The Importance of Tracking Business Expenses

A lot of small business owners do not see the importance of keeping track of their expenses. No matter how small of a business you run, you cannot remember everything, so you need to keep track of it and collect all your receipts. Here is why.

Money management

Tracking your expenses and bookkeeping, in general, is essential for good money management. You will never be able to improve this set of skills unless you know if you are a reckless spender or a sensible one. While in private life there is always a way of coping, money management skills are essential for business survival and the happiness of your employees. If you have decided to set up your own business, this is something you will have to learn.

Happy employees

A satisfied employee is a good one. Collecting the receipts will tell you exactly how much you owe to your employees. Some of them may be waiting for reimbursements for their travel expenses and do not feel comfortable to ask you when they can expect it. They will probably think you have no intention of ever reimbursing them when you have simply overseen the expense and are not even aware of it. Not having to ask you for their money, will make your workers happy and they will know they can trust you.

Taxes

Without the track of expenses, there is no way of submitting taxes correctly. This usually ends up being your loss as it will show that you earned more than you actually did. Also, you will have no way of proving that you had tax-deductible business expenses. In the long run, this could waste your business a lot of money.

Credit cards

Knowing where your money goes, will help you choose a business credit card with the best plan for the type of expenses you have. If you find a suitable credit card you will be able to save a lot through discounts and the reward points system it offers.

Reducing the expenses

Each business owner would like to spend as little as they can while maintaining the same quality level. By being clueless about what your business spends its money on, you will have no way of reducing those expenses. You will not be able to recognize a good deal, nor find a survival strategy when your account balance tells you that you need one. If you find keeping up with the books and the expenses too difficult, you can hire an accounting firm to assist you.

Is your business even solvent?

If you are not aware of how you spend your money, we can go ahead and assume that you are not aware of your liabilities. This can be a major problem. You could be owing money to your creditors and suppliers without even knowing it. “Taking care of” issues, that is outstanding accounts and defaults, as they come along is not a way of running a business. You need to be able to pay your liabilities within a reasonable amount of time. This means that you already have money for it and do not have to do a quick run around or dip into your private account to cover this.

Expansion

If you want to expand your business, you need to have a plan. That plan includes a strategy which requires funding. Without the knowledge of your expenses, you do not know whether you are left with enough money to afford the growth. You need to be able to predict how much of your revenue will go toward your expenses, how much you need to maintain the business, and how much you can afford to put aside for future ventures.

Tracking your expenses is an important part of determining whether a business is profitable and how well it is doing. Without this in place, it has no chance of ever expanding or even surviving.