture of the author TheArticlePros
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    • Profile picture of the author adrianyates
      Hi NeoTecc,

      You are certainly thinking the right way when you want to undertsnd how to set up the business from day 1 as our experience working with may start-up's is that they arrive on our doorstep weeks away from tax time with boxes of receipts and a paniced look on their face. Of course we are able to step in and work to get things to audit ready standards.

      My advice would be as JaRyCu set up an excel sheet to record expenses and income, making sure it matches the banking records.... this will at least get you off the mark. However some alternatives would be to purchase a software like QuickBooks or access to QuickBooks online... or look at Xero (Xero.com). These softwares will certainly provide the best start to managing the company finances, whilst providing you with a transparent view of the numbers and ability to plan against them, plus they are accountant friendly.

      A third alternative is to secure the talents of a bookkeeper. Caveat, not all bookkeepers are the same. If you do this check them out, as references !!! and remember you pay for what you get $12/hr will get you errors in your books, not a good thing and will lead to $$$$ cost later.

      Also the comment about entity formation is something to consider as S-corp, LLc etc all have tax advantages and if you are serious then look into this. Its straightforward to get done but go ahead and get a professional to help set up. We typically expect to see a S-Corp we form for clients and ready to go in a couple of weeks at the most.

      Now for our plug :-) As a business owner and partner at a bookkeeping and tax firm have started to offer a hybrid service bringing together clients and our bookkeeping team using a private cloud and remote desktop technology. This way we work with clients all over the country as is we were in the same office.

      Well good luck and remember keep all your receipts religiously (but please at least file them in date order.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nics
    I'm a big fan of expensify.com for receipt tracking. Check it out! It will store all of your receipts electronically and it's FREE! You can get your receipts in there a bunch of different ways. Snap a pic using the App (iphone or android). Save a file to your computer and drag and drop it in or import or email it.

    You can also hook up your bank to expensify and then the magic really starts to happen. You get 10 free autoscans of you receipts per month. Meaning for 10 receipts you put into the program it will read them for free (works a lot of the time, sometimes it's illegible). $0.20 after that. It will link your receipt to the line item that comes in from your online banking...brilliant. I don't use the $0.20 option by the way. If I have more than 10, I just link it manually...easy

    Bit more Advanced Awesomeness (not FREE because Quickbooks cost a bit but sure is worth it) :
    You can connect Quickbooks (PC Desktop or Online, NOT Mac) to your expensify account. You can have expensify pull in your chart of accounts from quickbooks and tags if you use those. You can categorize and comment on all your expenses in Expensify and then upload to Quickbooks. Fantastic! Requires a little cleanup on Quickbooks side (minimal) but sure as heck beats entering everything again manually.

    I'm not an affiliate, just a VERY happy user. I don't even think they have an affiliate program. This is my system and I don't know how it can get much cleaner than this.

    You should definitely use Expensify in my opinion because it does all that I mentioned above...for FREE. If you don't want to drop the cash on Quickbooks then you can use JaRyCu's spreadsheet method above and you'd be fine and still very clean record wise.

    Oh yeah... I would setup an LLC as well if I were you.

    Disclaimer: Not legal or accounting advice...just what I do.
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  • Profile picture of the author neotecc
    Thanks for the info but which banks do you guys find have the most benefits to a small on-line business person.
    If you must maintain a membership fee or buy products as part of your business are those costs tax deductible?
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