One of the biggest sources of headaches and wasted time is mis-management of paperwork, and paperwork clutter.  Without a simple filing system and process in place, you create future work & double work.  Follow these tips to successfully wrangle your paperwork flow!

• Put it in it's home as soon as it comes in - To avoid the dreaded pile of paperwork that buries what needs to be done and adds clutter to your life and mind, follow the 'touch it once' rule. When you open your mail, file it right away. Have a stapler and staple multi-page mail right away! Setting up your system ahead of time so it all has a home is a huge time saver, and saves brain bandwidth! 
  
  
• File Folder Homes - For your business paperwork, I suggest 6 folder types;
  1. To Be Processed - This folder is for bills and receipts that need to be entered into the bookkeeping. It also is where to file the bank statements before the bank is reconciled. Every week on your #WeeklyWinDay you must go through this folder and enter the paperwork into the bookkeeping. If you get in paperwork that does not need processing, DO NOT FILE IT IN THIS FOLDER. File it directly in it's monthly folder, or in the Year End folder.
     *VERY IMPORTANT*: If you do not enter the "To Be Processed" folder weekly, then you should have a "To Be Processed" file for every month. ("To be processed January", "To be processed February", etc) This way, if you get behind, or if you give your paperwork to an outsourced bookkeeper IT IS ALREADY SORTED BY MONTH! I cannot stress enough how important this is. 7/8/21 can be both July 8th or Aug 7th. It is a waste of time to sort by date, especially with guessing on cryptic dates. This will not need to be done if you file it in the correct month as the paperwork comes in. Do not make double work! Keep it easy! Don't pay someone to do something that could have been done magically without any actual work simply by employing this super hack!
     
     
  2. To Be Paid - Once a bill entered into the bookkeeping on your #WeeklyWinDay from your "To Be Processed" folder, if it is a bill that needs paying, then you can move it to your "To Be Paid" folder. On the 15th of every month (or your #WeeklyWinDay that comes before the 15th), open this "To Be Paid" folder and pay all of the bills for the month prior.
     
     
  3. 12 Monthly Folders - One for each month, with the year. "Jan 2021" "Feb 2021" etc. Once processed, your paperwork can now be filed by month. That is, once the receipts are entered, file them in their month. Once the bill is paid, file it in it's month. Once the Bank Statement is reconciled, file it in it's month. If you get in anything that does not need entering, you can just file it directly into it's month.
     
     
  4. Year End Folder - For example "Year End 2021". This folder is for A) All those items you want to have handy and ready for your Year End Tax prep (I put in copies of asset purchases for example), and B) all of those items that are not related to a specific month, such as Insurance Renewal, Property Taxes, Annual Mortgage Statements etc. It will also be where your final tax return goes for the year once completed. If you have employees, it is where your T4s will go once filed.
     
     
  5. Employee Files - A file per employee, if you have employees.
     
     
  6. Permanent - For your business license and a handful of other items that you do not wish to file away each year.
     
     
• File Folders, hanging folders, and plastic file boxes - The easiest and most convenient way to file paperwork is in file folders, in hanging folders, in plastic file boxes.  File Folders should have a clear title written on them. (If you want printable labels for the suggested folders above, you can download them here!). File folders in Hanging Folders are EXPONENTIALLY easier to use and access.  Those accordion style filing contraptions may be 'pretty', but they are also pretty annoying, hard to store, difficult to file in and out of, and the receipts fall between the gaps at the bottom.  Also, the cardboard file boxes that many people use  do not accommodate hanging folders, damage easily, and are scary to stack.  The best advice is to store in plastic file boxes. These are water resistant and sturdy. My favorite boxes I get at Staples. Another great box, for smaller businesses or traveling paperwork, is this box from Amazon. In the current year, all my files are in hanging folders, but for past years, I take the file folders out of the hanging folders and archive them without the heavy hanging folders. For archiving, hanging folders take up space and weight. But for the current year, hanging folders make life much easier. Also, don't file "legal" direction. It wastes so much space! 95% of your files are letter sized, so file "letter" direction to save so much space!!! 

Habits and routines are KEY in maintaining your data management. Do you constantly forget to brush your teeth in the morning? Probably not, because it is part of your morning routine. Habits can be a bad thing, but, they can also be good when implemented consciously! Intentionally create routines and processes that your future self with thank you later for. Let’s review some suggestions for routines to help you create your processes:

•  Do your bookkeeping data entry every week, or every month. Do not wait longer than a month. You want to know what last month’s reports are showing within two weeks of the month ending.

• Set aside a special day and time to work on your paperwork and bookkeeping. You must make time for it. It must become a habit or ritual. I call it the “Weekly Win Day”. Every Saturday morning, grab your car folder you brought indoors the night before, grab your notebook, grab a coffee or a glass of wine, put on some jazz music, and enter your paperwork. Relax and enjoy it. Relish the feeling of being on top of your paperwork. This is your story, this is your data, this is your business. 

• Set aside a special day and time to work on your paperwork and bookkeeping. You must make time for it. It must become a habit or ritual. I call it the “Weekly Win Day”. This is not repeated because of a typo. It is repeated because it is extremely important! You could choose one Super Saturday morning every month, and put the entire month in, from start to finish, or take a few minutes every morning to enter the paperwork from the day before, and to clear your bank feed. Maybe you choose to set aside a Fabulous Friday morning, and put in the previous week. Maybe you choose a Magic Monday night, (magic, because your paperwork get’s magically done!). Whatever works for you. Though, I do suggest weekly. If it is not you doing the actual bookkeeping, you will still need to set time aside either daily or weekly to manage your paperwork, and correspond with the bookkeeper, forwarding requesting documents that you may have missed. Trust me, you’ll always be missing something.

• Aim to intentionally stick with this weekly routine for Four weeks. Studies show that it takes about three weeks to create a new habit. If you cannot maintain the routine, do not be disappointed with yourself. Acknowledge that the routine you set up does not work for you and change the environment or routine such that it does work for you. Catch up and never give up. The bigger the pile grows, the less you will enjoy doing it. Doing a few minutes a day entering the transactions from the day before may work better for you than having a growing pile staring at you every week.

• Use technology and processes together to make your life easier.  For example, I only ever buy gas at Esso, and I only use my business bank account to fill my business vehicle. Because of that real life rule I’ve created for myself “Only Buy GAS at Esso, and ALL gas paid with card X is the Business Vehicle”, I can set up an auto rule in my bank feed on Quickbooks to put all Esso transactions from that card to “Vehicle Gas” expense, without me even looking at it or touching the app.  Learn the tech, it will make your life easier.  Work with your tech, it will make your life beautiful.

• If you fall behind, catch up and never give up. When catching up, do one month at a time, from start to finish. If you are doing your own bookkeeping, reconcile that one month (confirm all entries in the bookkeeping are on the bank statement and credit card statement) and solve unknowns before moving onto the next month. Entering more than one month at time may cause you to repeat errors that you would have understood and resolved when reconciling the first month, if you had focused on one month at a time. Entering and reconciling one month at a time when doing catch up also helps the pile seem surmountable. If you are not trying to tackle a huge pile, just one month at a time, and it will feel more manageable.

• Write down important due dates, such as GST/HST, payroll taxes, tax installments, etc., on your calendar. Every Monday morning check this calendar to see what government due dates need to be paid that week. If you’re ready, go ahead and pay them on this weekly win day. No one says you have to pay ON the due date. Paying a few days early, on your weekly win day, takes it off your “I have to remember to do this” list. Remembering that you have to do something takes up Brain Bandwidth. You only have so much bandwidth, spend it wisely!

• Looking at what is due once a week and paying it then and there is a great way to be efficient with your brain bandwidth, and also saves you from late penalties. Don’t give CRA more money than you have to! This is why I suggest a Fabulous Friday, Super Saturday or Sunday, or a Magic Monday, so that you can not only take care of the paperwork from the week that just passed, but you can also prepare yourself for the coming week. If you choose to do a Fabulous Friday (which is a great idea because the week has only just finished), the write down a to do note for yourself Monday Morning, and start your work week off on the right foot.

• Every month look at your unpaid bills list and your unpaid invoices list. Clear up anything that does not make sense. Look at these lists monthly even if you have outsourced your bookkeeping.

• Create and keep a monthly checklist. Checklists hold more power than you realize. Make sure everything is done on that checklist. Find an example Business Checklist here

• Checklists and Calendars are how you win. Your brain has a limited amount of bandwidth. Spend it wisely. 

• Every month review the Income Statement and compare it to the prior few months. Make sure there is nothing that jumps out as missing or incorrect. Then really take an analytical eye to it, and see if there are higher expenses in certain places than you realized. Are you happy with the profit? Why or why not? 

• You should also plan to put aside a percentage of your monthly profit into a savings account for income tax each month. Unlike employees, no one is deducting income tax from your income for you! As your business profit increases, so will your taxes. Your accountant can suggest a percentage based on your situation. I personally do 20%

• Every month, review the Balance Sheet. Make sure there is nothing that jumps out as missing or incorrect. Then take a look at how much Shareholder Draws or Equity you have pulled out so far. Is this greater or less than the profit of the business so far? Then see how much your GST/HST payable balance has increased from last month. 

• Each month put the GST/HST you have collected for the month into your business savings account and do not touch it. You can also put aside any other liabilities collected, such as payroll deductions from employees for the month, into this bank account. 

• Reward yourself with a fancy beverage of your choice as you bathe in the completion of another month’s worth of information tracking. Feel the control you have over your business.

​I cannot understate how much time and money these intentional and simple things can save! It only takes 10 seconds to put the receipt into a folder in your car instead of tossing it in the back seat and having to search and gather all your paperwork later on. So make this a habit. You may find that entering your expenses every week only takes about 30 minutes for your business once you begin to get quicker at it. If you leave it until it is a large pile, sorting through all the papers will end up taking exponentially longer. Reconciling the bank every month, and clearing the bank feed every week, helps if there is a transaction that is missing a receipt. You will have a much better chance of remembering what that transaction was and was for. Set up and start these processes, routines, habits, and rituals now, and your business will be humming along later instead of careening off the rails.
Make these routines your own, but make them. I call it “Setting Up Your Success Routine”. Studies have shown that it takes about three weeks to create a new habit. Also, keep in mind that changing Systems is Easier Than Changing Behaviors. If your system fails, don’t try and change your behavior; try to change your system. 
Pill boxes marked with the days of the week is a good example of changing a system instead of a behavior. We often have the best intentions, but we often forget until something is worked into our routine. Even routines are systems that may need changing. If you forget to take your medication each day, simply trying to change only your behavior is often a failing challenge. Change the system, change the routine. Maybe you could put your medication bottle next to your coffee maker and take your pill every time you make your morning coffee. You may find that then the question becomes, ‘did I take the medication’? Tweak the routine, buy a pill box marked with the days of the week, and refill it for Sunday to Saturday the moment you take your Saturday pill. 
Use this perspective as you develop your business routines. If they are not working, change them. It is easier to change a routine or process than to try and change just the behavior. If Friday nights do not work for you, try a time that does, such as Monday mornings. 
Work with yourself. There’s the phrase “Don't change your habits, change your habitat.” For example, do you constantly leave your socks on the floor in the living room? Put a hamper in the living room.   Do you constantly leave paperwork on that side desk in the hallways? Put a folder there specifically for the business documents.  Willpower is hard to control. We have more control over our environment, so set up the environment such that these processes are easier to put into practice. Our brain has less bandwidth than we think, and we will forget things that we were confident that we would remember. But we rarely forget to brush our teeth! Similarly, set up habits and routines that need no brain bandwidth to maintain, and you will set yourself, and your business, up for success.

Amazon activity on credit cards, and emails confirming that *something* got shipped.  Some purchases have GST/HST, some do not.  As a bookkeeper when I ask my clients for what the Amazon charge was for, and they have to dig into their history to see if it was business or personal, it sucks valuable time out of both of our busy days!
Here enters the solution!!!  Amazon Business Prime!  You can add your office manager as a user, and they can prep an order, and you just click confirm!  You can add your bookkeeper as a user that has view only privileges, and they no longer need you to dig into things for them!  And no needing to remember to switch the payment method from your personal to business credit card!  An exclusive business Amazon Prime account is a great HackStack tool!
If that isn't good enough news, if you already have a personal account, they'll drop the annual prime business fee from $120 to $35 a month!  BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!  If you have Dext set up, you can connect your Amazon Prime Account to your Receipt Bank and have the 'invoices' fetched and ready to sync with your bookkeeping software!
Did you know about Amazon Business Prime?  I think it's the cat's pyjamas! :) 

#BeThatBusiness that has it's #HackStack set up to save time and money!