Every year you promise yourself that this will be the year that you keep up with your bookkeeping. And like so many other resolutions you haven’t done it. But this isn’t just some failed diet and exercise program, this is your business! And the books can’t not get done.

I know how it feels to end up behind on something you promised yourself you’d keep up with. It hangs over you, always taking up space in your brain until you just get it done. But it just seems so daunting. You’ve let it grow (whether in reality or just in your mind) to this crazy, overwhelming, and time-consuming task. And when you’re faced with a task like that who wouldn’t choose to do literally anything else?

But you can get caught up, and I promise it’s not going to be nearly as bad as you think. Here’s a step by step guide to getting caught up with your bookkeeping (and honestly, the concepts can be applied to just about anything).

Just Start

I know, seems silly and oversimplified. But seriously, just start. Set a timer for 10 minutes and get as much done in those 10 minutes as possible. Staring down the barrel of an hours-long (or maybe days long) process is daunting. But anyone can do just about anything for 10 minutes.

It may not feel like much but just doing 10 minutes of work frees your brain and reduces the overwhelm. Commit to 10 minutes a day until your books are cleaned up, I promise it’ll take less time than you think to finish.

Work in Bulk

It’s go time. You log into your software, grab a transaction...oh but wait, I need the receipt for this one….was that a physical or electronic receipt?….well crap, now I’ve completely forgotten what account I was even looking at….

If we’re only working in 10-minute increments we better be as efficient as possible. Choose one task and focus solely on that. Maybe today we just focus on collecting business receipts. Spend your 10 minutes scouring your email and saving those electronic receipts to a folder. And on day two, spend your 10 minutes taking pictures or scanning your physical receipts and saving them to that folder.

You can approach your transactions in bulk as well. Filter them by the vendor so it’s easier to see and categorize them all at once. If you’re categorizing your phone bill, there’s no need to locate your bill 6 times, and every time you have to try to remember if you categorized it as telephone or as utility. Do them all at the same time and eliminate the context switching your brain has to do between tasks. The more you can group similar activities together, the more efficient you’ll be

Celebrate your accomplishments

You’re 3 days in and your 10-minute slots are going great, you’re feeling super motivated….until you take a good long look at what’s left. You’re thinking you’re going to be working on this forever! Stop right there. Don’t focus on what’s left to do, focus on how much you’ve already accomplished. You’ve stuck to your plan for 3 days (a total accomplishment!) and you’ve gotten so much done already.

Nothing zaps your energy and willingness to keep moving more than focusing on how much farther you have to go. Don’t focus on the mountain in front of you, look back and how far you’ve climbed already, the view is great! Nobody gets closer to their goals by freaking out about what’s left. You get closer by taking one small step, and then another, and then another. Before you know it you’re miles from where you started.

Get help

At some point you may realize that you just don’t want to do your own bookkeeping. And that’s totally okay. I know what it’s like to dread dealing with a part of your business. But you can’t just skip it entirely. If you don’t keep up with your books you won’t know how your business is doing, you won’t be ready for tax time and you’ll waste precious time and energy worrying that it’s not done.

But you’re a savvy business owner, you can get this taken care of. You can know exactly how your business is doing, know your books are right, and get all your questions answered. Hire a bookkeeper today and let me take the bookkeeping off your hands.

You can and will get caught up on your bookkeeping!