The tax-return deadline has been and gone and for many, getting everything in order for the dreaded day of reckoning, was a tedious ordeal. To avoid a headache in 2011, a belated New Year’s resolution should be to keep your books up-to-date for a stress free year-end.

For small businesses, keeping track of cash flow can be a struggle. With limited staff, or none at all, keeping on top of accounting often falls by the wayside in busy periods.

There are some simple steps you can take to make sure your business finances start, and end, 2010 in order.

• Set up a filing system and start recording everything

Apart from the legal requirement, by keeping this information split between income and outgoings, you will have a better sense of cash flow, helping you to better manage your business.

By catagorising expenses into ‘rent’, utilities, or stationary, for example, you will get a clearer picture of where you might be over-spending.

• Check your records against your bank statements

Making sure you tick off everything on your statement before filing it away each month will help you keep check of missing receipts, and provide a constant monthly deadline for getting your records in check.

• Get everything on a computer

Keeping your records on a spreadsheet, or using bookkeeping software, will allow you to see transactions in an instant. Figures will be easy to find, should a mystery debit appear on your bank statement, and you can even produce projections, based on previous months.

• Remind yourself

Keep an up to date calendar, or set reminders on your computer – if you use Outlook, tasks, emails and dates can be set to ‘pop-up’ when their due. If you have an accountant, you will also need to enter the date they require your records by.

Leave yourself 30 days before each deadline, allowing plenty of time and avoiding a last minute rush.

If you really can’t commit to the above, it may be time to call in an experienced bookkeeper. Of course, there will be an expense associated with this, but since it could free up your time, and give you better information with which to make business decisions, it might just be worth the investment. I provide a free accountancy question and answer session every Tuesday on Twitter, join me @AccountsAssist.