How To Save Time When Managing Your Small Business Finances

Keeping an eye on your finances is key to a successful business, but it may not be your forte if you come from another background. There are some strategies that you can take to both have a strong handle on your finances and save most of your time for other tasks. 

Let a Specialist Do the Work

First of all, there are several reasons to have a finance person who is designated to do most of the legwork. It will cut down on the hours you spend doing finances yourself. It can also help to ensure that your finances are done carefully; it's your finance specialist's job to put time and effort into entering data correctly and catching mistakes before they cost your business time and money. 

As far as who to hire, there are a few options. The first would be an accountant. You might not need to have a full-time accountant if you are a small business, so consider hiring an accounting firm who you can give access to your financial data. A bookkeeper is another valuable asset for handling the administrative side of managing finances. 

Use Management Reporting

If you are having another person do a lot of the work on your finances, it's crucial to have strong management reports so that you are aware of the financial situation at all times. Good management reports will give you an idea of what your accounts look like today, and what they are projected to look like in the next week, month, or even year. 

You don't have to spend a lot of money on management reports, either. There are ways that an accountant can pull up simple reports using accounting software, without a lot of manual labor. But you could also set up more complicated management reports that measure some metrics that are standard in your industry. 

Work On Your Filing System

Finally, a lot of time and effort can be saved with a great bookkeeping system. If you haven't done so yet, get a bookkeeper to audit your current system to see if there's anything you could do better. They will start by looking at your past years' records to make sure that they are complete and easy to access. They may provide you with some better standards for organizing the information so that the numbers are easy to find and the receipts are in the correct spot.