The coronavirus outbreak has hit your business with a new challenge – one that it’s probably never faced before. You find yourself in a strange situation where you’re either not working at all, or you’re operating at a limited capacity. This throws up plenty of different concerns as you look to keep your business afloat. One of the leading concerns will obviously be bookkeeping. You have to stay on top of the numbers if you want to get through this pandemic in one piece. If you’re a business owner that’s looking for advice on this subject, then you’re in the right place.
Here are five top tips to get on top of your bookkeeping amidst the coronavirus crisis:
Keep track of all your expenses
Generally, tracking expenses is essential to see where your money is going. However, thanks to your limited operations, this becomes all the more critical. Keep track of every business expense, and see if you can save money wherever possible. It seems pointless to keep up with all your expenses if you’re unable to work at your full capacity. You may see instances where an expense can be temporarily cut out completely – or at least reduced in price if you negotiate. Many businesses are struggling to make money right now, so the focus should shift to saving it.
Log all of your payments
Similarly, if you are able to make sales, then be sure to log all of the payments as soon as they happen. Send out invoices right away, track your payments, and so on. When your company is operating normally, you can sometimes get away with logging payments later than usual or sending invoices behind schedule. In this situation, every penny matters! You can’t afford to wait around for payments or to forget to track them. Take action right away to ensure you get your money.
Sort out accounts receivable
On the topic of getting money, now is the perfect time to sort out all your accounts receivable. This is money that your business is owed by customers and other debtors. A lot of customers and clients might not pay you on time for your services. Again, when business is booming and you’ve got lots of money coming in from all angles, then it’s not a priority to chase them up. In this environment, your cash flow has already dried up significantly. So, you can’t really afford to have lots of people owing you money and not paying it back. Granted, some of the customers may struggle financially during this period as well. If that’s the case, then you have to empathise with them. But, in many instances, you can press customers to make these late payments right now. It gives you an influx of cash to help manage your business amidst this crisis.
Stay updated with any changes
Ensuring you pay your taxes on time and in full is a crucial aspect of bookkeeping. As such, make sure that you have all of your earnings and expenses totted up to figure out how much tax you’ll need to pay. But, also be aware of any tax changes that have come around because of the coronavirus outbreak. We’re living in unprecedented times, and the governments of the world realise this. So, there could be changes to tax dates, there might be additional tax relief for businesses, and so on. It’s important to stay on top of all of these updates as you can use them to your advantage to keep your company financially afloat during this difficult time.
Likewise, look for any changes that relate to business funding. Will there be funding options in place for small businesses that are suffering in this pandemic? Having access to extra money is wildly beneficial, so be sure you look out for it.
Plan ahead
Lastly, you need to try and plan for the future. Remember that this outbreak isn’t going to last forever, and you will return to normality at some point. From a business standpoint, you want to ensure that you can hit the ground running when things get back to normal. At the very least, you want to be in a position where you can get back into action with limited roadblocks. To do this, you have to try and plan your finances for the future. Be careful with any money you receive during your slow period and create a plan of action to follow when normality resumes.
Running a business is always a challenge, but coronavirus has made it even harder. Hopefully, these tips will give you some assistance in managing your books during this global pandemic.
