{Business Advice} A simple guide to Small Business Accounts Part 2 - Making sense of your outgoings

Yay you came back, well done!
Accounts may be the most  boring part of running a business but its something we all need to do.  Together we'll get though it and make it a breeze to keep on top of...

Last week we  sorted out our receipts (if you missed out find it here) this week we'll be making sense of all those figures!


How you want to collect these figures is up to you. Some prefer to write their accounts in books and others on a spreadsheet.

Whichever method you chose you'll be filling out similar tables....

Key data you'll want to include will be:-

* Date of Receipt
* Supplier (The Shop you purchased it from)
* Item (What you bought)
* Price

photo credit: lisamurray via photopin cc 

I also  give each receipt a number within the month. This number should  also be written on the receipt too o you can cross reference.

How much detail you record now will  determine what you can do with the info later. I like to include a column for categories. e.g. Stationery, Materials, Advertising, Postage, Packaging etc. That way I can analyse what areas my money is being spent the most.

I've created a monthly expenses sheet here. You can download it and use it yourself on your computer or just print it out and fill it in by hand.

Great! Now you've done you're receipts! Next we need to look at other areas expenses might be hiding that you havent recorded! Check the following....

*Bank Accounts - some payments may come straight from your bank account (switch / visa). Regular expenses such as direct debits should be transferred too
*Paypal - Quite often our paypal  accounts are personal ones, linked to personal accounts, but if it is a business expense you can still record it in your Expenses sheet. Print copies of paypal email invoices and use these as  proof of purchase in your records.
*Cash - In the world of craft fairs many transactions such as stall fees are taken in cash. Make sure you keep a record of these so you can claim them as an expense in your accounts.

Now you've collated all these other expenses them over to your Expenses Sheet *Making sure you don't double up any previous entries*


At the end of each month total the amounts in each column and transfer the total across to your monthly summary sheet (expenses column) ~ yes I've done one of those for you too, find it here.


 Ok so now we've done all your outgoings, well done! I think it's time for another little treat for you and I'll see you here again next week for part 3!!

I hope you've enjoyed this series of Easy Guides, if you'd like to receive more guides for small businesses, sign up below...

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