Nobody would blame you for using the cheapest bookkeeper around to do your books. You work hard for your money so the last thing you want is to shell out even more on a professional to take a chunk by doing it for you. The good news is that you don’t need to go back to university to get a degree or have any other formal qualifications to do the books for your business.
Whether it’s doing online research to build up your experience or using a bookkeeping app that makes doing your books easy, here are four quick and easy tips on how to learn bookkeeping at home.
- Get Familiar With Bookkeeping Terms and Phrases
- Do Your Own Online Research
- Take Advantage of Tutorials
- Use an App That Makes Bookkeeping Easy
1. Get Familiar With Bookkeeping Terms and Phrases
We won’t lie, there's a lot of information to take in when it comes to bookkeeping. Rather than jumping in the deep end right away, try and get familiar with some bookkeeping terms and phrases.
It gives you a better idea of what to expect and what things mean when it comes to bookkeeping. Accounts receivable, balance sheets, chart of accounts - these are just some of the useful bookkeeping terms you’ll need to know. And that’s just scratching the surface.
Useful Tip: Try and look for easy-to-understand glossaries which you can read and bookmark to keep things fresh. You might find the perfect guide which has every bookkeeping term you need to know about, but it’s no good if it’s full of confusing jargon that you don’t understand. Look for one that breaks down the terms into much simpler definitions.
2. Do Your Online Own Online Research
Thankfully, there are plenty of resources online that can help you with what you need to know. You can Google an answer for pretty much anything, so you can be sure that you’ll find whatever bookkeeping-related query you have online.
After you get to grips with some terms, look to gain some knowledge on specific processes. After all, you’re going to do your books so you should know how some bookkeeping functions work.
Look into receiving and process invoices for payment, process payroll if you need to, calculate profit and loss and much more. Knowing how to do all of this is going to make is super easy to do your books moving forward.
Useful Tip: Go online and read some blogs. You’ll find the best ones don’t overcomplicate things. You’ll even find helpful information and some tips and tricks that you can benefit from.
3. Take Advantage of Tutorials
To help you get to grips with all things bookkeeping, and even tax, head over to HMRC for some extra help. They’ve got some convenient and helpful e-learning tutorials you can take part in at your own pace.
Along with tutorials, they have webinars too that you can watch for added help and support as you get familiar with bookkeeping. Believe it or not, it’s all free from HMRC as well so it can be useful for you to at least try them out once. If it’s not for you, go back to step two and learn bookkeeping your way.
Useful Tip: Although this requires you to step out of your home, HMRC also has some free workshops and seminars you can attend. It’s great to extend your knowledge of bookkeeping and learn new skills. In the end, doing all of this is to help you do your books right and keep HMRC off your back.
4. Use an App That Makes Digital Bookkeeping Easy
The best way to learn bookkeeping at home is to download an easy-to-navigate app and learn how it works. As we said, you don’t need formal degrees or qualifications to do your own books.
Plus, with the Making Tax Digital (MTD) initiative coming into play, it’s time to dive into technology anyway so it’s a great starting point.
A bookkeeping app should make doing your books and tracking all of your expenses a breeze. If you find an app that makes the entire process more long-winded, then it’s one to avoid. Tax is going digital, so some essential features to look out for include:
- Customer Invoicing.
- Business Bookkeeping.
- Finance Reporting.
- Online Sync.
Useful Tip: Don’t make the mistake of looking for an app that’s packed full of too many features. The complexity can make bookkeeping even more confusing. We recommend finding a bookkeeping app that’s in plain English and only includes the features you’ll benefit from.
Do Bookkeeping the Right Way With Your Very Own Checklist
Learning about bookkeeping to do your books means you’ll be endlessly searching on how you can keep on top of it all. The points we’ve mentioned above are all good ways to start the learning process, but there’s more to know about how to manage it all as you go along.
That’s why we’ve created a handy checklist so you can do bookkeeping like a pro. It’s packed full of useful tips on why doing your own books is important, tips on getting started, how to maintain it and what to look for in the right software.
Get your free copy below.
