Bookkeeping

lynseydee

I wasn't sure where abouts to put this but could really use some help.

My husband has started up a business and I have said I would do the books. I don't have any experience but our accountant has given me an excel spreadsheet to use and I have found it quite easy to manage the books but my problem is that I find the spreadsheet a bit complicating and would like something a bit easier. I was wondering if there was anyone here who did bookkeeping that could point me in the direction of an easy to use excel spreadsheet or if they had a spreadsheet that I could potentially use.

I would really appreciate anything.

geordie_joe

lynseydee wrote: »

I don't have any experience but our accountant has given me an excel spreadsheet to use and I have found it quite easy to manage the books but my problem is that I find the spreadsheet a bit complicating and would like something a bit easier.

If you accountant gave you the spreadsheet then I assume it is because they would prefer you to use it.

Try sticking with it a while, it should get easier too use when you become more familiar with it.

If you do get another spreadsheet that you would prefer to use, check it with your accountant first.

lynseydee

The only reason our accountant gave us their spreadsheet was so that if anything did need checking or I was unsure of anything he said they would be able to suss it out easier as it is one of theirs and what his staff are used to working with. He would be quite happy for me to use any method that I was happy with. Friends of ours still do theirs manually and he's fine with that.

The ledger our friends use basically just shows the ins and outs. Our spreadsheets does the ins and then the outs in relation to the bank statements which show the ins and outs.

I would just like something that shows money coming in, money going out, whether we've made a loss or a profit and the amount we need to pay the tax man.

bel_2

Hi Lynsey
I still use a manual ledger for my accounts, I don't trust putting all my accounts onto my computer as the flipping thing always crashes and im terrible at backing up stuff (lazy eh?) I did a bookkeeping course with ICS which I did in my own time at home, it was great, easy to follow and there was help all along the way. My hubby and I have been in business now for 20 years and I still use the same system. I had NO previous account experience at all. I can highly recommend it. Good Luck, Linda

lynseydee

Hi Bel, thanks for that. I seem to be managing with the excel spreadsheet as it does add everything up for me and I have always got the accountant if I'm not 100% on anything (which hopefully will be less the more I do it and I have only been doing the books for six months so have managed to pick it up quite quickly). My only problem is that compared to my friend who does hers manually I seem to be inputting information twice where she just records her ins and her outs and deducts one from the other (I think that was what she was explaining to me anyway). Just want to know if there is an easier way of doing it in excel.

bel_2

Have you thought about buying a accounting programme, I've never used them myself but I have heard that 'Quickbooks' or 'Sage' are very good and user friendly.

hjd

Sage is not user friendly and is much too expensive for what it is.
You could also try MYOB (Mind your own business) and Quickbooks are OK.
Excel spreadsheet should be fine and if done properly shouldn't need to enter stuff twice. Best to sit down with the accountant and go through it - you'll have to pay for the time but should save money in the end.

Willman_Rodders

Hi Lynsey,

My only problem is that compared to my friend who does hers manually I seem to be inputting information twice where she just records her ins and her outs and deducts one from the other (I think that was what she was explaining to me anyway). Just want to know if there is an easier way of doing it in excel.

When using a computer you should not need to duplicate much information. Also, when using a simple spreadsheet in Excel, all the basic calculations should be done for you by the computer.

By learning three simple formulae you can achieve a great deal with Excel.
Lets assume you are working on a worksheet called 'sheet1' - you can see the name of the worksheet on the tab at the bottom of your worksheet. You want to add up all your entries in column 'C' on the worksheet, from row 6 to row 12.And you want the total to be displayed in the Cell reference C4. To do this you type into the cell 'C4' the following:

=SUM(sheet1!C6:sheet1!C12)

The second formula is the simple 'add'. Using the same worksheet lets now assume you want to add the total you have in cell reference C4 to a figure you have in cell reference D4. And you want the answer displayed in cell reference E4. To do this you type in cell E4

=(sheet1!C4+sheet1!D4)

If you wanted to take away the contents of D4 from C4 the formula would be:

=(sheet1!C4-sheet1!D4)

(Incidentally, if you are working on only one worksheet only you can omit the worksheet description if you wish, so the formula would read:

=(C4-D4)


Hopefully now you can see how these formula are constituted, and substitute the cell references appropriate for your worksheet. By entering the formulae into your worksheet you could add up all your expenditure, add up all your income, and deduct the expenditure from the income to see your how well you are doing.

Picking up on hjd's comment I had heard that Sage is overly complex for the small business person - though I have never used it. I personally use Microsoft Money; it is relatively easy to operate but to make it work for a business you need to have some book-keeping training.

Hope that helps.

Rod

lynseydee

Hi Rod

I do know formulas in excel but I'm guessing from your formulas if I wanted to add something across 2 or more different sheets then I could do which might actually simplify my current spreadsheet if I was to adapt it.

Thanks

Willman_Rodders

Hi Lynsey,

Yes, if I was setting up my book-keeping on Excel I would use probably 4 sheets.

Sheet 1 would list my expenditure;
sheet 2 my income;
sheet 3 my summary sheets to enable trial balance; and
sheet 4 my income and expenditure by category.

Sheets 1 and 2 would comprise a number of columns with totals at the top ....

Date, details, amount, checksum, category 1, category 2, category 3 etc.

The checksum is the difference between the amount column, and the sum of the category columns. If it does not = NIL then I have either entered the amount incorrectly, or I have entered the amounts in the category columns incorrectly.

The categories would probably match the tax return lines e.g. advertising, cost of sales etc.

By having multiple categories you could pay one cheque out for say £200, comprising £50 advertising costs, and £150 as general cost of sales. Your totals of the categories will allow you to see where you are incuring your costs, check them against budgets (You may want to start a sheet 5 for the comparison), and submit these totals to your accountant - thus saving on your fees.

Expanding upon this further, I personally would break the columns for income and expenses into two. In each case the first would be 'cash', and the 2nd would be 'bank'. By doing this you can easily verify your bank balance, and check your cash float.


Sheets 3 and 4 would pick up the totals from the columns of sheets 1 and 2. these would then be added/subtracted as required to provide simple management figures for the business.

As a hint I always place my totals at the top of the columns - this allows the columns to be extended downwards as more entries are added without worry of having to rework the sheet. Yes i might have to amend the formula to include more rows but that is simpler than reworking the whiole sheet.

Hope that helps.

Rod