When you’re engaged in running your own business, the daily demands of your work can often consume the lion’s share of your attention. When you haven’t yet grown enough to employ more staff, you may still handle many of the most business-critical workflows yourself each day. Other challenges can take up your time, too. As you strive to set yourself up for success, though, you must take care not to let other essential tasks fall by the wayside, such as your accounting.

Which tasks must you remember to stay on top of, so that your business remains financially healthy and in compliance with the law? To give you an overview of the answer, we’ve created this quick look at the different things that you need to do to maintain a healthy financial position. Let’s break it down into different timescales to explore what you need to do.

Daily and Weekly Accounting Workflows

Some tasks are so important that they deserve your attention at least once a week, sometimes once or more per day. These are highly critical tasks that will directly impact the way your business functions day to day. Be sure to check these items off your list:

• Check for upcoming obligations, such as payment due dates, payroll requirements, and other spending requirements.
• Produce a cash position report to gauge your financial position, current liquidity, and cash intake at the start and end of the day.
• Review the status of outstanding invoices. Make payments as necessary, being aware of potential discounts.
• Keep a solid transaction ledger with all your debits and credits.

Your Monthly Accounting Checklist

While weekly accounting responsibilities are important, it’s just as crucial to avoid losing sight of some of the “bigger picture” items that only require your attention monthly. Your list will need to include steps such as:

• Balance ledgers and balance sheets.
• Review balance changes from month to month to analyze business health.
• Review outstanding receivables for action and check on the status of payables.

Quarterly Tasks You Shouldn’t Overlook

The fiscal year is a fundamental framework for the business world. The end of one quarter and the start of another is an excellent opportunity to evaluate some of the larger tasks in your accounting. Taking care of these tasks will make your life easier later:

• Remit quarterly sales tax payments to the appropriate authorities.
• Update your profit and loss estimates for the year and adjust your plans for the next quarter.
• Estimate taxes due and make payments where required.

Ticking the Boxes on Your Annual Responsibilities

Finally, we can’t forget about those annual obligations that, if missed, can land your business in hot water. Our list would include items such as:

• Prepare and file your annual taxes for the year.
• Forward past due bills to collections or decide to write them off your books as a loss.
• Create year-end financial reports that will help you determine next year’s estimates and business plan.

Feeling Overwhelmed? Find Professional Assistance Today

With so many different tasks to keep track of, even the savviest business owners can find themselves feeling swamped by all the accounting work they need to handle. At Reion Accounting, we’ve structured our service to scale effortlessly to provide the level of additional help you need. Keep your attention focused where it belongs while our team uses technology, experience, and top-shelf service to help you with accounting, bookkeeping, tax preparation, and more. Learn about how we can help you with our flexible engagement models when you contact us to chat about your business today.