Why should you keep up on your bookkeeping?
We see many instances where a business owner hasn’t maintained their books in over a year. Usually the result of this is an unexpected tax bill, the inability to understand their business from a financial point of view, and certainly the inability to make corrective actions during the year.
Aside from the fact that the FIRS & SIRS requires adequate books and records for your business, we recommend you maintain your books at least on a monthly basis. If we are not handling your bookkeeping chores, you should have a computerized software program (we recommend QuickBooks) in which you are keeping up with you invoicing, paying bills, balancing your checkbook and analyzing the numbers that drive your profitability.
By looking at your numbers monthly, you can do effective tax planning, avoid year-end tax bill surprises, forecast cash needs, make effective changes to your business, make your business more profitable, and enhance cash flow.
Having an up to date financial record ensures that a firm keeps up with accounting best practices as well as compliance with statutory laws, regulations and guidelines guiding financial reporting. For any firm, whether small or large, listed or not listed in the Nigerian stock Exchange (NSE), an up-to-date financial record ensures that entries of transactions are not done in a haste so as to ensure accountability and accuracy, and that the records represents what it purports to represent both quantitatively and qualitatively.
However, this will only be possible if the firm has a working and well-modelled financial reporting (Accounting) system and competent man-power to handle it.