Good bookkeeping is not simply about entering every invoice into a system. The goal is to keep transactions properly classified, balances reconcilable, and supporting documents available when they are needed.
What should be current each month?
- Sales, purchases and operating expenses.
- Bank and company-card activity.
- Customer and supplier balances.
- Recurring entries and adjustments.
- Supporting documentation for transactions.
How do you know the books are under control?
Management should be able to ask about revenue, expenses, cash, receivables, payables and profitability and receive an answer from current records rather than from a last-minute spreadsheet exercise.
Where do you start if the books are behind?
Start from the latest reliable period, then work forward through transactions, documents and reconciliations until the business is back on a repeatable monthly cycle.