The "Accounting" end of a photography business - Help & Guidance?

[JeremyD]

Greetings everyone,

I am just entering the wedding industry and I am now receiving income, having monthly/yearly expenses, and would like to list my assets and liabilities and keep it all in track.

I was wondering if any of you guys knew any programs, websites, templates, suggestions on how to keep all of this in order too keep myself organized. I am not running a huge business (yet) however I would love to have my finances organized in the start as I snowball my business.

I know excel is a great program, however I need to get the mac version if I wanted that.

Also if you guys have any tips, tricks, ideas for doing this feel free to let me know! I am hear to learn.

Many thanks,
Jeremy

 

[cgw116 141]

With tax filing time at hand, you really should spend the $ and sit down with a CA-CPA/CGA and get things set-up. Money spent now could very likely save you the headache and expense of a possible CRA audit down the line.

 

[Tiller]

Quickbooks is the #1 best small business software. Hands down. Coming from a small business accountant who uses Quickbooks all day every day.

 

[tirediron]

Agree on Quickbooks, but cgw's advice is spot on! Spend the couple of hundred dollars to sit down with a CPA for an hour or two and have him/her take you through everything you need to do.

 

[JeremyD]

Thank you everyone for the tips! When I start booking more weddings I will sit down with a CA-CPA/CGA for sure. I did some research on quickbooks and it's exactly what I am looking for! Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.

I agree it is important to spend the money now to get everything sorted out, audits are never fun..

 

[DBA]

For the software portion Quickbooks Online is perfect, keeps track of your expenses and more importantly has a way to invoice clients (and have them pay online via credit card).

I'd also suggest sitting down with a CPA.

 

[astroNikon]

Sit down with a CPA before hand, then you will know how to properly catergorize your expenses, equipment, income, marketing costs, etc so that tax time won't seem like you haven't tracked anything all year. The money up front will save you a *ton* of time come tax ... which usually comes much faster than most people think, especially when the IRS sends you a stub for quarterly taxes when you thought you had an entire year.

And the CPA will identify local, state and federal taxes that you'll have to know too, good for knowing your total profit and income you can actually take, rather than scrambling for catch-up revenue (jobs or selling equipment) to pay taxes.