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Bah Humbug: How To Avoid Festive Paperwork Woes
Now is the time to reflect on the year gone by and take stock of our finances. Sitting at your desk, you might find there’s an awful lot of paperwork to sift through, suffocating your organisational skills in a deluge of receipts and bank statements. As much as we look forward to Christmas, this is certainly a task that can bring the Scrooge out in anyone…
Bright Ideas Accountancy thought it would be a sound idea to give you a plan for the weeks ahead, getting rid of paperwork headaches once and for all:
Step 1 – Write a to-do list
In most cases, putting pen to paper can soothe a chaotic stream of thoughts as you clarify, for yourself, what has to be addressed before the year is out. Unpaid invoices, jumbled receipts and expense reviews should all be dealt with between now and January when tax deadlines will tighten around your work schedule.
Going after those overdue payments, especially, is crucial, since the festive period tends to put swift action on the backburner. Don’t begrudge some of your clients from slipping up here and there on their payment deadlines, but do make sure to target the oldest invoices first, moving down on a scale of their lateness.
Step 2 – Switch to a digital finance system
We firmly believe that the only paper you should have to put up with at Christmas is the decorative sort. A bookkeeping platform like FreeAgent stores every piece of evidence digitally, meaning key data is never at risk of being lost in a maelstrom of files and plastic wallets.
The advantages are manifold: some of them include a simple, immediate view of your cashflow, and the ability to snap and store vital documentation. It also means you can check the real-time state of your accounts whenever and wherever you are.
Step 3 – Consider enlisting support
It may have been a brilliant year, but we’re betting that there are a few holes in your finance model, draining pennies out of your take-home pay. Freelancers and contractors are, by and large, skilled people, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to have a sustainable income. Not everyone is a financial genius, though, and this is where a service like Bright Ideas can do wonders for your money management.
By hiring a team of specialist accountants, you can rest easy over the festive period knowing that your finances are being taken care of. That’ll make an excellent gift to yourself in 2017, allowing you to concentrate on your passion instead of your books and tax liabilities.
Snow may be falling outside, but you don’t want to recreate it indoors, buried under an avalanche of papers you’d rather do without. We’d prefer it if you were curled up by the fire instead of diving through cluttered documents, which is why we’d love to tell you more about what we do, and how your business accounts will be better with us at your side. Email Info@biaccountancy.com or call 0161 669 4221 to confine paperwork to the Ghost Of Christmas Past…