What does a well-kept set of books look like?
Books are well kept when every movement of money can be traced to the document behind it. It has nothing to do with tidiness, and you can check it in ten minutes.
The definition, and the test
For every payment in and every payment out, the matching document exists and can be found: an invoice, a contract, a receipt. Nothing has to be pieced back together — the information is taken as it stands, and the accounts follow.
Open your bank statement. For each line, can you produce the matching document? Recognising a payment is not enough — you need the document. If you manage it for every movement, your books are kept.
The markers
A bank account in the company's name, separate from your personal accounts.
Every movement attached to its document, and documents you can actually read — a clean scan or a PDF, not a blurred photograph with a corner missing.
A clear line between business and personal spending.
Payment references that say something: “Supplier X — invoice 042” rather than an amount on its own.
Sales invoiced in a continuous number sequence, each one reconcilable with the payment that settles it.
What makes a file harder to work with
The credit card. It bundles several purchases into one deferred line and often arrives with no receipt: the link between the movement and its document is lost. It is also a point of attention during an inspection — a personal expense run through the company is reclassified, with the consequences that follow. Paying straight from the company account avoids the problem.
The mixed account. Business and personal on the same account means sorting every line, and it blurs the boundary between two sets of assets that are meant to stay apart.
Cash. Cash leaves no bank trail: it is the slowest flow to rebuild. Handling cash calls for a separate record.
Missing documents. A payment with nothing behind it is not deductible, and the input VAT cannot be reclaimed. The expense is real; without its document it simply costs more.
We bill for time spent. Each of these adds hours — not because the work is harder, but because we have to go looking before we can start.
Not sure what state your books are in?
Tell us your situation and we will tell you what it involves and what it costs.
Get in touch