How do you bookkeep?

[bright sparks]

I shove everything in a draw and procrastinate LOL This year I have adopted a much better method, I bought one of those plastic wallets with 12-24 separate places to file. I bought one last year that was very small, hence why I went back to shoving everything in a draw but so far so good in 2014 with the bigger one. I just have it labelled for every month of the year and shove everything in there. I have always kept attendance and payment recorded daily in my agenda.

[Woodsy]

My Hubby has a business (Sole propriortship) Not the same as running a home daycare, but we have an excel spreadsheet that we use to track everything and a plastic bin with folders for each month of the year. at the front of the BIN is a "TO DO" folder, this is where he puts any receipts he has for the business.
At the end of the month, I pull a statement from our online banking account (a separate account for the business) and check back each receipt/bill payment/transfer etc. and log it on the excel spreadsheet
At the top of that spreadsheet is the starting balance
He also has a spreadsheet that he maintaines for invoices paid and when deposited
We have a final spreadsheet that has the following lines:
1 - Starting balance (this is a formula the pulls the starting balance from the statement spreadsheet)
2 - Expenses (this is a formula that pulls the total expenses from the statement spreadsheet)
3 - Deposits (This is a formula that pulls to total invoices paid from the invoices/deposits spreadsheet)
4 - Final balance (I check this back to the final balance on the statement)

The final balance gets manually moved by me to the next month spreadsheet for the "starting balance"
We balance it every month, and have never had a problem.
It takes up about an hour a month to do that.

Also, I staple all of the months receipts and bills to the statement for the accountant/audit purposes

Visa bills get paid and all receipts for the bill period are stapled to the visa bill which is then stapled to the statement

This system seems to work wonders for us... basically all our accountant has to do it file it...

Not really relevant ot daycare, but since my husbands business dosent always pay on time, he has a separate sheet for unpaid invoices so he dosent loose track of an unpaid invoice.

[5 Little Monkeys]

My OCD with organizing receipts is going crazy reading some of your methods!! LOL

[Secondtimearound]

Lol I am the same 5lm !!!!!! I sit and staple and highlight !!! I would LOVE to have it done all organized on the computer like you described woodsy !!!!!

[daycaremom9]

My Hubby has a business (Sole propriortship) Not the same as running a home daycare, but we have an excel spreadsheet that we use to track everything and a plastic bin with folders for each month of the year. at the front of the BIN is a "TO DO" folder, this is where he puts any receipts he has for the business.
At the end of the month, I pull a statement from our online banking account (a separate account for the business) and check back each receipt/bill payment/transfer etc. and log it on the excel spreadsheet
At the top of that spreadsheet is the starting balance
He also has a spreadsheet that he maintaines for invoices paid and when deposited
We have a final spreadsheet that has the following lines:
1 - Starting balance (this is a formula the pulls the starting balance from the statement spreadsheet)
2 - Expenses (this is a formula that pulls the total expenses from the statement spreadsheet)
3 - Deposits (This is a formula that pulls to total invoices paid from the invoices/deposits spreadsheet)
4 - Final balance (I check this back to the final balance on the statement)

The final balance gets manually moved by me to the next month spreadsheet for the "starting balance"
We balance it every month, and have never had a problem.
It takes up about an hour a month to do that.

Also, I staple all of the months receipts and bills to the statement for the accountant/audit purposes

Visa bills get paid and all receipts for the bill period are stapled to the visa bill which is then stapled to the statement

This system seems to work wonders for us... basically all our accountant has to do it file it...

Not really relevant ot daycare, but since my husbands business dosent always pay on time, he has a separate sheet for unpaid invoices so he dosent loose track of an unpaid invoice.

Oh my gosh , sorry but I'm computer illiterate, my hubby is the computer genius. I think he really gets frustrated asking him the same questions regarding the computer. This just sounds so complicated.

[5 Little Monkeys]

daycaremom...I am the same!! I can do basic things on the computer but when it comes to some stuff, I just don't have that part in my brain LOL. My fiance also gets annoyed sometimes because I ask the same thing over and over with the computer programs haha.

My illiteracy with computers is exactly why I much prefer pen and paper and a calculator!

[momofnerds]

I too have ziplock bag full, usually2 bags full. I use to write everything on my calendar but it was alot of forgeting so now I hav this chart on my fridge that shows a whole month and everyday I just fill it our, super easy. And at the end of the month I just fill it in my books.

I do everything by hand I too love office supplies.

[Samantha33]

I have a folder for each month. I usually only get around to entering them at the end of the year. I make up an excel spreadsheet with the month, underneath I add categories such as groceries, crafts-gifts and anything else that is 100% deductible, vehicle insurance, mortgage, bank fees, etc. Then they I program excel to total the columns individually. This is what the accountant uses to do the income tax. I tried copying my spreadsheet for you but it won't take.

[Woodsy]

My hubby would be considered the "computer illiterate" one in our family, that is why I manage the excel spreadsheet (I should be fair and state that he is really on "excel" illiterate though)
Once you have the spreadsheet set up, it is extremely simple!

[gravy_train]

I track everything on excel spreadsheets. I have categories for groceries, office supplies, general supplies (toys, crafts, etc), furniture and repairs.
I claim 50% of my grocery bill and 100% of the other items.
I organize my columns by month, then enter each expense and have formatted the columns to add everything automatically. I also have a payments received spreadsheet for tracking when I get paid, individualized per client. I write down the amount, cheque number (or EMT confirmation number), date and any notes (if they picked up late or paid late).
I also photocopy all of my receipts and organize them by month. Then I staple the original to the photocopy and print off my monthly spreadsheet and attach that to the bundle.
The plan was to do this monthly to avoid a big uproar at tax time but of course it didn't happen so I did all of this in two sittings and it took me about 4 hours in total. It might be overkill but I feel really organized now and everything is set up so easy to re-use for this year.