How to track expenses
Effectively tracking expenses involves creating a process for capturing, organizing, and categorizing every business-related expenditure. You can do this through methods like manual record-keeping or utilizing sophisticated accounting software. The key is to find a system that suits your business needs and ensures accurate and consistent tracking.
1. Create a business bank account
If you’re a sole proprietor with a brand-new business, it may not have occurred to you to separate your business and personal finances. If that’s the case, here’s how you can take care of this. Put all of your business income directly into a business account, and use a business credit or checking account for any business-related purchases that can be paid by card.
You can move money from one account to the other as necessary, but drawing a clear line between your business and personal accounts will help you keep track of whether you’re making business or personal purchases. Creating a business bank account will also build up your business’s credit should you need financing in the future.
As a bonus, having a business credit card makes it especially easy to track business spending. You’ll only use this card for business purchases, so figuring out your business expenses will be a no-brainer. This comes in particularly handy during tax season.
You can connect QuickBooks to your bank accounts, credit cards, PayPal, Square, and more, and we’ll import and categorize your expenses for you. Custom rules help you categorize your expenses, and you can run reports to see how you spend every dollar.