How to stay on top of your accounts in the Christmas rush

It can be so easy to lose track of your finances during a hectic festive season. There can be so many things to do for most businesses, let alone those who rely on the Christmas season to give their business a lift. In my husband’s previous business running a cheese shop in a busy London street, from mid-November on things started to get busy and then come December we barely saw him until he got home at lunchtime on Christmas Eve and slumped onto the sofa exhausted, so we understand how much work Christmas can be.

If you can keep your finances in order during this period then it will really help you get back on track in January and there are a few small things you can do in December that will really make a difference.

If you can, spending around 15 minutes at the end of each day dealing with payments, invoices and other financial information can really help you keep on top of the most important things during December. It’ll save everything building up and needing urgent attention at the start of January.

If this is too much then keep all receipts and invoices in some kind of order, this will make them much easier to deal with at a later date.

Set all payments in advance. When you receive an invoice, immediately set it to pay on its due date. Set up staff payments. This ensures that everyone who needs to get paid gets paid and you don’t need to worry about it when you’ve got some time off and you can enjoy Christmas.

Keep a note at the time of any issues with payments, anomalies, or potential errors so that you know what they are and you don’t need to rack your brains when you back to them later.

If none of that is possible for you then you always have the option of a bookkeeper to keep your finances in order or sort things out for you in January. They can also report on your business performance over Christmas so you don’t need to go in and analyse the finances yourself.

Have a great December.