A guest post from Linda Daley, a happy client…

For a few years, I struggled with keeping up with my small business bookkeeping and accounting. It’s a mess I got myself into very easily and one I will never repeat.

You see, I majored in Accounting at university. You’d think I’d know better – and I do. For the first few years after starting my business, I did my own bookkeeping, HST filings, and so on. Then I reached out to an accountant once a year to do my year-end filings. It worked fine while I was getting started and my transactions were fewer.

Then disaster struck… in the form of a silly mistake I made reporting HST. It was totally fixable – I just kept putting off dealing with it. And as time went on, I forgot the details, my notes weren’t helpful, and it became more of a challenge to try to fix. So I kept procrastinating… and accruing interest and penalties with CRA.

I was already over 3 years into this mess when my friend and client, Cathy Cornelius, practically begged to help dig me out. At that time, she had recently started Freedom Accounting Solutions and, really, it was exactly the help I needed. My inner control freak couldn’t hold me back any longer.

One day Cathy came to my house and just took it all away. I still remember clearly what an overwhelming feeling of relief I felt at having my business’s financial “stuff” in Cathy’s capable hands.

Every day I’m thankful that my bookkeeping and accounting are up to date and accurate. As my business has been having a growth spurt, I’ve been able to quickly check reports and stay on top of opportunities to cut costs and find efficiencies.

I’m also now realizing the most important benefit is the (unexpected) motivation I get from watching my numbers. Last month, it became obvious I might break a sales record. So I put in the extra effort to make it happen. Years ago, I would have been oblivious.

For added accountability, I’ve booked a regular monthly 1-hour phone call with Cathy. She reminds me of things I need to do and I ask her any questions I’ve been pondering.

As I’m nearing the end of my most successful business year yet, I’m ever thankful for having a system and a bookkeeper I can trust and rely on to keep me making progress. Your small business needs a reliable system and a bookkeeper, too. It may be for the same reasons as me or for different ones. But since there are so many reasons… what’s to think about?