In the previous post we jotted down a list of expenses to start you off. Below, Neil, Leslie, Stefan, Jay and Cat talk about the practicalities of the money side of business.

Neil’s into numbers

During my office era, we had our accountant do everything. We focused on the business of design. Our accountant focused on crunching numbers. When we set the business up, one of the first things we did was start a relationship with a bank and set up a separate business account.

Today, I’m a one-man show and do my bookkeeping with QuickBooks Pro. It’s easy and I can generate all sorts of reports, do my invoicing, time sheets and such. Come tax time, I run out the general ledger, profit and loss statements, etc and my accountant takes it from there.

Neil (nt) Tortorella | Marketing Manager
Tortorella Design | The Marketing Mind | Creative Latitude | BoDo Team | Marketing Minute

Stefan’s into services

When I looked at the fact that the time I spend doing my own payroll amounts to quite a bit of non-billable hours, the choice for me was really pretty simple. Since we are a smaller firm, payroll services are really inexpensive and they’ll even take care of sending the taxes.

However, we do have an accountant that handles our year end tax preparation and will help with reconciling the account as well as any taxes associated with business income. Other than that, I still manage my own payables and receivables using Quickbooks.

Stefan Bean | President/Creative Director
Pulse Creative Partners, Inc. | BoDo Author | Bean’s Biz

Leslie recommends accountants

I have separate accounts and I do my own bookkeeping, but I have a background in it. I use QuickBooks and I recommend it to others. I also recommend getting a good accountant. They can save you loads of money–much more than they cost. If a creative simply will not follow this advice, I recommend TurboTax for tax preparation (it integrates well with QB and is relatively easy to use).

Also, I firmly believe that a creative should spend as much of her/his time doing what s/he does best, not screwing around with stuff they aren’t so good at, with the intention of saving money. An accountant and a bookkeeper are great tools to help a creative be creative and not get bogged down with stuff s/he doesn’t do well.

Leslie Burns-Dell’Acqua | Creative/Marketing Consultant & Coach
Burns Auto Parts–Consultants | Burns Auto Parts blog | Podcast | Book

Jay minds her own business

Putting time aside to get through the administration tasks is vital for every business owner. Even if you hire staff to take the drudgery off your hands, you have to know how your profitability and cash flow are going at any time.

I use MYOB for my accounts: It has all the features I need and my accountant imports the end of year file straight into their software. At least once a fortnight, I make sure my accounts are up to date and everything in my red tray (the repository of all my paperwork) is processed and filed away.

My diary has all the important dates: payment and document lodgment dates clearly marked with leadup reminders for those that need me to do some preparation.

Jeanette (jay) Wickham | Systems Manager
FastCoconut.com | NO!SPEC | BoDo Team | Ask jay

Then there’s a Cat in a box

I started out with a box.
When the box was full,
it was time to get a new box,
a bigger box,
or handle the accounts.

Kidding.

I’m pretty bad at money management. Luckily, along with my “if you don’t have it don’t spend it” policy, I have a “if you don’t have the mindset, hire someone who can” philosophy.

When I got to the point where the stress of keeping up with designing, clients, staff, marketing, accounts, etc., was overwhelming, I knew I had to do something creative. I paid to have an employee trained on MYOB. Problem solved. Mostly.

Catherine (cat) Morley | Project Manager
Creative Latitude | NO!SPEC | Katz-i | FastCoconut.com | BoDo team

The recap of the Starting Out and Setting Up Series is on Friday. YEAH! It’s over! [dancing a jig here] Apologies. We’ll stop screwing around and get on with an introduction to the second Ask jay, where she also deals with the money issue.

Until then,
The BoDo Team
cat - nt - jay