Bookkeeper Handover: Getting Your Bank Feed, Invoices and Expenses Ready

Most bookkeeping delays have nothing to do with the bookkeeper. They happen because the owner is missing a bank statement, a receipt has gone astray, or nobody remembers what a payment on the 14th was for. A little structure in the way you work will save you both time, and it will mean fewer emails asking what something was.

What a bookkeeper actually needs from a small business owner each month

Your bookkeeper needs four things from you every month: every bank transaction from every account you use, a record of the invoices you have sent and the payments you have received, your expenses with a clear reason for each one, and answers to any questions they have raised.

That is all. They do not need a perfect filing system. They need the information in one place, up to date, and they need you to answer questions within a few days rather than at the end of the quarter.

If you run your customers, bookings and invoices in one system, most of those four things are already sitting in the same place. If you run a booking app, an invoicing tool and a spreadsheet, your bookkeeper ends up doing the job of joining them together, and that is where the hours go.

Importing bank transactions and using smart matching to pair them with invoices

In BizHub365, bank import brings your statement lines into the system. Once they are there, smart matching looks at each incoming payment and suggests which invoice it settles.

How you set this up matters. Import your bank feed regularly, ideally weekly, rather than once a quarter. A month of unmatched transactions is much harder to work through than a week of them.

When you review matches, check the ones that are not straightforward. A customer who paid part of an invoice, a single transfer that covers two invoices, or a payment with a reference that does not match the invoice number all need a human decision. Matching is there to save you typing, not to decide for you. Accept the clear matches, and leave the awkward ones for a short conversation with your bookkeeper rather than guessing.

Do the same for outgoing payments. Anything that is not a customer payment should be marked as an expense or dealt with directly, so that it does not sit in a pile of unexplained lines.

Tagging expenses as you go so nothing is left for later

The single biggest saving you can make is to record expenses on the day they happen, or at least in the same week. A fuel receipt is easy to explain on Tuesday. On the last day of the quarter, it is a guess.

In BizHub365 you record expenses against your bank transactions or enter them directly, and you can tag them so they are easy to find later. Pick a small, consistent set of tags that match how your business works. For a garage, that might be parts, fuel, tools and subcontractors. For a hair salon, it might be products, rent, insurance and training. Keep the list short enough that you will actually use it.

Tags are for you and your bookkeeper. They are not a substitute for a receipt or a note on what the spend was for. If a purchase is unusual, add a line in the description now, while you still remember what it was.

Importing history from Sage, QuickBooks or FreeAgent when you switch

If you are moving from another system, you do not need to start from scratch. BizHub365 can import history from Sage, QuickBooks and FreeAgent, so your bookkeeper can continue from where they left off.

Before you import, export a set of reports from your old system: a trial balance or summary of balances at the switch-over date, a list of outstanding invoices, and a list of bank transactions for the last few months. Those reports are your reference point.

After the import, compare the figures against your old reports. Check that the opening balances match, that outstanding invoices still show as outstanding, and that the most recent month agrees with what the old system showed. Ask your bookkeeper to sign off on this before you rely on the new records. A few minutes checking at this stage saves hours of untangling later.

If you also trade through an online shop, note that WooCommerce, Magento, PrestaShop and OpenCart can sync into the system, so orders do not need to be typed in by hand.

How to leave notes on customers and transactions so questions are answered before they are asked

Most of the back-and-forth between owners and bookkeepers comes from questions that could have been answered in advance. The easiest fix is to write the answer down when you have it.

BizHub365 lets you keep notes on customers, and you can use tags to group them. When a customer agrees a payment plan, or a deposit is held for a job, add a note to their record while the conversation is fresh. When a payment is unusual, for example a transfer from a director's personal account, write a short line explaining it against the transaction so your bookkeeper does not have to ask.

Keep notes factual and brief. "Paid deposit by card, balance due on completion" is far more useful than a long story. Your bookkeeper will thank you, and you will find it easier to answer your own questions six months later.

Your bookkeeper can also be added as a team member. BizHub365 has no per-user fees and unlimited team members on one subscription, so they can work in the same records as you without a separate charge.

A short handover checklist for the end of each month

Before you send the month's information to your bookkeeper, work through this list:

• Import the bank feed for every account you use, and confirm there are no gaps in the dates.
• Review smart matches and accept the clear ones. Mark the awkward ones for discussion.
• Check that every customer payment is linked to the right invoice, including part payments.
• Tag all expenses for the month and add a description to anything unusual.
• Confirm that outstanding invoices are still correct and chase any that are overdue.
• Add notes to any customer records or transactions where a decision was made.
• List any questions for your bookkeeper in one message, not spread across several.
• Send the month's records over with a note saying anything that is still open.

Done regularly, this takes less time than the list suggests, and it turns month-end from a scramble into a routine.

If you would like to see how this works with your own records, you can Start your free 14-day trial. Import your existing records, work through a month with your bookkeeper, and see what a tidy set of books looks like before you decide anything. The trial takes a card. If you cancel before it ends, you will not be charged. After the trial, BizHub365 One is £29 a month.

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