Small businesses & taxes – The documents are arriving in the mail, along with our tax organizer packages. This article is step by step advice for keeping track of these papers, particularly for your small business. I’ve included links to other articles I’ve written about papers at home and in our businesses, at the bottom of this blog entry.
Smead Organomics expanding file is in use at many home offices and here’s how.
Smead SuperTab Expanding File
- Keep this portfolio nearby, so it’s easy to simply “drop in” receipts for purchases, education, car maintenance and such.
- Use a front pocket to have a holding place for papers you bring into the office.
- Set up the tabs to correspond to the business tax categories (schedule C, for example).
- Update your accounting software weekly (ish). Then drop the paper into one of the tab files.
- When the year is over, pull the large elastic around the folder, and you’re off to visit your accountant. (Probably saving you money since you’re organized.)
- File away the year’s documents altogether, along with a pc file copy of digital paperwork – or just a note with file locations. Put these somewhere where you don’t run into them everyday. They don’t need to be in your everyday space.
- If you have ideas for making your process easier next year, write them down now, while the ideas are fresh. Keep the ideas list somewhere that’s intuitive for you. Suggestions include: on your paper/pc calendar, in January of next year; in a file folder on your pc where you collect all your tax information; in your new expanding file you’re about to go buy so you can start this year with a home for papers you collect during the year.
ALWAYS keep tax backup documents based on what your own accountant says; his/her needs override any generic advice you may read, because only your accountant knows your particular situation.
More papers to deal with than just the financials? Paper-related blog articles are below with a link.
And if you find you need side-by-side assistance, a private organizing/coaching meeting, to help with creating or updating your home and home office systems, please email or call 603.554.1948 to see how that works with me. I work in person and I also work virtually, because sometimes it’s not about the papers; it’s more about your own thought processes, habits, motivation or creating a system that works for how you’re wired.
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Tags: home office, Papers, Smead, tax document organizing, taxes
Good point about following your accountant’s advice. What my accountant asked me to do is very different from what others do. And the added benefit for me to record all my business transactions on a spreadsheet keeps me aware of where the money is going.