How can I best document my income and expenses?
March 5, 2024 | 40,00 EUR | answered by Fanni Siebert
Dear tax advisor,
I am Jonas Hoffmann and I am planning to start my own business. I want to open a small café and now face the challenge of properly documenting my income and expenses. I have no experience with accounting and tax returns so far, so I am unsure of the best way to proceed.
My café will mainly offer breakfast and small snacks. I expect to have daily varying income, depending on customer frequency and sales. Additionally, I have expenses for rent, staff, food, and other operating costs. It is important to me to maintain clean bookkeeping from the beginning to avoid any problems with the tax office later on.
My concern is that I might lose track of my finances or make errors in accounting. Therefore, I want to do everything right from the beginning and document professionally. What options are there to efficiently record and manage my income and expenses? Are there any specific programs or tools that can help me with this? How often should I update my bookkeeping and which documents do I need to keep?
I look forward to your support and thank you in advance for your help.
Kind regards,
Jonas Hoffmann
Dear Jonas Hoffmann,
Thank you for your inquiry and interest in my online consultation on the topic of starting a business. It's great to hear that you are taking the step towards self-employment and want to open a café. Properly documenting income and expenses is indeed an important task to avoid problems with the tax office later on. I will provide you with some tips and recommendations on how to efficiently and professionally manage your bookkeeping.
First and foremost, it is important that you familiarize yourself with the basics of bookkeeping. This includes understanding the difference between income and expenses, as well as correctly recording business transactions. There are various programs and tools that can help you keep track of your finances and simplify your bookkeeping.
A popular program for small business owners and self-employed individuals is, for example, Lexoffice or DATEV. These programs offer functions for recording income and expenses, creating invoices, and generating reports. You can digitally capture your receipts and upload them directly into the program to ensure clear bookkeeping.
It is advisable to update your bookkeeping regularly, ideally daily or at least weekly. This way, you can keep track of your finances and avoid errors or discrepancies. Important documents to keep include invoices, receipts, receipts, contracts, and bank statements. These documents serve as proof to the tax authorities and should be kept for at least 10 years.
I hope these tips will help you and support you in managing the bookkeeping for your café. If you have any further questions or need assistance, I am happy to help. I wish you success in starting your business and building your café.
Best regards,
Fanni Siebert
