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I feel a bit embarassed asking this question - since it sounds like a kind of "how do I draw a circle?" type of question - i.e. at first blush, almost asinine.

BUT, this is a real problem I have, in terms of getting organized, every year, come 'tax season', its a mad rush of running around like a headless chicken - interpersed with bouts of turning the air blue, as I get frustrated looking for my receipts, invoices etc. I am already storing these source documents in a folder, but I find it hard to know how to separate them 'logically'

These are the things that I am storing:

General Communication (email and 'dead tree' format)

  1. Communications to/from clients
  2. Communications to/from legal bodies (e.g. professional associations)
  3. Communications to/from professional advisors (e.g. lawyers)
  4. Communications to/from governmental agencies (Inland revenue, Companies House [UK] etc)

Source documents that feed into bookeeping and accountng system

  1. Credit card purchase
  2. Debit card purchase
  3. Drawings
  4. Sales
  5. General Expenses
  6. Petty Cash

I often end up where a letter that should have been sent or replied to by a certain date, was not replied or sent to, resulting at best, me having to explain and appear unprofessional, or at worst facing disciplinary action or a fine.

Also, I sometimes have bills that should be collected by a certain date or paid by a certain date, but go unnoticed, until the due date has passed.

I would like advice on a simple 'system' that will help me rectify these 'flaws' that are preventing me from reaching my full potential as a business person (currently one man band - but hoping to expand).

I would like advice on any of the following:

a). A simple file/folder system which you use which helps to logically store and sort the above documents in a way that they are stored chronologically and are easy to locate and retrieve

b). Maybe a daily/weekly/monthly routine that you use to ensure that no important dates are missed and that all communication, bills and invoices etc are dealt with BEFORE their due date

c). With regards to the source documents (i.e. documenst used for preparing accounts), i would like a simple system that will allow me to be able to keep abreast of 'the key numbers' in my business. So I can do periodic analysis (for example week by week or, month by month analysis) for these key numbers. I would also like to know what the 'key numbers' that I should be watching are.

I am computer literate (indeed one of my companies is an internet startup), so I will be able to create my own spreadsheet if necessary - (or simply use pre existing ones if a link is provided)

Hope someone out there has walked a similar path and can provide good advice on how to 'fix' this problem

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4 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

I would invest in Quickbooks or some other accounting software and enter your expenses/income every week. Once you do that, then create monthly folders that you but the receipts in. That way, you have an accurate accounting already in Quickbooks or whatever that you can give to your accountant.

You can either scan the source documents or have a physical folder. If you do that, then you can also run the reports you want to run.

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up vote 0 down vote

On a) and b)

a) Have you looked at Evernote as a way of capturing documents, emails. The IPhone app even lets you take a photo of a document or picture and is able to recognise text which is fully searchable.

b) I still find Microsoft outlook tasks the best way of highlighting dates i need to do things. You because you can set start and due dates, i dont miss things as they come up.

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up vote 0 down vote

QuickBooks is great for keeping track of finances, but entering the transactions can be a headache. indinero.com is a mint.com-like website, but for businesses, with a lot of potential. That would take care of your bank accounts and credit card statements (which automatically sync with indinero, and could sync with QBooks), and in effect, your income and expense related transactions. Both of these also provide income statements, P&L statements, and Cashflow statements. QuickBooks definitely has about every report needed by man.

I'm a huge fan of online business banking, which can be used for initiating and tracking owner draws, transfers and wires, payroll, scheduled bill pay, etc..

If you use MS Outlook for email, have a look at the tasks and reminders features. I've set up reminders to have certain bills paid, and have tasks tied to calendar events. Every morning when I open Outlook, I have a reminder window pop open with tasks and their due dates.

Keep all receipts in a box (or scan them and store on your computer), separated by year/month. Paid invoices can get their own box, filed alphabetically by company name or filed by year/month.

Hope that helps!

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up vote 0 down vote

please check this system: http://demo.organizeddocs.com

It is in beta and coming live in August this year.

This is demo account, but there are tons of options for thing you need. We solved our issues with this and we decided to sell this to the world. Even web site is not yet filled with the content you can register as well if you want at http://www.organizeddocs.com/pricing...

Which ever package you select, you will have VIP member status after we launch (BIG discount!).

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Erm, how do I login? (username, password) – morpheous Jul 20 '10 at 9:38
username: admin password: demo Let me know if you want a online demo to show you how you can solve your problems! – mojsilo Aug 4 '10 at 10:51

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