Consistency is Key

As with so many things in life, in accounting, consistency is so important. a great place to start is to pick certain habits that you do every week. Once you get in the habit of doing these things consistently, it takes a lot less effort to get the job done.

Three accounting habits for every week:

  1. review your bank balances

  2. code your open transactions

  3. pay your bills weekly


FULL TEXT:

Hi, I'm Burton. I'm the founder and CEO of Sutro Li. We provide accounting for great causes. As with so many things in life, in accounting consistency is so important. So a great place to start is to pick certain habits to form that you do every week. Here are three habits that we recommend when trying to get more consistent in your accounting:

The first habit is to check your bank balances every week and look at the last week of transactions. This is really helpful because you keep a good eye on your cash flow and it also helps you catch if any of the transactions you don't recognize that could be fraud, you're timely in recognizing potential fraud.

The second habit that we recommend is to code all of your open transactions every week. If you're doing your coding every week, you remember everything that happened. You don't have to think back and try to recall what happened. So it takes less effort to get the job done. Also, if you're coding your transactions timely every week, again, you're more likely to notice if something occurs that's fraudulent on your account.

The last habit is pay your bills every week. When you do this, you don't get confused about your open balance is due. Or if you've partially paid part of a bill, if you consistently pay your bills every week, you're always clear on your open balances. It's also good for keeping good credit and for keeping good relationships with your vendors. So pick a day of the week that fits your schedule and give these habits a try and remember, consistency is key. Once you get in the habit of doing these things consistently, it takes a lot less effort to get the job done.