I only use my book whether it be cash, cheque or online payments. I simply check my online banking or check statement and only cross off the payment in my book when i see it's there. No need to make it more complicated than that!
I suppose so, I like to make up my accounts on a monthly basis and some payments are made a month in arrears.
The tax man likes us to record our daily earnings not the value of the work done, the problem is we don't know when we will get paid for work done, and can't count is as earnings until we do.
the columns in by books read like this.
Date
Earnings
Other income
Expenses
reason for expense
other outgoings
Business balance
bank balance
cash in hand
Mileage
Do I now ad additional columns for outstanding payments? Or payments made on line?
The big difference that on line payments and sent cheques make is that you can't keep on top of your accounts.
you can only record them in one book and transfer the information to the accounts you want to submit at the end of the tax year.
I used to have what I called a buffer fund of about a grand. all outstanding payments were made good by this fund, and the money paid back into the fund when it came in. Using this method enabled me to keep bang up to date with my accounts. The downside to this was that there was no provision for bad debts at the end of the year, and these have increased as my round has grown.
I just wondered how you guys keep your records if you don't use software.