Tax Season. Yes, I Said It.

By Tara Richter…

For the last two months, I have been using the bookkeeping method by The Simplicity Principle for my small-business needs. In short, it’s definitely something I’ll be doing for the 2014 tax year as well. The coil-bound, all-in-one book-keeping system is simply put a fantastic way to keep all papers, receipts, and numbers organized in an easy-to-use month by month filing system.

Prior to using The Simplicity Principle my receipts, notes, expenditures and other miscellaneous details were filed in a completely ad-hoc fashion (more than likely in the “receipt” drawer). At the end of the year, ‘tax pain’ quickly set in while I tried to make sense of it all and remember back to which month certain expenses occurred. Using The Simplicity Principle has tremendously helped me stay organized when it comes to tracking and recording the appropriate information on a monthly basis, rather than leaving it all to year-end.

Each “month” in The Simplicity Principle is a tear out folder. On one side a calendar in which small notes can be made for various items. The reverse side shows the summary for that month including total income, total expense (by category) as well as items including bank balance, liabilities etc. While I can’t say I was perfect at documenting everything on the folder, I love the fact that anything pertaining to that month is tucked away inside the pouch for the particular month, which makes the task of itemizing expenditures and income quite easy. I also really like the one-page reference guide with it’s easy to understand accounting definitions, as well as tips on best-practice for small-business accounting.

In using The Simplicity Principle over the past couple of months and seeing its advantages first hand, I will now be going back for the rest of 2013 and filing my receipts in each of the monthly folders and writing up the summary for each. It will be a sigh of relief for my accountant I’m sure, when I can easily hand over my folders and have all the required information neatly summarized in an organized fashion.

If you are a small-business owner the Simplicity Principle is a must-have to keep track of all your financial records related to your business. If you order The Simplicity Principle for 2014, at just $60.00, you will also receive the 2013 edition free! Why would you want last year’s calendar you wonder? For the simple reason that I have discovered; tax season is now upon us and this will greatly assist you to get all of your accounting items in order.