| At some point, usually during the planning stages of | | | | store off-site, keeping them safe from possible |
| setting up your business, you will have to make a | | | | damage. |
| decision about how to keep your records. Even if you | | | | From the administrative position spreadsheets give |
| are planning to employ an external bookkeeper or pay | | | | more flexibility of presentation, organizing data in an |
| large sums to your accountant to take on the task for | | | | easy to view way. Alterations and insertions can be |
| you, you will still need to keep records for your own | | | | made without confusion and calculations revised |
| and HMRC's benefit and these records can be kept in | | | | automatically when entries are amended. Your |
| a variety of ways. | | | | computer system also acts as a second pair of eyes |
| Many business owners still opt to use an old fashion | | | | alerting you to potential errors, which can be useful for |
| manual accounting system, either because it is what | | | | a stretched small business, which may not have the |
| they feel most comfortable with or because they don't | | | | wealth of personal needed to check and re-check |
| perhaps realise the overwhelming benefits of using an | | | | each other's work. |
| electronic accounting system. It is not necessary to go | | | | Doing away with cumbersome manual ledgers makes |
| out and purchase an expensive, complicated | | | | everything that much easier to access; your |
| accountancy package to keep your books on your | | | | accounting data becomes instantly portable on a tiny |
| computer, a simple spreadsheet will be more than | | | | memory stick in your pocket; your bookkeeping |
| adequate, and can provide you with so much more | | | | records can be emailed to your accountant whenever |
| than your old paper ledger ever could. | | | | he needs them and printed out for relevant colleagues. |
| Computer spreadsheets have the capacity to store | | | | With the use of a spreadsheet it suddenly becomes |
| vast amounts of information and can be amended | | | | easier to work from other locations, without the need |
| cleanly and easily, they also perform the function of a | | | | to cart physical records home. |
| calculator, allowing you to make calculations in a click. | | | | For those people new to bookkeeping the learning |
| Keeping your business accounts using electronic | | | | curve with an electronic system is possibly a fair bit |
| spreadsheets has a huge security advantage over | | | | shallower than with that of the paper ledger; |
| paper accounts, as computer systems can be | | | | spreadsheets provide plenty of information to explain |
| protected with passwords preventing the wrong | | | | the how tos and why fors and much of the |
| personnel from accessing them. It is also possible to | | | | complexity is diminished as the system does the |
| quickly produce back-up copies of your records to | | | | complicated calculations for you. |