Bookkeeping has always been my biggest downfall as a small business owner.

Sure, I’d keep all of my receipts … but I’d literally throw ’em in a shoebox only to never go through and sort them.

Prepping for taxes looked something like printing an entire year’s worth of bank + paypal statements and sorting through my finances in March (okay, April).

I’m not proud of my bookkeeping skills… I write this to hopefully resonate with some other poor biz soul doing the exact same thing I was doing & hoping it gets you by.

Last year I decided I had had enough. It was the end of the year and I was more stressed about the numbers of my business then ever before.

Here’s the thing: I find that in business, when we stress about something it’s not always because it’s hard … it’s because we don’t UNDERSTAND it.

• We don’t understand how to beat the instagram algorithm so we stop interacting on our fav squares.
• We don’t understand how to get people on our email list so we just don’t do it.
• We don’t understand Facebook Ads or Funnels or how to create an online shop … so we back away & don’t do it.

Bookkeeping was the exact same way for me. I didn’t understand HOW – and frankly worried about when I had time to learn it – so I choked. I allowed it to become the biggest stressor of my business… until I said “no more“!

In January of this year, I decided to hire a professional. I was too deep in my own mess, wondering how I would ever get out + overwhelmed at the thought of figuring it out on my own.

Steadfast Bookkeeping using Quickbooks Online to keep track of my accounts. They handle bookkeeping for Dear Sweetheart Events and bookkeeping + payroll for Creative at Heart. Stephanie’s team has been amazing & I have been so impressed with the level of service they have given me!!

Here are a few reasons why I love Quickbooks Online (and I’m not a numbers girl!) –

The interface is user-friendly & easy to navigate.

I can quickly & easily find what I am looking for, see screenshots of pasts months & see what is outstanding. (See below for a screenshot I found on Google Images of the interface!)

Because it’s online, I can log-in on my laptop, Matt can log-in on his & our remote bookkeeper can log-in and we’re all seeing the same numbers.

There’s no delay and I appreciate that when we’re making financial business decisions.

It links to all of my business accounts to make things easier to keep track of! 

It keeps track of my expenses (AKA my spending!).

It’s been much easier for me to see WHERE my money is going and how I can eliminate unnecessary expenses.

While I do have a professional bookkeeper (and love her!) …

Quickbooks online allows for me – with 0 accounting knowledge – the ability to do accounting tasks.

I can run reports such as profit/loss, look at my payroll and access my net income. And I can do it all with ONE software!!

 

 

What are you doing for your bookkeeping? Are you using Quickbooks Online? It might seem silly to jump in with just 2 months left in the year, but y’all … take it from me – it’s NEVER to late to jump into getting a handle on your biz numbers!!!

 

Want to see more tools I use to run my business?? Grab my Tool-Kit below!!

 

 

xo! kat