Basic Bookkeeping made Simple
"Save on Accounting Fees"
Lesson 1 - Record your Bank Statement transactions using a Spreadsheet (bottom of page)
Bookkeeping Function in Detail
Monitoring the success or failure of your business.
No matter how skilled you are at creating a product, providing a service, or marketing your products, you need to maintain a good set of books to timely and accurately tabulate your revenues and expenses to determine your bottom line.
- Profitable or not? How much?
- Is your business on the right path for success?
- Is your business on sound financial ground?
- Is financial trouble lurking ahead?
- Are you accumulating supporting documents for your tax return?
How to Calculate
Employee
Payroll Checks »
Instructions and
a list of things you'll need.
As a small business owner, you probably rely on an outside accountant to do your taxes and prepare financial statements. However, like many small business owners, you may find that it's too expensive to pay an accountant to do routine bookkeeping chores. At the beginning you may start using a traditional spreadsheet or an online accounting program such as QuickBooks, Simply Accounting, you’ll need to start accumulate all your receipts, credit card expenses, and incoming bills from suppliers and enter them into your system.
Nevertheless, finding the right accountant is an essential element of monitoring and managing the financial well-being of your business. Having an expert third-party review your records means you'll be alerted to problems with your recordkeeping methodology or just plain computational errors. Better to have your accountant tell you this, rather than the IRS.
In Lesson 1, offers an example on how to record your bank account transactions using a spreadsheet.
From the Bank Statement (Sample above) - Activity for the Month of August 2014 Save on Accounting Fees You can save on accounting fees by journalizing your bank statement activity on a spreadsheet. You duplicate your bank statement by categorizing every transactions. You need to repeat the process for each month and subtotal each month's totals to obtain yearly totals. At minimum on the last month of the year you should do a bank reconciliation - see Lesson 2. The bank reconciliation process is to list the items that will adjust the bank statement balance to become the true cash balance. You redo the entire process for each bank accounts you use for your operation. At the end of the year the accountant can easily do the adjusting entries needed to finalize your statements - which is a whole less expensive than paying your accountant for monthly accounting and with the spreadsheets saved you retain a good audit trail to substantiate your figures on your tax return. Notes: On the sample bank statement above shows a previous bank balance (7/31/2014) of $17,210.55 and a balance of $16,464.14 which is the result of transactions for August's activity. The next result for August $17,201.55 - $16,464.14 = $-746.41 as shown on the Totals result on the spreadsheet above. Please note: Our explanation that are provided on our web site for "How to Calculate Futa and Suta taxes" are only meant to provide general guidance and estimates about the payroll process. They should not be relied upon to calculate exact taxes, payroll or other financial data. You should consult with a professional advisor or accountant regarding your specific payroll concerns. Bank Statement Sample
Checking Account Statement - Date 8/01/2014 - 8/31/2014
Description
Amount
Item #
Adjustment to Books
Bank balance - Prev's Month Bal.
17,210.55
1
None
7 Debits
-2,441.67
2
Debit expense, credit cash
Service charge
-19.99
3
Debit expense, credit cash
2 Credits
2,210.00
4
Credit Sales, debit cash
1 Counter Check
- 500.00
5
Debit Draw or, Advance, Loan, credit cash
Interest income
5.25
6
Debit cash, credit interest income
Ending Bank Balance - August 31, 2014
16,464.14
7
None
Deposit and Other Credits
8/04 $1,210.00
8/22 $1,000.00
Other Debits
8/25 Aetna Health Ins. Electronic Debit
$227.60
Checks
Ck 997 $87.32
Ck 1001 $57.32
Ck 1002 $600.00
Ck 1003 $145.24
Ck 1004 $995.60
Ck 1005 $250.00
Ck 1006 $78.59
Date
Ck #
Description
Amount
Sales
Office Supplies
Rent
Auto Expense
Bank Charges.
Advert.
Repairs
Utilities
Misc.
Equip.
Transaction Details
7/30/2014
997
Ace Hardware
-87.32
87.32
8/01/2014
1001
Office Max
-57.32
57.32
8/01/2014
1002
MG Properties
-600.00
600.00
8/04/2014
Deposits
1210.00
-1210.00
8/08/2014
1003
Bell Telephones
-145.24
145.24
8/14/2014
1004
Office Depot
-995.60
995.60
HP Computer
8/18/2014
Draw
-500.00
500.00
Draw/Advance
8/22/2014
1005
Bank of America
-250.00
250.00
Credit Card Pymt
8/22/2014
Bank of America
5.25
-5.25
Interest Earned
8/22/2014
Deposit
1000.00
-1000.00
Investment//Loan by Owner
8/22/2014
1006
BillBoard Inc
-78.59
78.59
8/22/2014
Bank Charge
-19.99
19.99
Bank Charge
8/245/2014
1007
Void
Voided Check
8/25/2014
Aetna Health Ins.
-227.60
227.60
ElectronicWithdrawal
Totals
-746.41
-1210.00
57.32
600.00
19.99
78.59
87.32
117.59
995.60
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