If you own a small window cleaning business, you are most likely earning enough to make ends meet but not enough to employ a permanent accountant. You still need a rudimentary book keeping system in order to file your tax and VAT returns and to know if you’re making a profit or not. Below is some more information about basic book keeping for small window cleaning businesses.

In the first place you need a receipt book and an invoice book. The receipt book is used when a customer pays you in cash and you have to provide him with proof of payment. The invoice book is for when you provide credit to a customer (only advisable with regular customers!).

The next important element of your bookkeeping system will be to keep all documents related to business expenses. If you buy a new bucket, keep the receipt. If you have the delivery vehicle serviced, keep the receipt. You must also have a wage register with the names of all your workers and let them sign for their weekly pay.

Next you should keep a cash book. The receipts mentioned above should all be entered in the cash book in numerical order. So now you have a record of all cash sales. Next, on the opposite page, you enter all the expense vouchers. This gives you a record of all your business expenses. There has to be columns for the total amounts, as well as columns for every category of expenditure and income. At then end of the month, if you add up all these columns, you will know how much you spent on various items such as cleaning materials and wages, and how much you made from cash sales.

If you only had cash transactions during a particular month, so there’s nobody owing you money and you owe nobody any money at the end of the accounting period (month), the the difference between the income and expenditure shown by your cash book represents your gross profit for that month.

If you had no credit sales during a month and you didn’t buy anything on account, the balance remaining after you have deducted the expenditure from the income in your cash book represents your profit for that month.

If you of course bought certain items on credit during the month, e. G. Some tools and equipment, and they haven’t been paid for yet, you have to deduct that amount from the profit shown by your cash book, since once you’ve paid these bills you will have less money in the bank. In the same vein, if you granted credit to some customers and they must still pay you, that amount has to be added to your profit for the month.

If you follow the basic book keeping for small window cleaning businesses tips above, you will get a very good idea of whether your business is being run at a profit or not, and what your major expenses are.

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