Help me! My husband said the "B" word!!

No, not that one..lol..he said "BUDGET". He met with our accountant last night and the accountant strongly advised a budget to seperate the home expenses from the business expenses. YIKESSSSSSS!!!! The man told him we have too many things going on with not knowing what is going on!

I am not a shopper, so that is not the part I am freaking out over..the freaking out part comes in because that means "organization". I am THE MOST unorganized person I know.

Can anyone offer me *any* suggestions to help me get more organized? I really think this is a hopeless mission for me..egads!

Hmmmmm....well, if you don't already, you need a business checking account for the business and a personal account for clothes, food, etc. To start just keep two folders or boxes until you are familiar with what you are doing. All business receipts go in one box all personal in another. If the business pays you on a weekly, monthly, business, write the check from the business account to yourself with pa (proprietors account) on the notation. That should help things out with your accountant. HTH....

Lisa, I can understand your panic. I too am very disorganized. To see what the balance in our account is I usually just call the bank and make sure all the check numbers have cleared. Than I know that for a few days anyway I know how much money I have to spend.

Lisa, I suggest you get Quicken software. It's pretty user friendly, and has all instructions you need to segregate his business, your market, and home.

I hate to be the party pooper, but I keep telling my SIL the same thing! She runs everything together, buys what she wants first then figures out bills later. I'd be insane! LOL I told them tax wise, it will catch up eventually. I think you are very smart to take care of it soon.

Start with first things first. Open a business checking account, and a business credit card. These accounts are only for business- that way you automatically have a paper trail of every dollar going in and out of the business, whether you remember to keep a receipt or not.

Next, get an accordian file folder. Set up your folders for things you need to keep track of:
bills
invoices
receipts
bank statements

Every time you find a piece of paper, pop it in its correct folder.

It is a "pay now, or pay more later" kinda deal. Start with the basics, and start with your current stuff. Slowly you can move backwards. Set aside 30 minutes per day. You have plenty of time before it all has to be straight :)

I've done this for more years than I can remember now- so let me know if I can help :)

trish

Great advice so far!

We started out in our garage several years back and used the accordian file method. No matter what the piece of paper is - stuff it in the appropriate pocket!!!! You can go back any old time and do a neater sort, but start now - guaranteed you'll feel better within 48 hours after you've just set it up :)

The checking account and business credit card are a must and always, always ask yourself the question - is what I'm buying/spending a business expense and will I have a document to back me up on that. You never want to hear the accountant's dreaded hyphenated word/phrase: "co-mingling of funds". They get all scrunchy eyed when they even think it ;)

You'll do great - it's fun. Sally will learn an invaluable lifetime lesson from you :)

thanks for all the advice. I suppose DH is a step ahead of me. We do have seperate accounts for the house and the business. We LLC'd the business a year or so ago, when we did that we got a seperate checking account.

The folder sounds like a good thing for me.
The problem is more with me than DH. I want so bad to be organized...but argh..I just reach that goal. Only God can help me with that one..lol.

Trish, wow, good to see you!

Lisa, you are not the most disorganized person on earth! I claim that title......unfortunately.

Lisa, I thought I would never get this whole business/personal thing straightened away and didn't until I got the accordian file and used it daily. The bad thing is I have to leave it out in the kitchen where it hits me in the eye every time I walk into the house BUT the good thing is I have trained myself to put the receipts in the proper slot as soon as I walk in the door. Not after I've puddled around or washed the receipt in my jeans pocket or horrors of horrors set the receipt down somewhere because I just wanted to do one thing before I put it away. Lose it every time!
Trish is right, you have to set a few minutes aside each day to keep yourself organized. I though initially all I had to do was put the receipts in the proper slot in the accordian file and a good fairy would come along and do the rest. Wrong! I ended up spending so much time trying to catch up and get organized it was easier to do the job each day. Now, don't get me wrong, there are some days I just can't face that file folder (not that type of person who enjoys acccounting work) but I've learned not to let is slip by me for 2 -3 days.
Glad to hear you have a Business chequing account and credit card. That is half the battle right there.
You can do it, I'm one of the least organized people in the world when it comes to doing the books but after a few weeks of spending just bit of time each day you will realize how much easier it is for and on you.
You can do it! If you can homeschoool Sally, this will be a piece a cake.
Dianne

thank you all, such good advice...MaryE, I am wrestling you for that title! Trust me on this, I WON! LOL

Lisa, I'd ask the accountant how it would be best to further separate expenses between business/home and get a free class in accounting that would be tailored for you. Since I started a LLC myself this year I talked to an accountant so I'd know how to organize things, and I found a little detailed organizing will save me some money as well. I guess you could say my labor rate is cheaper than the accountant's. ;o)

Lisa, we've always had everything in one check book - farm and personal. Stan has a Quickens program and he puts everything in there, then has it print out the varius categories - feed, machinery, parts and repairs, vet, I think he has about 20 catergories. He also uses the split function and that breaks down the various outgoing into things like cow feed, dog food, supplies for feed mill checks, etc. It also breaks down the incoming milk checks into milk lbs, fat and protein bonuses on the plus side and trucking, promotion, market administrator on the deductions. At the end of the year, he prints out what he needs for the accountant and hands it over.

Oh, and if there's a competition for the unorganized, we are definitely in it, inspite of my best efforts!

I don't wanna keep track of vet bills and critter stuff, I might have to face reality on much goes to them ;-)

lol, unhunh, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet. I told Stan if he'd get rid of some of these cows, we wouldn't have to feed them or care for their health and we really could take a vacation. Some day . . .

LOL - Lisa - that is why my husband doesn't do the books and I do - he doesn't want to know what our farming costs! We have all of our income/expenses go in and out of one account. However, I believe it would be easier to have separate accounts, i.e. one personal, one for the farm and one for my bookkeeping business. I too really like the Quicken program. One of my clients asked me to use Quickbooks and I hate it - I never have gotten used to it.

Goodness gracious, Lisa. I thought you were going to say BABY not budget. :)

Now that I know what you're talking about.... We use Microsoft Money to keep an eye on our budget. The best thing you can do, though, is find a church in your area that is offering "Financial Peace University" by Dave Ramsey. He also has several books out and a great web site. We took the class nearly two years ago and it has helped us so much. We have no credit card debt and as of next month, we will have no car loans, either. The only debt we will have is our house. We are saving the maximum allowed for retirement and are also saving for the girls' college. We have an emergency fund and also a nice nest egg now in case anything drastic happens. Not only that, but we tithe 10% of everything that comes into this house (gross, not net).

We wouldn't be able to say that if we hadn't taken and applied what we learned in that class. No, I don't work for Dave Ramsey, but I'd love to. He tells it like it is and gives solid Bible-based advice.
http://www.daveramsey.com/

Okay, I looked at the Dave Ramsey site and I'm intrigued.

But...does this plan make me budget for my plant purchases, bead purchases, scrapbook purchases, etc. etc.? Probably! :( I need to find a budget that ignores all the things I like to buy. :)

Oh, Joan. I have to suffer in those categories. :) We decided, painfully, that hobbies was no longer a category in our budget at all. If we wanted anything like that, it would come out of our $50 per month allowance. Our landscaping category is also sadly underfunded, but I've learned to trade a lot (postage is another category - ha!) and scavenge from vacant properties or those about to be bulldozed (with permission, usually). :) What we've learned is that you're forced to become much more creative about earning and spending money. AND, I've also learned to be more content with what I have. Both are good lessons. (Sure stinks when I visit nurseries, though).

I was afraid of that. I'm not one that's good at changing my habits, (as you well know).

Since we are trying to relandscape after building the house, and finding it very expensive, I've been thinking of putting away some money each month all winter long so next spring we have a fund to continue our landscaping project. Then when that's gone, it's gone until the next spring. I 'could' put away all the money I save if I quit smoking too, right?

The beading is a new obsession, so still "need" lots of things, but I have enough scrapbook supplies to finish all my scrapbooks, my kid's scrapbooks, and at least 100 grandkids scrapbooks. LOL I'm okay in that department as long as I stay away from the scrapbook sites and don't see all the new cool supplies.

I "could" put away all the money I save if I quit smoking, right? :)

I'm going back to read some more. It's very interesting. Thanks for the link.