What one word can fill a small business owner with dread? If you said taxes, you’re right! Unless you’re a bookkeeper or accountant, you most likely don’t enjoy tax season.
The one thing most business owners put off each year is gathering the receipts for sales and expenses. It makes tax time a drudgery and keeps us in the dark about the financial health of our business.
This year, my tax documents, including those for my business were pulled together and ready to file in less than 3 hrs. After the shame and stress of procrastinating doing my taxes last year, finding a tax professional, and bumping up against the extension deadline, I decided this year would be different.
As I was waking one morning, it hit me…why not use Trello! I use Trello to keep all of my clients’ projects organized, but never thought of using it for my expenses, receipts, etc. The email to board feature makes it so easy, and also when you connect the app on your phone you can send receipts quickly into a specific card on your expenses or taxes board.
Taxes aren’t fun, but we can make them less of a hassle with these tips:
- Get a separate business account: It’s important to have a separate bank account for your business. It gives your business credibility, helps protect your assets, improves your accounting, and helps you be more organized and know where your money is going.
- Novo Bank is my bank of choice. It makes things so easy with the mobile app. You can categorize each transaction and download them into a CSV file, then add them to an Excel or Google Sheet with no data entry required. If you’ve been looking for a bank for your business account here’s a link to sign up and allow us both to get $40 when you open an account.
- Create a Trello tax board for your business: This keeps all your documentation in one place. Set up email to board functionality so any receipts, invoices, bank statements, or donation documents received by email can be easily forwarded to that board.
- Use Trello for receipts: When you’re out for a cup of coffee, lunch with a client or collaborator, or buying supplies simply take a picture of the receipt and share it directly to the expenses card in your designated Trello board.
- Copy the board for next year: When you’re finished with the current year, you simply copy the board, and you’re all set for the next year.
If creating a board feels overwhelming to you, I’ve created a template with a step-by-step video and guide (which you can purchase here for $9) to help you get started on your board. This board is useful even if you’ve procrastinated on your taxes last year. It helped me get caught up in less than 3 hours, after putting it off last year.