Here are some interesting numbers for you… so far in 2019 I have driven over 10,000 miles for my business. Did you know that the deduction rate of each mile is .58 cents, which means when I do my taxes, I can deduct each mile that I drive through out the year. In my first 6 months of business a few years ago, I literally had a note in my phone and manually kept track of each trip I made for my business. Needless to say it wasn’t as fun as you thought it might be when taxes rolled around and I added all of those miles up. I started using Quickbooks in 2018 and one of my favorite aspects about this system is that I can easily track and add the miles that I drive for my business. Below is a screenshot from my Quickbooks app on my phone showing how I swipe right when I label a trip under Business use! I honestly look forward to this aspect because staying organized and on top of these items is such a life safer when taxes roll around! PLUS, it evens tells me how much will be deducted from that trip!

A very similar process goes for tracking income and expenses. Once I link my bank account and credit cards, I simply swipe right if the money coming in was income for Gracie Withers Photography and I swipe right if the expense I incurred was a business expense or left if it was a personal expense! It’s as easy as it sounds! Another one of my favorite features that goes hand in hand with this is that you can see your net income for each month. There are many businesses out there like mine that have their peak and slower seasons, and seeing the breakdown of each month is super helpful when evaluating that year of business!

QUARTERLY TAXES! I mean no one likes paying taxes but we all know it has to be done and I don’t know what I would do without this feature. As Quickbooks tracks my income, expenses, and mileage deductions, it then constantly updates what my EXACT quarterly tax payments are going to be! April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15 are four dates out of the year that anyone who pays quarterly taxes know by heart! This is hands down one of my favorite things about this program because I always know exactly how much my next quarterly payment is going to be!

You might wonder why I am sharing all of this…well, finances for small businesses is typically an untouchable topic that people don’t like to talk about. Yes it all can be scary and intimidating! But at the end of the day, whatever platform businesses use to track income, expenses, invoices, payroll, quarterly taxes, miles, etc, it can save yourself an incredible amount of time at the end of the day and when taxes come around. I dread taxes and quarterly tax payment day much less since I started using Quickbooks and every time a person has asked me how I keep track of everything, I’ve thought about sharing all of this information! All I can hope for is that this system or whatever system you use can give you some time and peace of mind back at the end of the day! Using THIS LINK you can save 50% off of Quickbooks and they have a free trial if you want to just give it a whirl! This is a program I absolutely love and stand by, and am happy to answer any questions you might have so please feel free to reach out!

Stock photos provided by Quickbooks