SmallBusinessNewz

It may have taken sleepless nights, gallons of sweat, and gosh knows what else, but for the moment, at least, all of your tax-related papers are likely in labeled folders.  So, even if you don't ever want to see a dollar sign again, now's a great time to get on top of all of your business's financial issues.

Let's start with the matter of organization.  If you're still doing anything by hand, try to replace it with software.  The ability to create charts at will, or, say, sort by payee, is priceless.  Paper is fine as a backup - and whether you print records, email them around, or whatever, you will want a backup - but after you learn how to use it, software saves all sorts of time and effort.

There's no time like the present to get a free credit report, as well.  With any luck, you won't have to use your new software's abilities to straighten out problems, yet letting problems go unnoticed would be much worse.  Suppose the recession drags on, you want a loan, and it turns out you don't qualify due to some six-year-old error.  There's really no excuse for letting this happen.

The same goes for having poor credit due to not paying your bills.  In addition to the loan scenario, customers won't be impressed if they somehow catch a glance of evil red envelopes from Visa, Mastercard, and whatever else.  So use your handy dandy software to allow for automatic payments, and at the least, pay the minimum amount, on time, every single month.

Rhonda Evans suggested these and four other steps as part of a financial spring cleaning, but we'll just list one last recommendation here: "Send out your invoices on time every month."  Customers are waiting out there, checks in hand; your asking for them is only natural.  Even if you don't have an urgent cash flow problem, you can get their money into a savings account and start collecting interest.

Accomplish these things now, and come next April, you'll thank yourself.