When doing the bookkeeping, you’ll generally follow the following four steps to make sure that the books are up to date and accurate. Remember that each transaction is assigned to a specific account that is later posted to the general ledger. Posting debits and credits to the correct accounts makes reporting more accurate. Bookkeeping is the process of tracking income and expenses in your business.

However, the more education, training, and experience you have, the better your resume will look when you seek to fill a job vacancy. Trying to juggle too many things at once only works to put your organization in danger. By staying up to date with your bookkeeping throughout the year, you can help small business bookkeeping alleviate some of the stress that comes with filing your taxes. The chart of accounts lists every account the business needs and should have. If you are going to offer your customers credit or if you are going to request credit from your suppliers, then you have to use an accrual accounting system.

Bookkeeping Tools and Software

Whether managing a fleet of ten or a hundred trucks or more, the right software provides scalable solutions to efficiently handle both financial and operational data. This flexibility ensures that businesses of any size can benefit from comprehensive data management, supporting growth and operational excellence. An accountant can perform bookkeeping tasks, but the title also involves other responsibilities. An accountant may interpret the financial records put together by a bookkeeper to assess a company’s financial health. Becoming an accountant usually requires more training and education than bookkeeping, but it can be a good next step in your financial career. While the basics of accounting haven’t changed in over 500 years, the practice of bookkeeping has.

Business owners or bookkeepers record business activities based on supporting documentation, depending on the accounting principles the company implements. Documents can be bills, receipts, invoices, purchase orders, or other financial reports that indicate a transaction. Double-entry accounting enters every transaction twice as both a debit and a credit. Your business’s books are balanced when all of the debits equal (or cancel out) all of the credits. And since it takes equity, assets and liabilities — on top of expenses and income — into account, it typically gives you a more accurate financial snapshot of your business. Trucking industry accounting, when done well, goes beyond tracking financial transactions and basic record-keeping.