Save Time and Money with a Monthly Review of Your Records

The end of the year is not the time to start thinking about record keeping. Yes, it's the middle of the summer and record keeping may be the last thing on your mind. But, one way to significantly reduce the time and stress of record keeping is to conduct a monthly review of your records.

If you throw every business receipt and record into a big box and wait until the end of the year to sort them out, you will create a much bigger job for yourself and you are more likely to miss something. Thus, regular monthly reviews will save you time and money later.

At the end of each month ask yourself:

Have I recorded all payments? If not, make sure your records show how much each parent paid you, how much you received from the subsidy program and the Food Program.

Do I have complete attendance records? If not, reconstruct the days and hours children were in care.

Have I recorded all the hours that I used my home for my business when day care children were not present? If not, pick two months before the end of the year where you will carefully track these hours. Use the average from these two months for the rest of the year.

Have I kept a record of all my business trips in? If not, go back through your records and update this information.

Have I saved all my business receipts? If not, reconstruct your expenses with cancelled checks or credit/debit card statements. If you have no records at all, make a note of what items you purchased, how much it cost, and then take a picture of it.

Do my receipts clearly identify what I bought? If not, mark on the receipt what is missing (date, name of item, cost).

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For more information see my Family Child Care Record Keeping Guide.