It’s very simple. Do as much yourself as you possibly can!

If you (or a member of your family) have some time every week, you can potentially keep your accountancy bills to the minimum. All you need is a good system, and the willpower to keep on top of it all. It’s easy if you have the right system in place.

There are many ways you can choose from. I will only mention a few I found the easiest.

1. Manual (“the red book method”):  very simple, and you can do where ever  and whenever you like. The concept is to have a notebook, which is split into columns and rows. The columns will represent the different expenses, and income. The rows will be the actual transactions in date order. Most sole traders like this method as they can take the book with them all the time, and make notes of all the transactions as they happen. However to really do it right, you would need to compare the transactions in the book to your bank statements, and match the two. This is what they call effectively a bank reconciliation.

2. Excel spreadsheet (“the spreadsheet method”): again very simple, easy to use. But you can only do it if you have your computer available. It works under the same principles as the “red book”, however Excel gives you more help with the calculations, like totalling up, adding, or even profit margins. Excel can also make the bank reconciliation a lot easier and quicker. This method is therefore a more time and cost effective method than the “red book”.

3. Bookkeeping software (“the software method”): not as simple as the first 2 options, can be quite difficult for someone who doesn’t know much about bookkeeping principles. However there are softwares especially designed for people who are not bookkeepers, like Quickbooks. The downside of this is the cost. Quickbooks products cost from £100 to £500 depending on the complicity of your needs. However you can shop around on eBay or Amazon, and there are usually good deals you could grab. The software is updated automatically and for free by the manufacturer online. There are of course other softwares like Sage, SAS, VT Accounts, however in my opinion Quickbooks is the easiest to use with no bookkeeping background. The extra that a software can give you is not only the packaging or the transactions, but the various reporting options they have. You can see how your business is doing with a press of a button, keep on top of your expenses, make budgets, keep records of your debtors and creditors, and much much more. I would definitely recommend using a software if your business is busy and you have many transactions every month.

There are of course other ways too. You could use a “cloud” application (which means your data is stored on a server outside of Guernsey, and you can access it all online), or variations of the 3 basic methods mentioned above. The key factor is not what you use, but how you use it. If your system is set up right, you will save masses of accounting costs, and also time.

If you are interested in setting up your own bookkeeping system, please call Viola on 07781 447693 now. She will be able to help you set up a system to suit your individual needs.

Or you need someone to keep on top of it all? A+ Accounting can take over all your bookkeeping on a monthly/quarterly basis, giving you freedom and time to grow your business. We use Quickbooks for our bookkeeping, and so we can easily let you have monthly/quarterly profit figures and other management information, which would give you a lot of information about how your business is doing.

Call 0771 447693 or email info@aplusguernsey.co.uk now!