Accounting & Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping is the process of recording, organizing, and maintaining financial transactions for a business or individual. It involves systematically documenting all income, expenses, assets, and liabilities to provide an accurate picture of financial health.

Bookkeeping is essential for tracking financial transactions, monitoring cash flow, preparing accurate financial statements, complying with tax obligations, making informed business decisions, and demonstrating financial transparency to stakeholders such as investors, lenders, and regulators. It is very difficult to make sound decisions if you do not know where your money is coming from or where it is going. 

The basic principles of bookkeeping include the double-entry system, which ensures that every financial transaction has equal and opposite effects on at least two accounts, the principle of consistency, which requires maintaining uniformity in accounting methods over time, and the principle of accuracy, which emphasizes the importance of recording transactions correctly and completely.

Common methods of bookkeeping include single-entry bookkeeping, where transactions are recorded once as either income or expense, and double-entry bookkeeping, where transactions are recorded twice to maintain the balance of accounting equations. Double-entry bookkeeping is widely used in businesses for its accuracy and reliability.

Essential documents for bookkeeping include sales invoices, purchase invoices, receipts, bank statements, credit card statements, payroll records, and financial statements such as the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement. These documents provide evidence of financial transactions and support the accuracy of bookkeeping records.

While accounting software can streamline bookkeeping processes and improve efficiency, it's not absolutely necessary, especially for small businesses or individuals with few financial transactions. Manual bookkeeping systems, such as spreadsheets or ledger books, can also be effective if maintained properly.

Bookkeeping primarily involves recording financial transactions and organizing financial data, while accounting involves interpreting, analyzing, and reporting on that financial information to provide insights into business performance, financial health, and decision-making. Bookkeeping is a subset of accounting. Most small businesses assume they need an accountant, but not all accountants perform bookkeeping. However, with consistent and proper bookkeeping the prepared business owner can do their own interpreting, analyzing and decision making.

It's recommended to reconcile bank accounts, credit card accounts, and other financial accounts on a monthly basis to ensure accuracy and detect any discrepancies or errors promptly. Reconciliation involves comparing account balances from the financial records with the corresponding statements from financial institutions.

Common mistakes in bookkeeping include failing to record transactions promptly, misclassifying transactions, omitting transactions, mixing personal and business expenses, neglecting to reconcile accounts regularly, and relying solely on estimates rather than accurate financial data.

We are professional and certified bookkeepers. Our services save you time, ensure compliance with accounting standards and tax regulations, and provide expertise in financial management. Further, we offer payroll services at no extra cost. Many bookkeeping services start with a low price point then add other services that work hand in hand with bookkeeping and your cost increases significantly because the add-ons were not originally included. We only up charge when there are more than the standard number of statements associated with a business. This is not done to increase profits, rather to direct the business owner toward a better financial management system. Our goal is always to steer the business owner away from complex and unnecessary financial records so that they will have the confidence to manage their own books should they choose to at some point. Lastly, we teach our clients the “why” behind the “what” of proper bookkeeping. We believe that the educated business owner…is an empowered business owner.