Bookkeeping in twenty minutes a week
Keep the simple weekly record that answers 'am I making money?' and makes filing painless.
6 min read
Bookkeeping sounds like a job for an accountant. The part that matters most is not: it's writing down, every week, what came in and what went out. Twenty minutes a week answers the only question that matters — am I making money? — and makes your CA's work (and their bill) smaller at filing time.
What you are keeping track of
Four things, and nothing fancier to start:
- Money in — every sale, and how it was paid (cash, UPI, bank)
- Money out — every expense, with what it was for
- Who owes you — unpaid invoices
- Who you owe — unpaid supplier bills
The tools: whatever you will actually use
A notebook, a spreadsheet, or an accounting app all work. The best one is the one you open every week. If you're starting from nothing, a simple sheet with these columns is enough:
| Date | In / Out | Amount | Paid by | What for | Bill or invoice no. |
|---|
The weekly twenty minutes
Pick a fixed time — Sunday evening, Monday morning — and do the same four steps:
- Collect the bills. Every purchase bill, receipt and invoice you issued that week, into one folder or one photo album.
- Write each one down. One line per transaction.
- Match the bank. Open your bank statement or UPI history and tick off each line. Anything in the bank that isn't in your book, add.
- Count the cash. The cash in the drawer should equal what your book says it should be. If it doesn't, find out why while the week is still fresh.
The bank statement is your safety net. If you missed writing something down, it is there. That only works if business money goes through a business account — see Keep business money separate in the Money course.
Keep every bill
GST and income tax both depend on documents. A purchase without a bill is a cost you may not be able to claim, and if you are GST-registered, a purchase without a proper tax invoice is input tax credit you lose. A photo on your phone, saved in a dated folder, is much better than a paper slip in a drawer.
The usual mistake is letting it pile up "until filing time". A month of receipts is an evening; a year of them is a fortnight, and half are lost. The weekly habit is what makes it small.
What it tells you
Once you have a few weeks written down, you can answer:
- What did we sell this month, and what did it cost? The difference is your rough profit.
- Where does the money go? Group expenses — stock, rent, wages, transport — and the biggest one is usually where to look first.
- Who is late paying? Your "who owes you" list, sorted by date.
Cash sales count too
Cash sales are still sales. Write them down every day, even as a single daily total. Books that leave out cash understate your income — which makes a bank less willing to lend and makes the numbers useless to you.
When to bring in a CA
Weekly records are your job. A CA is worth paying for setting up your books properly at the start, for GST and income-tax returns, and for any question where the answer has a tax consequence. Good weekly records make every one of those faster and cheaper.
Put the weekly twenty minutes on your task list below, so it comes up every week.