Many freelancers and small business owners often feel lost when it comes to understanding their finances—the “but I hate accounting” syndrome. But it is possible to move from hate to love, especially when you realize the benefits and opportunities possible when you:

1. know how to track of your income and expenses, and
2. use your business data to help you plan strategically

Learn To Love Your Numbers

The first step in learning to love your business finances is to take control of your income and expense tracking. With online small business accounting applications like Kashoo, you or your bookkeeper can easily and regularly enter and keep track of all of your income—paid invoices, cash register receipts, etc., and all of your expenses—receipts for purchases and periodic payments for vendors, employees, and contractors, etc. As a solo practitioner, freelancer, or small business owner, you wear many hats and have to balance many activities to keep your business going. By utilizing a real double entry accounting system that is both full-featured and easy-to-use, you will actually save many hours every month as you create and track your invoices and enter your expenses. You will save even more time and reduce entry errors when you can automatically upload your bank statements into your small business accounting application. Depending on your business, you can keep your incomes and expense records up-to-date daily, weekly, or monthly.

The second step in learning to love your business finances is to generate reports from your online accounting system that will quickly and easily tell you where your business stands relative to your business goals. Any time you or your accountants need to know your profit/loss status or your cash flow situation, you can access real-time information from your Kashoo Business Dashboard. You will feel much more confident making necessary business decisions when you have up-to-date financial information at your fingertips. You can generate reports such as accounts payable and accounts receivable, lists of all financial transactions, and a balance sheet right from the same application.

Even if you feel that you don’t know enough about accounting to feel comfortable with your numbers, you can feel confident that your numbers are accurate and up-to-date when you use an online small business accounting software application especially designed for freelancers and small businesses. When you realize that you are in control of your business finances, you will see that you can make better business decisions and better manage your company’s cash flow and tax obligations. More control leads to less anxiety about your business finances because you know that you are prepared for any financial situation that may come up. Soon you will look forward to your business accounting tasks and before you know it, you will fall in love with your numbers!