Do sights like this cause you worry? Then read about some of our handy hints below
It is so important to always know where you are with your bank account and keep regular tabs on incomings and outgoings. It is all too easy to bury your head in the sand and leave your bookkeeping to chance but that comes at a premium.
Things can be a lot easier if you use accounting software like Sage; providing you keep it up to date that is; you will know when certain payments are due out of your account.
Have you any idea how much your bank charged you in the last 12 months for going overdrawn without an overdraft or for unpaid transactions and unauthorised overdraft interest? If it is high that should be enough of a wake-up call to ensure you don’t get hit like that again in the next 12 months.
By taking a few simple steps you can drastically reduce your bank charges: –
- Write a list of all your regular payments in date order on a spreadsheet showing payees and amounts payable. If the amount varies each month then make an educated guess based on previous months.
- Add this list to your calendar as events, showing payee and amount for each direct debit and set a reminder for a few days before to check your bank account.
- Do just that! Check your bank account to see if there will be enough cleared funds.
- If there is enough money, great do nothing! If there isn’t, you need to take action right NOW! You either have to cancel the payment or pay money into your account.
This may cause a bit of inconvenience to cancel payments but generally your payees will understand especially if they only have to wait a few days to be paid. It could improve your relationship with your bank and possibly have a positive bearing on your credit rating.
To find out more about our bookkeeping services, workshops and training, please call Cain & Co on [eeb_content]020 8087 1341[/eeb_content], or email us at takecontrol@cainandco.co.uk.
