Virtual Accounting FirmsWhat you still write down

Name the deposit.

A bank line that says only a number is not a deposit until you say what it was. A customer, a refund, a transfer from yourself, or money that is not income at all. We can guess, and the guess will be wrong often enough to matter.

The habit is small. When the money lands, you put a few words where you will remember them. A note in the bank memo is enough. We would rather read your words than invent a category to make the feed look finished.

Shops that skip this end the year with a large bucket called other. The return then argues with the owner about what the year even was. The argument started on a Tuesday when a deposit had no name.

Approve the bill.

A bill is a decision. We can show you that it arrived and that it matches a purchase you already described. We should not decide that you want it paid. That yes or no is yours, and the close is more honest when the unpaid ones stay visible.

Owners sometimes ask us to just clear the list. Clearing a list by approving everything is how a margin disappears. Leave the doubtful one on the list. The list is a document. An empty list can be a cover up.

If you are the only person who knows whether a vendor did the work, the approval cannot be delegated to someone reading a PDF. We will read the PDF. You still know the work.

See the sales tax figure first.

The payment leaves on the date that state prints. Before it leaves, you should have seen the figure in the month it belongs to. We put it there. You look. If it is wrong, the day before is the day to say so, not the day after the money moved.

This is the same instinct as a Wednesday you already keep. A ritual works because someone looks on the day, not because a story about the ritual survives. Your look is the ritual. Our figure is what you look at.

None of the three chores requires you to code a journal entry. They require you to know your own shop. That knowledge is the part we cannot honestly rent.

Where to go from here.