Today we’re going to talk about tips for bookkeeping with Profit First. Using Profit First to streamline your bookkeeping will help make your life easier, less frustrating, and so much more.
Use these three tips to get the most out of Profit First and improve your bookkeeping habits.
Get Into a Rhythm
Make a habit out of doing your bookkeeping and your transfers at the same time. That way, you’ll know exactly what amounts come from where, what numbers match, and so on.
If you have trouble sticking with new habits, I recommend James Clear’s book Atomic Habits. It’s a very good read, and it really works for starting better habits in your business and your personal life.
This is a really important habit even if you have someone else doing your bookkeeping for you. If you can get in the habit of doing your bookkeeping and your transfers at the same time, you’ll make that person’s job easier, because they’ll know what each monetary amount is for. They’ll be able to see those transfers from one account to another, and be able to recognize those very, very easily.
This system makes bookkeeping way less frustrating and super helpful whether you’re doing your bookkeeping or you have someone else do it for you. So it’s really worth it to get into the rhythm of doing your transfers and your bookkeeping at the same time.
Start Small
Tip number two is to start with only a small number of accounts.
Just start out with the foundational accounts for your business. Any more than that, and you’ll start getting them mixed up and you won’t be sure of where things are or what to do with all those accounts.
That’s why I always recommend starting off with the fewest number of accounts you can get away with. If that means you only have one account, just your profit account, then that’s fine. Start there and slowly add more accounts as you need them in order to clarify your budget.
Never Use Credit Cards
The third and final tip is, don’t use credit cards.
Make things as simple as possible. Credit cards always seem to complicate things. Now, I understand that you may have to use credit cards or debt at some point, and that’s fine. But you're able to avoid credit cards, that’s going to make things easier for you. The reason credit cards make things more complicated is that they go against tip two, keeping it simple. Credit cards make it trickier to keep to that schedule and to understand where your money is going and why.
I don’t recommend doing daily transfers, either. It’s too much of a burden and it gets to be a little bit of a headache. On the bookkeeping and administrative side, using credit cards and daily transfers will make you or your bookkeeper confused.
I highly recommend that you don’t use credit cards if you can get away with avoiding them. Keep things as simple as you possibly can.
Keep It Simple
As a final bonus tip, make sure you ask for help if you need it. If you’re getting confused on the bookkeeping and administrative side, hire somebody who actually knows Profit First. Work with a certified Profit First professional like myself or somebody else,
If you need help getting Profit First set up and understanding how to use it, you can download my free guide on my website. If you go to curtisaccountingsolutions.com, there will be a popup that says “Three Steps to a Financially Healthy Quilt Shop.” If you click on that to download the guide, you can read through to the very last pages where I really get into the nuts and bolts of Profit First and what it can do.
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