As the summer months roll in, many small businesses enter a slower period in their business cycle. The holiday season is over, employees may be gone more, many clients have their own full schedules, and you may even be looking forward to your own downtime.

Before summer hits, though, take a few steps to ensure that your business books stay in top condition no matter what summer brings and that you use this time wisely. Here are some things any small business can do.

1. Get Vacations in Order

Summer usually means summer vacations. A small business without a lot of employees to fill in gaps can suffer as accounting work is put on hold.

Avoid this problem by working out a calendar for summer days off so you can coordinate them and ensure smooth operation too.

Include in this plan how you, the business owner or manager, can take some time off. Many entrepreneurs don't prioritize their own breaks, but this is important both to ensure you continue to enjoy operating your business and so that the business can work without you. 

2. Consider a Project

If your business is slow in the summer, it's the perfect time to take on an accounting project. What have you been putting off or would like to try?

For instance, this is a great time to shift your accounting to an online platform that will facilitate being able to work on the road, have multiple people work on the books, and allow people to better access information. Or it may simply be a great time to reduce liability by purging your old files and documents according to a retention schedule set out by your accountant. 

3. Self-Analyze After Taxes

Most small business owners meet with their accountant during tax season. Think about your meetings and how your income taxes went this year. Ask your accountant for suggestions on ways you can improve.

Then, use this slower season to implement improvements. If your accountant spent a lot of time analyzing receipts and chasing down transactions that qualify as deductions, determine what can you do to make things more accurate or easier next year.

4. Keep Up a Schedule

It's easy to become more relaxed during the naturally-relaxed summer months. And while you don't need to be overly strict about everything while the world is having a little downtime, don't let your books become messy or fall behind. Craft a schedule for bookkeeping tasks if you don't already have one.

If the business cycle is slower, do feel free to loosen up on that schedule a bit - perhaps entering invoices twice per week instead of every day during a busy cycle - but don't let it fall by the wayside. Otherwise, you'll find yourself trying to catch up while business ramps up in the fall. 

5. Cross-Train Employees

Cross-training is often underutilized at a small business. Each person simply gets on with their assigned work and does it in whatever manner they find most expedient or logical. But this often means that little if any of their work can be done by others in their absence.

Because summer is a time of vacations, you may already be thinking about how to ensure bookkeeping work gets done while people are gone. Take that to the next level and designate time for employees to train backup workers and ensure they practice their newfound skills. 

Where to Start

Want more tips for handling the summer months with regard to your small business's books? Then start by meeting with your accountant and learning from their experience. Don't have an accountant yet? The team at Bliss & Skeen can help. We will work with you to make sure your business is financially healthy and successful during the summer and throughout the rest of the year. Call today for an appointment.