I know. I’m a frugal small business owner. I am always looking for a new way to pinch a penny. After being burned so many times though on some of my penny pinching forays, I have come up with a few must do’s when it comes to spending money wisely.
I originally started using spreadsheets to do my accounting. I mean, I am very technically proficient — I used to believe I could build any solution that I needed to run my business. I had elaborate spreadsheets with tabs for each of my financial accounts.
I realize it was dumb, but I was too frugal (err, cheap) to buy Quickbooks. I had spreadsheet tabs for all of my fixed assets. Sheets that even calculated depreciation that were rolled up to my master sheets with balance sheet like data, and an income statement type of sheet.
Of course I laugh at myself now when I even think about what foolishness I was trying to accomplish.
Now I would never go without Quickbooks for my basic accounting. And, since I run a highly intensive fixed asset business (a computer training facility), I have come to learn about the importance of businesses keeping a fixed asset register. Just the first few tax forms I filled out convinced me I was wrong in doing it the way I was.
As compared to my former spreadsheets, my fixed asset manager software allows me to:
Tracking each asset’s value
Print off asset reports from a financial perspective and from an asset tracking basis (don’t need any assets to walk off)
Keep up with my depreciation, useful life, and even an estimated replacement value
Maintain an accurate fixed assets list which I use for my annual local business tas filings (they charge me on estimate current value)
I guess I can say honestly that my move towards being smarter with my money has given me more time to manage my businesss instead of hacking up my monstrosity of a spreadsheet. It is just amazing how much more profitable my business has become when I concentrate on actually running the business!
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