When Melinda used to teach new business owners about bookkeeping, she always shared that bookkeeping truly has three keys to success – Organization, Consistency, and Discipline (and if the acronym OCD fits any bookkeeper, you know, now you know why). Let’s focus a moment on Consistency – and why it’s so important. To run clean, useful books, you want to consistently categorize expenses similarly. When you do, you can look at comparisons over time and understand how and why those expenses may shift and change. If you are not consistent, you fall into the trap that we see far too often. Instead of being able to look at your financials and see valuable insights, you look at the financials and start realizing that things are all over the place and therefore do not allow for any insights or comparisons.
Perhaps it’s not that bad. Maybe instead of being all over the place, it’s slightly inconsistent but in some impactful ways. However, you are still stuck in the same place and one that we believe is a primary reason why folks don’t use their financials more often. If things are even a bit inconsistent, you spend your time looking at the financials and trying to figure out what’s off or inconsistent. You spend time re-doing the bookkeeping because you didn’t get it right the first time. No wonder it doesn’t feel valuable! That’s not a good use of your time. Instead, when you look at your financials, you should immediately be able to move into strategy/analysis mode and let the financials tell the story – the TRUE story – of what’s happening.
At Zumifi, we believe that a commitment to Consistency can transform your relationship with your numbers. So if you need help building consistency into your everyday books, call us!