89: Save Time Utilizing Automated Bookkeeping Whether You Are Starting A Business
89: Save Time Utilizing Automated Bookkeeping Whether You Are Starting A Business, Are Self-Employed, A Solopreneur, Entrepreneur, Mompreneur, Business Owner, Side Hustler, Freelancer, Bookkeeper, Virtual Assistant, Or VA
Whether you are a business owner or a bookkeeper, you’ve probably heard about automated bookkeeping. Automated bookkeeping uses artificial intelligence, or AI, as well as machine learning to help speed up your bookkeeping tasks. In today’s podcast episode, I dig deeper into what automated bookkeeping is and how you can start utilizing these practices in your business to be more efficient. If you are already utilizing automatic bookkeeping, you know how much time it can save you, but make sure you are doing everything you can to ensure that your data is accurate. I’ll cover how you can refine your processes and prepare yourself for the future so that you are taking advantage of all the benefits that come along with automated bookkeeping. Whether you are a self-employed individual, a solopreneur, entrepreneur, mompreneur, freelancer, small business owner, a remote, virtual, online, or in-house bookkeeper, or a virtual assistant or VA, you know how time-consuming your bookkeeping can be. Listen in so that you can learn how to let automated bookkeeping work for you so that your bookkeeping entries get made even when you are not working on it. These tips are essential whether you are using a computerized software system like QuickBooks, Xero, Wave, or FreshBooks for your business finances; or doing your bookkeeping manually with an Excel spreadsheet or even a Google Document…
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Show Notes:
Whether you are a business owner or a bookkeeper, you’ve probably heard about automated bookkeeping. Automated bookkeeping uses artificial intelligence, or AI, as well as machine learning to help speed up your bookkeeping tasks. In today’s podcast episode, I dig deeper into what automated bookkeeping is and how you can start utilizing these practices in your business to be more efficient. If you are already utilizing automatic bookkeeping, you know how much time it can save you, but make sure you are doing everything you can to ensure that your data is accurate. I’ll cover how you can refine your processes and prepare yourself for the future so that you are taking advantage of all the benefits that come along with automated bookkeeping. Whether you are a self-employed individual, a solopreneur, entrepreneur, mompreneur, freelancer, small business owner, a remote, virtual, online, or in-house bookkeeper, or a virtual assistant or VA, you know how time-consuming your bookkeeping can be. Listen in so that you can learn how to let automated bookkeeping work for you so that your bookkeeping entries get made even when you are not working on it. These tips are essential whether you are using a computerized software system like QuickBooks, Xero, Wave, or FreshBooks for your business finances; or doing your bookkeeping manually with an Excel spreadsheet or even a Google Document…
Welcome Back…Automated bookkeeping. Does this sound like a dream come true for you? It would surely make doing your own bookkeeping a much easier task; however, there are a lot of business owners and bookkeepers who are still on the fence about utilizing automated bookkeeping to help them save time. I totally understand where you are coming from, and if you feel this way, you are not alone. You’ve probably heard before how the computers are going to take over the world…or how robots will eliminate all of our jobs, but rest assured, these computers and robots still need our help.
Let me start by explaining what automated bookkeeping is. Throughout this podcast, I’ll be referencing the automated bookkeeping solutions you can get with QuickBooks Online, but other computerized bookkeeping solutions are similar. When you process your bookkeeping data using an automated bookkeeping system, you are using artificial intelligence or AI to compute your data entry for you. This AI, along with machine learning, can take your normal manual data entry and automatically record your transactions for you. The benefits of utilizing automated bookkeeping are that you are able to minimize your data entry time, provide you with real-time data, reduce errors if set up properly, generate more accurate reports, and allow you to be more productive with your business.
All these benefits are great, but you must also be aware of the drawbacks. With automated bookkeeping, you need to make sure you set up your systems properly. These automations are driven by rules you need to create. If you don’t create them properly, your information will not be accurate. Like I always say, garbage in is garbage out, so you need to spend some time up front to get the reliable information you are looking for. You also need to make sure you have a good review process in place, and if you catch any errors, you want to make sure you are fixing them quickly to prevent errors in the future.
When you utilize automated bookkeeping in a computerized software system like QuickBooks Online, you can set up your bank accounts and your credit cards to automatically bring in your bank feeds. When you set up your rules, it will follow these rules and record your transactions for you. Think about all the transactions you have in your business and how much time this could save you by having them recorded for you. You could also take this automation one step further and attach a scanned image of the transaction so that you have it on file for the future.
It is extremely important for you to understand how and why each transaction that you have automated is recorded so that you can make changes along the way if needed. If you make an update to your chart of accounts down the road, you will also need to know where you need to go to make sure that any future transactions get recorded properly as well. If all this talk about automations makes you nervous, I want you to know that it doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing process for you. You could simply take just a few transactions and set up the rules for these automations. I would recommend you follow how these couple of transactions move throughout your bookkeeping system and when you feel comfortable with these transactions, add a few more until you have all your transactions automated.
Once you have your transactions automated, it means you no longer have to spend days or weeks manually entering all your transactions before you can close your books for the month or generate your financial statements. You’ll be more efficient by reducing the time-consuming, repetitive data entry. What could you do with the time that you save in your business? How much is that time worth to you? Where could you be more productive or add value in other high-priority areas in your business? Would you like more time to work on your business development rather than your bookkeeping? These automations can help you do just that.
Computerized bookkeeping solutions like QuickBooks Online are built for business owners without an accounting background so that you are able to do your own bookkeeping and collaborate easily with your accountant, CPA, or tax preparer. It allows you to spend less time on data entry and is, in general, more accurate. We as humans are prone to making mistakes, but artificial intelligence takes each transaction and processes it the exact same way each time it occurs, which reduces mistakes as long as you have everything set up correctly from the beginning. This is why I recommend setting up reminders and processes to verify and review your transactions to ensure accuracy.
Automated bookkeeping is definitely helping you as a business owner take control of doing your own bookkeeping, but most business owners still need help from a bookkeeper or CPA when they run into questions they are unsure of. This is exactly why I designed the Strategic Bookkeeping Academy. It helps you as a business owner or bookkeeper get the best of both worlds. You are able to save money by doing your own bookkeeping, but you still have the opportunity to ask questions along your bookkeeping journey when you need it. Business owners and bookkeepers are able to join the Strategic Bookkeeping Academy for one price, and at this time, you’ll also get lifetime access. You are guided all the way through your bookkeeping journey from the setup, which includes learning how to utilize automated bookkeeping, as I discussed in this episode, all the way through maximizing your results and understanding what your financial statements tell you about your business. You might be wondering how this solution will help you save money. Well, when you do your own bookkeeping, you no longer need to pay to have your data entry or bookkeeping done each month, and you benefit from the savings year after year. Let’s take a look at an example over the next five years. If you paid someone $300 monthly to do your bookkeeping and data entry, you would be paying $18,000 total over these five years. By eliminating these fees and joining us in the Strategic Bookkeeping Academy, you would save at least $16,000 over these five years, and every year after you initially join us, your savings would be 100% of the fees you typically would have paid. In this case, you would be saving $3600 a year. The Strategic Bookkeeping Academy is the solution you have been looking for so that you are able to take advantage of artificial intelligence or AI and machine learning, or any other bookkeeping process you decide is best for your business, save time, be more efficient, and know that you have a trusted CPA there to help you understand your financial statements, answer your bookkeeping questions and make sure you are able to have timely and reliable financial and bookkeeping information. You have lifetime access to the Strategic Bookkeeping Academy when you join us now. What would you do with a $3600 savings in your business? I’m excited for you to join us, so if you want more information, are curious to learn more, or can’t wait to join us in the Strategic Bookkeeping Academy, you can go to www.FinancialAdventure.com/SBA. I’m looking forward to seeing you inside. I’ll post links to this and other valuable resources for business owners and bookkeepers where you are listening to this podcast and in the show notes.
And, you know I’m going to ask…what’s at least one thing you will take away from this episode that will help your business succeed and grow your bottom line? If you need some accountability, join our PRIVATE Facebook community and post your action item, we’d love to support you.
