The Business Ledger

Most business owners get a profit and loss statement every month, quarter, or year. It contains a lot of numbers, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it contains the numbers that are most useful for running their business. I’ve been spending a lot of time lately helping my clients identify what I call their critical numbers.…

Great leadership isn’t always loud. Sometimes it looks like removing friction, paying attention to the details, and creating systems that help others succeed. Here are five lessons I brought home from the Missouri Chamber Women in Leadership Conference.

Sometimes a business doesn’t need routine bookkeeping first. It needs a rescue operation. Maybe you’ve been categorizing transactions yourself but aren’t sure they’re correct. Perhaps reconciliations haven’t been completed in months. Maybe accounts were duplicated, loan payments were recorded incorrectly, old transactions remain uncleared, or your QuickBooks balance doesn’t match the actual bank balance. Or…

Construction businesses spend a lot of money to make money. Between trucks, equipment, subcontractors, materials, insurance, and job-related expenses, thousands of dollars can move through your business every month. The challenge isn’t simply knowing that these expenses exist. It’s making sure they’re tracked, categorized, and documented correctly so they aren’t overlooked at tax time. For…

Running a small business means spending money all year long to keep things moving. But if those expenses aren’t properly documented and categorized, some of them can be surprisingly easy to overlook when tax time arrives. Good bookkeeping doesn’t create tax deductions, but it does help make sure legitimate business expenses don’t disappear into a…

Tax season does not have to begin with a frantic search for receipts, unanswered questions from your accountant, and hours spent trying to remember what happened six months ago. For small business owners, an easier tax season starts with accurate, up-to-date bookkeeping. When your books are clean before they reach your tax professional, you can…

When your bookkeeping falls behind, the problem goes far beyond a messy QuickBooks file. You may not know exactly how profitable your business is. You may have transactions in the wrong accounts, unreconciled bank statements, duplicate entries, old accounts receivable, or balances that simply do not make sense. And when the numbers cannot be trusted,…

The start of a new year is a natural time to take a closer look at how your business operates. For many small business owners, that means setting goals for sales and growth. But it is also a good time to improve the financial systems behind the business. Small changes can make a big difference.…