Running a business already comes with enough demands on your time, so the last thing you probably want to be doing is tracking down receipts, sorting through transactions, or battling with accounting software.
But when your year-end and tax season roll around, those pesky and time-consuming items can suddenly become top of mind. The good news is, they don’t have to feel quite so overwhelming.
Having an organized bookkeeping system not only helps you save time but allows you to make better financial decisions and gives you a clearer picture of your business finances so you can make informed decisions with confidence.
Whether you want to learn how to better maintain your books, you’re tackling your books for the first time, or you simply want to feel more confident in what you’re doing, do-it-yourself bookkeeping training sessions can help you build the skills and systems you need. Personalized training can give you practical guidance based on your business, the accounting software you use and the way you actually work and operate.
Here’s how online bookkeeping training helps you save on one of your most valuable resources – your time!
Why Bookkeeping Training Is Worth the Investment
Learning to manage your books takes some time upfront, but the goal of bookkeeping training is to help you spend less time managing them in the long run. Think of it like an investment in getting more time to spend outside of work once you nail down the basics.
Training can also help you understand the information behind the numbers, which can feel like a breath of fresh air if you’ve spent years staring at complex information and scratching your head wondering what it all actually means.
If you’re a business owner who wants to stay hands-on with your finances, then bookkeeping training can help you become more confident reading reports, keeping records organized, and recognizing when something doesn’t look right. That knowledge can continue paying off long after the training session, giving you a little more confidence every time you sit down to work on your books.
1. You have the support of a real accounting professional
Unlike online modules, thick instructional books, and videos, our bookkeeping training sessions at Accounting By Sal are done with a real accounting professional. Learning how to manage your books on your own often takes more time than going through a bookkeeping training session. With a professional, you have your questions answered in real-time, you’ll be guided step-by-step through the processes, and you’ll receive clear explanations along the way.
While pre-made instruction manuals and videos may have all of the general information you need, they are not customized to your specific business. Additionally, it can be confusing to go through the instructions on your own with no real support. Every business is different and has unique needs. And sometimes, having someone beside you who you can actually ask, “Am I doing this right?” can make all the difference.
For this reason, an accounting professional gets to know your business first so they can provide you with the right information. This eliminates the guesswork and cuts the learning curve down significantly.
2. Includes a review of basic accounting principles
When you’re managing your own books, understanding a few basic accounting principles can go a long way in helping you avoid inaccurate reports and mistakes that can be time-consuming to correct later. Learning the basics of accounting and bookkeeping helps you feel more confident when posting transactions and pulling accurate reports. Knowing the accounting principles is crucial as it improves the consistency and quality of your business’s financial information.
Getting a better understanding of basic accounting and bookkeeping principles can help you in several ways, including understanding how and why information needs to be entered a certain way. Learning these basics, although it might sound small, can help tremendously in reducing errors such as miscategorized transactions, duplicated entries or inaccurate reports that may take much longer to correct later.
3. Live FreshBooks or QuickBooks bookkeeping training
Books and manuals on bookkeeping typically teach you how to post a transaction and pull reports, while pre-made FreshBooks or QuickBooks training manuals and videos will show you how to use the platform. Our bookkeeping training session is a combination of both – we will teach you how to manage your books and navigate your specific accounting software.
We guide you through the process and then give you the opportunity to work through the steps yourself, answering any questions you may have and providing corrections along the way. By the end of the session, you will have a better understanding of your accounting software, how to streamline your workflow, and ways to take advantage of time-saving features and third-party apps.
4. Processes are streamlined and integrated
Last but certainly not least, a bookkeeping training session with an accounting professional can also help identify opportunities to streamline repetitive bookkeeping tasks using features and integrations available through cloud-based accounting software. Depending on your business, that might include connecting payment processors like Paypal or Square, receipt-management tools such as HubDoc, time-tracking software like Dubsado, invoicing systems, or other apps you already use.
A streamlined process keeps your books clean and organized throughout the year, giving you one less thing to worry about when year-end and tax season arrive.
Common Time-Wasting Bookkeeping Mistakes
Sometimes, it isn’t the bookkeeping itself that takes up so much of your time; it’s having to go back and correct problems later.
A few common habits that can make managing your books much more time-consuming than it needs to be, include:
- Waiting until month-end, year-end, or tax season to update your books
- Categorizing transactions incorrectly or inconsistently
- Mixing personal and business transactions
- Keeping receipts and financial documents in multiple places
- Entering information manually when software features or integrations could automate part of the process
- Not knowing which financial reports to review or how to interpret them
Personalized bookkeeping training can help you identify where your current process is slowing you down and establish more efficient habits before small mistakes become bigger and more time-consuming projects. Sometimes, a few small changes are all it takes to make managing your books feel a whole lot easier.
Who Benefits Most From Bookkeeping Training
You don’t have to be a big company to benefit from bookkeeping training. These sessions help all business owners, whether you run a small business, are a freelancer, entrepreneur, or a self-employed professional. If you want to learn how to maintain your own books but could use some professional guidance getting started, or getting organized, then bookkeeping training could be a perfect option for you.
It may also be a good fit if you’ve recently started using QuickBooks or FreshBooks, want to improve an existing bookkeeping system, find yourself repeatedly falling behind on your books, or simply want to better understand the financial side of your business.
The truth of the matter is that you don’t need to become an accounting expert to get your books under control. You started your business because you’re good at what you do, and bookkeeping is just one of the many pieces that come along with running it.
The goal of our training isn’t to turn you into an accountant. It’s to give you the tools, knowledge and processes you need to manage your day-to-day bookkeeping with more confidence, spend less time second-guessing yourself and recognize when it’s time to ask a professional for help.
You don’t have to figure it all out on your own. At Accounting By Sal, we believe that understanding your books should help you feel more confident in your business, not overwhelmed. Our do-it-yourself bookkeeping training is designed to meet you where you are and give you the practical knowledge you need to manage your books in a way that works for you.
Whether you’re starting from scratch or simply looking for a better way to manage what you’re already doing, we’re here to help! Connect with us to learn more about booking a training session.
