Happy Tax Day?
A myth??
Nope! It’s possible! You can have a Happy Tax Day and wish others a Happy Tax Day, too!
On this Happy April 15th, 2026, we at Ox Boox are smiling and we have been since January 31st. (Why the 31st? That’s another blog subject.)
“How?” you ask?
A snot story.
(Sorry, that was gross and unprofessional. Again, I’m a bookkeeper, not a writer…)
Once upon a time, a revered philosopher reasoned, “Procrastinator? No, I just wait until the last second to do my work, because I will be older, therefore wiser.” This is not smart. In fact, I don’t know who said that. It’s just something I found on the internet a second ago.
Better advice: “The next time you get the urge to procrastinate, just put it off.”
Oh snap. That got serious in a hurry. But also funny. And I also found it on the internet.
The important thing is: Bookkeeping is one of those things that can get away from you in a hurry.
All of a sudden, it’s April, and you’re freaking out because you haven’t entered any expenses into your books for the whole year and your receipt shoebox is overflowing under your desk. Then, your lip starts quivering and your nose starts running… and you’re wiping all of that on the nearest piece of paper…which turns out to be another receipt you forgot to put in the box…then the ink is smeared, and you can’t even read the numbers… so you burst into another fit of sobbing and the cycle continues.
Let’s get serious.
The moral to the story is: Stay on top of your bookkeeping, and if you can’t, hire someone who can. (I suggest us.)
Receipts - Get the app: Chances are, your accounting software has an app. The app has a receipt capture feature that lets you code each transaction on the fly and attaches the receipt photo right to that transaction in your books.
Don’t have time to code it on the fly? Create a new expense account in your Chart of Accounts called “Code Later.” Book all receipts to that account. Then, at the end of each day or week, go through and code those correctly.
Bookkeeping Day: Set aside one afternoon each week to do the bookkeeping. It’s sacred time. Block off your calendar. Don’t answer the phone. Close your email tab. Seriously, close it - click that little “x.” Put on some music. Get a snack. Light a candle. I’m serious. This is how we do bookkeeping here at Ox Boox. It’s downright delightful.
During this time, categorize those “code later” transactions mentioned above. Enter the weekly deposits. Match all of the transactions from the bank feeds and add those that have not been added yet.
Staying on top of that bank feed is essential. Clients come to us with thousands of uncategorized transactions, which means a big clean-up fee and lots of time to sort.
Monthly Tasks: Each month, there are extra tasks you need to do to close the prior month. Save the schedule below…or if you need to save these tasks for “Bookkeeping Day” mentioned above, you can.
1st of the month: Do a physical inventory count as close to the first of the month as possible. Adjust inventory in QuickBooks, so the appropriate Cost of Goods Sold amounts are calculated.
3rd of the month: If you use a POS, run reports for the prior month. Enter sales, tax, tips, and payouts. It takes a couple of days for the payouts to show in the bank feed, so we do this around the 3rd of the month.
5th of the month: Reconcile accounts in QuickBooks, so they tie to the bank statements and documentation you have. It takes the bank a couple of days to create statements after the reporting period ends, so we do this around the 5th of the month for most accounts.
7th of the month: Run your reports. Look for aberrations. If you can justify them, great! If not, investigate and fix the mistakes.
Bookkeeping Easter Egg
You know how sometimes games or movies have “Easter eggs?” They’re those little secret surprises that you can find, like the Binford Tool Box on the shelf in Pixar’s Toy Story (go look it up!). When you find one, you’re like, “Dope! I found something secret and awesome!”
Well, staying on top of your bookkeeping has an Easter egg. And it’s a big one. The secret awesome surprise is that you’ll have data at your fingertips all year-round that helps you make sound business decisions. I mean, yeh, you’ll be ready for tax time. That’s obvious. But also, you’ll know how your business is doing on a random day in August.
That means, you can budget better AND track progress against your budget. It means you can compare last month’s sales with this month’s, then analyze why sales went up. Was it your advertising, your events, your new menu items?
The Sales Pitch
Don’t have time for all of this? That’s ok.
You do need to plan ahead. Just once.
Get a bookkeeper. Hey, we’re bookkeepers! Contact us!
Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash