Hello Reader!

Welcome to August 14th 2024! If you have employees, let this be your reminder! Thursday August 15th payroll taxes are due! Save Time! Pay Online! Save Money! Pay On Time!

Wanna Watch today's Newsletter instead of reading it? It's also a VIDEO NEWSLETTER! Watch it instead of reading it here!

This week I'll be highlighting three simple timesaving hacks that can pay off exponentially! (The most important rule of all is to have a dedicated business bank and dedicated business credit card. If you do not have these, then you are not running your business efficiently. It's not a hack, it's a requirement for an efficient business.)

3 Business Hacks for August:

1. E-Transfer Messages and Automation - E-Transfers can make life easier, but they can also life harder! Some banks show on the monthly bank statements the recipient’s name, but many do not. When it comes time to reconcile your bank, e-transfers can be a black hole of unknown details. (Even when there is a recipient’s name on the statement, does your bookkeeper know the first names of the owners of your vendors? And what was it for?). To avoid wasting time trying to remember what the heck that e-transfer was for, use that message box when you send it! When you create an e-transfer to send from your online banking, put all the details of what the e-transfer is for into the message of the e-transfer! Put the vendor name if it is not the same name of the recipient, and the bill number(s) being paid. For most banks, they send an “e-transfer deposited” confirmation to your email, and your message is in the body of that email! For example, “Hi John, here’s payment for your Johnny Woodworks Inc. Invoice #135 dated July 5th 2024”. Once the deposited confirmation email comes into your email inbox, now you have two great options: You can print this e-transfer confirmation for your files (for you, or to give to your bookkeeper), OR you can use automation to save even more time! If you have signed up for a Paperwork Management App such as Dext, you can set those e-transfer confirmations (message and all!) to auto forward directly to your online paperwork management app! Work Smarter! Not Harder!
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2. File Paperwork by Month Immediately: Have a file folder ready for the year for each and every month and file by month as the paperwork comes in. There is no standard date order that we use in Canada. 7/8/24 could be July 8th or the 7th of August. This is especially important if you are a business that does not do their bookkeeping 'live'. This way, if you are going to the paperwork for yourself or sharing your paperwork for processing, if you have filed by month as you go, IT IS ALREADY SORTED! I cannot stress enough how important this is. It is such a waste of time to sort paperwork. Don't make double work! Don't pay someone else to do something that could have been done magically without any actual work simply by filing your paperwork by month, as it comes in. This works for both physical and digital documents. (Added hack, I name my digital file folders yyyy.mm, such as 2024.08 for August 2024. This way, they are always in chronological order, as the months of the year are not alphabetical!).
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3. Have your Sales Register connect directly to your payment processor - This is huge. The amount of time it takes to reconcile the payment processing accounts to the sales register can be ridiculous. Depending on the situation, it could take hours each month. You and your staff will make typos when recording how a sale was paid. Figuring out what it takes to have whatever method you sell to clients, directly connect to the software that charges the debit or credit card, will pay off in spades. Do I suggest QBO payments if you send out invoices with QBO? Yes, absolutely. This automates the payment entries and bank deposits right into the bookkeeping, zero effort required! Whether you are a retail outlet, a restaurant, a landscaper, or a physiotherapist, having your sales interface either connect to or be the same as your payment processor will reduce the headache of trying to figure out why your sales register says you were paid $34,504.12 by credit & debit card that month, but only $27,793.12 went into the bank that month...

​What are your personal tips and tricks for creating efficient processes? I'd love to share them in an upcoming newsletter, and give a shout out to your business!

Updates:

New Course Announcement! Do you want a deep dive into how to understand what your QBO file is doing behind the scenes? The first half is now out on my new course "QBO for Tax Preparers" and it is all about understanding how QBO actually works, and finding and fixing all the errors that New QBO users are inadvertently guided to add because of the design of QBO. This course is not just for tax preparers though! Anyone who's interested in understanding QBO and finding and fixing those bookkeeping errors will also find this course incredibly useful! Check out the Lessons and Descriptions here!

Be Intentional Today! Get out there, and Be That Business That Thrives! ​ Naomi Wilkins ​I Love Making Bookkeeping Make Sense ​www.naomiwilkins.ca​ ​ Let's Get Social! ​ ​ ​ ​ Disclaimer: This Newsletter is intended to inform readers in general terms. It is not intended to provide any tax or business advice. Please consult your accountant if you have any questions about your unique situation. While I have tried to ensure the accuracy of the information in this newsletter, I accept no liability for errors or omissions.

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