The Secrets to A Successful Bookkeeping Year

Happy New Year, entrepreneurs!

Back in December, we had a good time spending the holidays with family, had a good rest so that we are recharged and energized to work on our New Year’s resolution starting from January.

Everything sounds good, right?

But as usual, the motivation to work on our New Year’s resolution sizzles by March or sometimes as early as February.

If one of your New Year’s resolution is “I want to catch-up on my accounts this year” or “I want to get my accounts up-to-date”, you can’t afford to fail this New Year’s resolution.

So let me help you to have a successful bookkeeping year!

SMARTER goal is the key for your success

Let’s start by setting a clear and detailed goal by using SMARTER goal system that I have learned from Michael Hyatt (You can learn more about SMARTER goal system from his blog).

“I want to catch-up on my accounts this year” or “I want to get my accounts up-to-date” are too vague and is difficult for you to measure if you have achieve your goal.

Let’s re-work your goal with Michael Hyatt’s SMARTER goal system, which is Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Risky, Time bound, Exciting and Relevant.

Remember to keep it exciting and relevant to you.

Here are some examples:

“Close my annual accounts (Financial Year End 30th June) by 31st July.”

“Submit my annual accounts (Financial Year End 31st Dec) to Government by 10th Mar.” (3 months ahead of submission deadline)

Once you have re-work your goal, you may break it down into smaller milestones and action steps that you can take to work towards the big goal.

Here are some examples of milestones and action steps:

“Understand the whole bookkeeping process by 31st Jan.” This step is crucial so that you will know what are the bookkeeping tasks that you need to do to complete your monthly and annual accounts.

“Master Xero Accounting by 31st Jan.” Master Xero Accounting so that you can perform all your bookkeeping tasks in your Xero account.

“Close 31st March accounts by 7th Apr.” Once you have obtained all the knowledge, set monthly or even weekly milestones to ensure you are on track to achieve your goal.

Plan for your success

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” - Benjamin Franklin

Next, you will need your annual calendar or your calendar app to plan for your success.

Mark the submission deadlines, milestone deadlines and action steps deadlines onto your calendar.

Next, plan the dates that you will work on your action steps and milestones.

Be organized to reach your goal efficiently

If in the past, you have searched high and low for all the receipts, invoices and bills while the submission deadline is fast approaching, you will understand how stressed and time consuming it can be to search for these bookkeeping documents.

And when I say you need to close your accounts monthly, I guess you are imagining having this nightmare every month when you do your bookkeeping.

Well, it’s time to stop this nightmare and do this the easy way.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to be an expert in organization (aka konmari) to have a successful bookkeeping year.

No, we don’t need to go to that extent.

But we do need to be a little organized to ensure that you will efficiently reach your goal while saving you time.

All you need to do is to start collecting all of your bookkeeping documents which are your receipts, invoices and bills in one folder or box.

This will help you to save up a lot of time when you start working on your bookkeeping documents.

You can start organizing your bookkeeping documents now even if you are still at the stage of learning bookkeeping or learning your accounting system (such as Xero Accounting).

Your future self will thank you.

The Ultimate Key to A Successful Bookkeeeping Year is…

...mastering your accounting system and bookkeeping process.

Educate yourself with the knowledge of bookkeeping process so that you will know what you need to do in order to complete your monthly and annual accounts.

Learn what are the monthly transactions, ad-hoc transactions, quarterly transactions and annual transactions that you need to do to close your accounts.

Once you learned the bookkeeping process, the next step is to master your accounting system so that you can use the accounting system easily to do all of the bookkeeping tasks.

Then, proceed to close your accounts by generating financial reports from your accounting system.

You can learn the bookkeeping process by yourself through Google or books, but the fastest way is to get a mentor to guide you, teach you and answer your questions. Oh, and most importantly, remember to have fun with fellow bookkeepers too! Having friends to support you and cheer you on is the best way to keep you motivated in your learning journey.

So if you're ready to learn bookkeeping with me and meet your new best friends, join our Master User Club today! (Click here to join)

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If you want to learn more on Xero Accounting, bookkeeping or tips on business, click on the categories at the side bar.

See you in the next post! 

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This post is sponsored by our online membership program, Master User Academy. Master User Academy helps business owners & entrepreneurs to do bookkeeping by using Xero Accounting like a Pro in simple English. Get real-time financial data of your business to grow your business faster. Join Master User Academy Level 1 now for FREE! ➡️ https://www.nutsaccounting.com/400

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