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Today, we’re diving headfirst into the world of bookkeeping, and we’ll explore what options there are to help you keep it all organized.

After all, the KEY to a stress free & confident tax season (yes, it is possible) and REALLY starting to grasp the money-side of your boutique is having a solid system in place so you can have everything organized & up to date all year round, and so you can avoid the last minute scramble or throwing everything together.

I’ll discuss the top bookkeeping software options, receipt management tools, and wrap it up with some sage advice. So, grab your coffee and let’s dive in!

Bookkeeping System Options

If you are just starting out, you MAY be able to get by with a customized spreadsheet to help you track everything, like the one we offer here.

Now, I love a good spreadsheet. But I DON'T love them as a long-term bookkeeping system. The number one reason is that you have to manually input everything, and there’s not much available for reporting or reviewing purposes. It’s also easy to accidentally miss or overlook something. So, while yes, it can be a good short term solution, you want to consider upgrading to a software as soon as you start getting a higher volume of transactions you are having to record.

A good bookkeeping software will have automation features that will help you spend less time, and have greater accuracy in your bookkeeping. Let’s look at a couple popular software options:

1. QuickBooks Online:

QuickBooks Online (QBO) is by far my personal favorite, and it is the one I teach to all my students, and use for all my clients. In my opinion, it’s the most user friendly option out there. You can connect it to most bank & credit card accounts so all of your transactions will automatically pull into QBO, and you can assign a category to that transaction in a simple click. If you have regularly recurring transactions (monthly subscriptions, vendors you regularly purchase from, etc…) you can even set up rules so QBO remembers how these should automatically be categorized. You can learn a little more about my favorite time-saving features of Quickbooks here.

2. Xero:

Xero is another popular option. I believe it’s actually the #1 software in other parts of the world, but definitely has seen a growing popularity in the US as well. It is a lower cost software, but I’ve found it to be a little more “clunky” and not quite as user friendly.

3. Wave:

Wave is another budget friendly option, but there is pretty limited automation & reporting features. But, if your budget is small, this could be a great first step – especially if you're debating between a software and a spreadsheet.

Receipt Management

Another important component that goes along with bookkeeping is receipt management, or simply keeping your receipts, statements, and invoices organized. You really should have some type of “proof” that goes along with every single transaction in your business to be able to show what you purchased.

If you’re old school, you can save the physical COPIES (not the originals – the thermal ink will fade with time) of your receipts and invoices in a filing cabinet system.

Another good system is to save them in a Google Drive folder. Create sub folders for each year, and then sub folders in there for each vendor. I also recommend using a similar naming convention so you’ll be able to tell what each receipt is for without actually opening it to view it. Something like “2024.10.31 Costco – Office Supplies”.

If you’re interested in using a software to help organize your receipts digitally, there are a couple popular options out there. These are the ones I’m familiar with, but I know there are others out there as well.

Both of these have the ability to integrate with at least one of the bookkeeping software I listed above, so an image of the receipts will actually be attached to the transaction record in your bookkeeping software.

1. Hubdoc:

HubDoc is my preferred solution, and it’s what I use in my own business. You can take pictures of physical receipts and upload through the app, forward emails with receipts attached, or upload directly to HubDoc in a web browser.

It connects to both QBO and Xero, and it can “read” your receipts and automatically populate the date, vendor name, and amount of most receipts to save you time. It will also remember how you've categorized receipts for that vendor before, so you can quickly review and “publish” to your software. This will automatically create the transaction in your software without you having to do anything else!

Since HubDoc is owned by Xero, you will get a free subscription if you choose the Xero bookkeeping software, otherwise there is a small subscription fee after a 30-day free trial.

2. QBO Receipts:

QBO Receipts is a feature within QuickBooks Online. It works very similar to HubDoc, but it unfortunately does not do quite as good of a job to memorize and auto fill regularly recurring transaction. But, this is included with any QBO subscription level, so there is no additional cost.

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In the world of bookkeeping, staying organized is key to feeling confident in the numbers, and also for having an “easy” tax season without any stress or anxiety. By setting up a system to easily organize all your transactions & save your receipts, you will be ready for taxes in no time!

If you're interested in utilizing Quickbooks Online, but the thought of learning it all is a little too overwhelming, I want to invite you to join us inside of Bookkeeping Made Simple for Boutiques where I will hold your hand through every step of setting up and learning how to use Quickbooks Online for your boutique business.