Bookkeeping for Small Businesses in Edmonton: What You Need to Know
Learn how bookkeeping helps Edmonton small businesses stay organized, track finances, understand profitability, and keep accurate financial records.
Andrew Kim
10/6/20263 min read
Bookkeeping for Small Businesses in Edmonton: What You Need to Know
Running a small business in Edmonton involves much more than serving customers and making sales. You also need to keep track of income, expenses, receipts, bank transactions, and other financial information.
Good bookkeeping helps you understand how your business is doing and keeps your financial records organized throughout the year.
For many small business owners, bookkeeping is something that gets pushed aside when there are more important things to do. But falling behind can make it harder to understand your finances and can create more work when it is time to prepare your taxes.
What Is Small Business Bookkeeping?
Bookkeeping is the process of recording and organizing your business's financial transactions.
This can include:
Recording business income
Categorizing expenses
Reconciling bank and credit card accounts
Organizing receipts
Recording payments and purchases
Tracking accounts payable and receivable
Reviewing financial reports
Keeping financial records up to date
The goal is to maintain accurate records so you know what is happening financially in your business.
Why Is Bookkeeping Important for Edmonton Businesses?
Accurate bookkeeping gives you a clearer picture of your business.
Without organized records, it can be difficult to answer basic questions such as:
How much money did my business make this month?
What are my biggest expenses?
Am I actually making a profit?
How much money is coming in and going out?
Which customers still owe me money?
Can I afford to make a new business purchase?
Keeping your books up to date allows you to make decisions using current financial information instead of trying to piece everything together at the end of the year.
How Often Should a Small Business Do Its Bookkeeping?
The right schedule depends on the size and activity of the business.
Some businesses may only need their books reviewed periodically, while businesses with a larger number of transactions may benefit from monthly or more frequent bookkeeping.
For many small businesses, monthly bookkeeping is a practical option.
Monthly bookkeeping can include:
Recording and categorizing transactions
Reconciling bank accounts
Reconciling credit cards
Reviewing financial records
Preparing basic financial reports
Identifying unusual or missing transactions
Keeping up with your books throughout the year is generally easier than trying to organize months of transactions all at once.
Should You Use QuickBooks Online?
QuickBooks Online is a popular accounting software option for small businesses. It can help you track income and expenses, connect bank accounts, create invoices, and generate financial reports.
However, accounting software does not automatically guarantee accurate bookkeeping.
Transactions still need to be reviewed and categorized correctly. Bank feeds can contain duplicate transactions, incorrect categories, transfers that need to be matched, and other issues that require attention.
Using QuickBooks Online together with proper bookkeeping can give a small business owner much better financial records.
What Does a Bookkeeper Do?
A bookkeeper helps keep your financial records organized and up to date.
Depending on your business, bookkeeping services may include:
Monthly bookkeeping
Bank and credit card reconciliations
Transaction categorization
Financial reporting
Catch-up bookkeeping
Bookkeeping clean-up
Accounts payable and receivable support
QuickBooks Online support
A bookkeeper generally focuses on maintaining accurate financial records, while an accountant or tax professional may handle more specialized accounting and tax work.
How Much Does Bookkeeping Cost in Edmonton?
The cost of bookkeeping can vary considerably depending on the business.
Factors that can affect the cost include:
Number of monthly transactions
Number of bank and credit card accounts
Payroll requirements
Accounts payable and receivable
Condition of the existing books
Complexity of the business
Frequency of bookkeeping
A small business with a relatively low number of transactions may have much different bookkeeping needs than a business processing thousands of transactions every month.
Instead of choosing a bookkeeping service based solely on price, consider what is included and whether the service fits your business's needs.
What Happens If Your Bookkeeping Falls Behind?
It is common for small business owners to fall behind on their bookkeeping.
You may start with only a few transactions each month, but as the business grows, the bookkeeping can become more difficult to keep up with.
When this happens, catch-up or clean-up bookkeeping can help bring the records up to date.
A bookkeeping clean-up may involve reviewing previous transactions, correcting categorization issues, reconciling accounts, and identifying missing information.
Once the books are caught up, monthly bookkeeping can help prevent the same problem from happening again.
When Should You Hire a Bookkeeper?
You may want to consider hiring a bookkeeper if:
Your bookkeeping is consistently falling behind
You are spending too much time entering transactions
Your bank accounts are not reconciled
You are unsure whether your financial reports are accurate
Your business has grown significantly
You have multiple accounts to manage
You want more time to focus on running your business
You do not necessarily need a large accounting firm to get help with your bookkeeping. Many small businesses simply need reliable monthly bookkeeping to keep their records organized.
Edmonton Small Business Bookkeeping
For Edmonton small business owners, keeping accurate financial records throughout the year can make managing a business much easier.
Whether you need ongoing monthly bookkeeping, financial reports, or help catching up on overdue bookkeeping, having organized records gives you a better understanding of your business.
YEG Bookkeeping provides bookkeeping services for small businesses in Edmonton and surrounding communities, including monthly bookkeeping, reconciliations, financial reporting, and catch-up and clean-up bookkeeping.
Keeping your books up to date does not have to be complicated. The important thing is to establish a system that works for your business and maintain it consistently.
