Bookkeeping in the retail industry has some unique complexities that do make it a little more complicated than other businesses. Since I opened my business in 2021, I have worked with dozens of small businesses, and I often see a lot of small business owners make similar mistakes when they manage their own bookkeeping. Unfortunately, mistakes like these can lead to inaccurate financial reports, which lead to inaccurate tax returns, which leads to either over or under paying in taxes.

In this episode I’ll be sharing what these common bookkeeping mistakes are and help you avoid these mistakes to make sure your bookkeeping is helpful and accurate in helping you operate your business and prepare for taxes.

Ready to take your learning a step further?

Register for my Free Masterclass, Make Your Money Make Sense! Where you’ll learn how to understand where your money is going, avoid costly bookkeeping mistakes, and set up an easy to follow bookkeeping system.

Sign up now: www.findingfreedomfinancial.com/masterclass

Other Ways to Work With Me:

• If you’re ready to just hand the numbers off to someone so you can stay in your own zone of genius, apply for one of our open client spots so we can take it off your hands. Don’t worry, we’ll send you your financial reports each month so you can feel confident in your numbers without doing the work yourself. Apply now by booking a coffee chat consultation at www.findingfreedomfinancial.com/contact
• Need some guidance on how to do you own bookkeeping in Quickbook Online? Then check out Bookkeeping Made Simple for Boutiques, our signature course that walks you through the exact setup & process you need to implement for accurate and EASY bookkeeping all year long - no more tax time scramble! Enroll at www.findingfreedomfinancial.com/course
• Are you a Shopify seller who’s not quite ready to invest in a bookkeeping software like Quickbooks? Don’t worry - I got you! I’ve created a custom Shopify Seller Income & Expense Tracker that you can use to easily enter each transaction coming in and out of your business, along with your sales data coming directly from Shopify to put together a standard P&L (Income Statement) that you can hand over to your tax preparer. Download your copy at www.findingfreedomfinancial.com/spreadsheet

Prefer to learn while you read? Check out the blog post for this episode:

https://www.findingfreedomfinancial.com/common-bookkeeping-mistakes

Related Episodes & Resources Mentioned:

Quickbooks Online is my favorite bookkeeping software. You can try it here and get 30% off your first 6 months: www.findingfreedomfinancial.com/qbo (psst…you can probably get by with the Simple Start level)

Learn more about my favorite time-saving features of Quickbooks Online here: https://findingfreedomfinancial.com/quickbooks-online-features/

Xero is another popular bookkeeping software you can learn about here: https://www.xero.com/us/pricing-plans/

Wave is another bookkeeping software option that does have a free plan if you’re looking to really keep costs low. Just know that there are going to be limitations on available features if you go with a free plan (but it will be a small step up from a spreadsheet. https://www.waveapps.com/pricing

Many business owners think they need an Accountant for their business - but what does that REALLY mean? There’s a lot of confusion around that word and what an Accountant actually does, because it is such a broad term. Today, I’m getting a little more specific and explaining why you specifically need a bookkeeper and a tax preparer on your financial support team. I talk about the difference between these two roles, how they work together, and why BOTH are important (And hint…if you haven’t hired a bookkeeper for your business yet…YOU are the bookkeeper!)

Ready to take your learning a step further?

Register for my Free Masterclass, Make Your Money Make Sense! Where you’ll learn how to understand where your money is going, avoid costly bookkeeping mistakes, and set up an easy to follow bookkeeping system.

Sign up now: www.findingfreedomfinancial.com/masterclass

Other Ways to Work With Me:

• If you’re ready to just hand the numbers off to someone so you can stay in your own zone of genius, apply for one of our open client spots so we can take it off your hands. Don’t worry, we’ll send you your financial reports each month so you can feel confident in your numbers without doing the work yourself. Apply now by booking a coffee chat consultation at www.findingfreedomfinancial.com/contact
• Need some guidance on how to do you own bookkeeping in Quickbook Online? Then check out Bookkeeping Made Simple for Boutiques, our signature course that walks you through the exact setup & process you need to implement for accurate and EASY bookkeeping all year long - no more tax time scramble! Enroll at www.findingfreedomfinancial.com/course
• Are you a Shopify seller who’s not quite ready to invest in a bookkeeping software like Quickbooks? Don’t worry - I got you! I’ve created a custom Shopify Seller Income & Expense Tracker that you can use to easily enter each transaction coming in and out of your business, along with your sales data coming directly from Shopify to put together a standard P&L (Income Statement) that you can hand over to your tax preparer. Download your copy at www.findingfreedomfinancial.com/spreadsheet

Prefer to learn while you read? Check out the blog post for this episode:

http://findingfreedomfinancial.com/bookkeeper-vs-tax-preparer/

Related Episodes & Resources Mentioned:

What does “Doing Your Bookkeeping” really mean? Listen to episode #7 for a daily, weekly & monthly bookkeeping task list to help you know what you should be doing if YOU are your own bookkeeper!

Many business owners are so hung up on making sure they categorize expenses correctly and call them the “right” thing, when in reality…it doesn’t matter.

Or, at least it doesn’t matter as much as you might think.

Most of the time, anything that you spend money on that is ordinary (meaning other business owners in your industry spend money on it too) and necessary (meaning that this purchase is essential in you operating your business), it is 100% deductible – no matter what you call it.

In today’s episode, we’ll talk about the 3 different categories that do require you to be a little more careful with how they’re tracked, and then my 2 general rules to help you categorize everything else.

Ready to take your learning a step further?

Register for my Free Masterclass, Make Your Money Make Sense! Where you’ll learn how to understand where your money is going, avoid costly bookkeeping mistakes, and set up an easy to follow bookkeeping system.

Sign up now: www.findingfreedomfinancial.com/masterclass

Other Ways to Work With Me:

• If you’re ready to just hand the numbers off to someone so you can stay in your own zone of genius, apply for one of our open client spots so we can take it off your hands. Don’t worry, we’ll send you your financial reports each month so you can feel confident in your numbers without doing the work yourself. Apply now by booking a coffee chat consultation at www.findingfreedomfinancial.com/contact
• Need some guidance on how to do you own bookkeeping in Quickbook Online? Then check out Bookkeeping Made Simple for Boutiques, our signature course that walks you through the exact setup & process you need to implement for accurate and EASY bookkeeping all year long - no more tax time scramble! Enroll at www.findingfreedomfinancial.com/course
• Are you a Shopify seller who’s not quite ready to invest in a bookkeeping software like Quickbooks? Don’t worry - I got you! I’ve created a custom Shopify Seller Income & Expense Tracker that you can use to easily enter each transaction coming in and out of your business, along with your sales data coming directly from Shopify to put together a standard P&L (Income Statement) that you can hand over to your tax preparer. Download your copy at www.findingfreedomfinancial.com/spreadsheet

Prefer to learn while you read? Check out the blog post for this episode:

https://www.findingfreedomfinancial.com/how-you-categorize-expenses

Related Episodes & Resources Mentioned:

• Use my Quickbooks Online affiliate link to get 30% off your first 6 months: www.findingfreedomfinancial.com/qbo
• Download my retail-specific chart of accounts template here: www.findingfreedomfinancial.com/coa-template