What I’d Tell My Past Freelancer Self About DIY Bookkeeping

What I’d Tell My Past Freelancer Self About Bookkeeping

First, figure out what you need and out of your bookkeeping and what you don’t want to do.

My Requirements:

• As a neurodivergent person, I need it to be VERY simple, not too many disconnected steps so I understand start to finish what’s happening and why
• It needs to be easily done once a month or twice a month at most because I don’t want to touch it more often than that
• The system has to work with me, not against me

Then build your bookkeeping system around those requirements

My Advice to Past Me:

1. Open a separate bank account for the business and only use that to pay for expenses and receive payments. This one step makes everything else easier.
2. Choose one bookkeeping software that sends invoices so open invoices are automatically tracked. When everything lives in one place, you can see the complete picture.
3. When you can’t invoice from your own software (happens with freelance work), pick one day a month to enter all invoices into your software for easy tracking.
4. On that same day, categorize all your expenses and reconcile the bank accounts. Get a bookkeeper to train you how to do this correctly if you’re really nervous.
5. Look at your P&L and see how much money you actually made. If you don’t understand what it says, ask that bookkeeper to explain it to you.
6. Once a quarter, have that bookkeeper review your categorizing and answer your questions. Once you stop having questions, you can stop getting the reviews, but this will help SO much in the first year to relieve your tax anxieties.
7. Use the free VITA IRS program to file your taxes while you qualify. Then find a good accountant to do your tax filing. Since you have bookkeeping done, it’s going to be easier (and less expensive!) for them to do your taxes.

And if you want a bookkeeper to do this for you, I can do that.

What’s one thing about bookkeeping you wish someone had explained to you when you started?

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