The details that should be available to your bookkeeper are who provided payment and for what.  I have seen GST refund cheques deposited in with a mass deposit and been challenged to figure out where the cheque came from because it didn’t match with any of the invoice paperwork.

Most cheques received by a company will be directly related to revenue, but you might also received cheques for items that you sold, purchase returns or refunds, rebates and GST refunds.

We also recommend that if your customers pay you cheques that do not come attached to a stub, it is in your best interest to take a photocopy of these documents before you go to the bank.  If there is any discrepancy over which invoice it belonged to or the amount is was written for, you have maintained the information if any questions come up after the deposit is made.

If you accept cash payment, you should have some documentation that supports how a random number like$2,387.65 that wasdeposited on November 6 was acquired.  It could belong to several customer payments, so please keep track of the amounts and the invoices they apply to.

The accounting process becomes difficult when owners and directors treat the company finances as their own.  If you need money to make a personal purchase or to pay personal bills, make sure you write yourself a cheque for the amount you need and deposit that money into your personal account before spending it.  The cheques will be coded back to the shareholder loan showing that you borrowed money from the company.  At the end of your fiscal year, the shareholder loan account will contain all of the transaction showing where you paid for things for the company as well as the transaction where the company paid you.

Keeping your personal affairs out of the company finances will save your accounting support staff the time and trouble of trying to determine what is personal and what is business related.

Figuring out what is a good deal?  It’s cheaper to do your own data entry, after all, you know where and how you spent your money.

Having good quality, accurate data entry will save you a lot of money when your books are submitted to your Accountant after your year end.  Sometimes, you save money in the short term, but it costs you a lot more to correct the data after the fact.

Ofter, the first job your Accountant will perform is to assess whether your books are accurate and whether they can count on the information that is presented to them so that they can complete your Financial Statements and the appropriate Tax Returns. If they find errors in the coding process, your Accountant will spend a fair bit of time correcting, and checking for other problems.

Most Accountants bill out in excess of $125 per hour. Do you really want your accountant doing your bookkeeping?

Ideally when you hire a bookkeeper, involve your Accountant. You will find people willing to work for $9 per hour, but what is the quality level of their work? Do they know what they are doing? Do YOU know what they are doing? I suggest you submit a months worth of documents to your Accountant after your bookkeeper is done and have them perform a quick check. This will cost you an hour or two of your Accountants time, but could save you thousands in the long run. Having the right people doing the right jobs will get you the accurate information that you and your Accountant needs.

You are the most qualified person to do your job, consider hiring a qualified bookkeeper to look after your books.

Have you ever wonder what the best way to sort your receipts and other paperwork is?
I prefer to see transactions sorted by the month they pertain to. IF you need to find a specific receipt for a purchase return or to find particular information, you can check your software to see when the purchase was made. Now it’s a quick job to locate that invoice.

There are also advantages to sorting receipts that belong to specific bank statements or credit card statements.  This especially helps if you need to return a product or exchange it at a later date.

Some people prefer to sort their documents by the account they belong to. If you have 320 receipts from Canadian Tire and you are looking for a compressor that you purchased, it may take some time to sort through and find that one receipt you are looking for.

At the end of the day there is no right or wrong, it’s all about what works for you!