Personal bookkeeping services
If you are concerned about “just where” your money goes, and would like a greater understanding of how much you spend on what, then Summerhill Financial Services’ new Personal Bookkeeping Services are for you. But rather than being a “big stick”, the knowledge will give you greater understanding, and, therefore control, allowing you to make more informed decisions about spending and saving.
Many people budget for – or at least know - they spend between $5-$15 a day on lunch and say $175-$350 a week on groceries and utilities (depending upon the size of your family), but if you continually stare at your bank statements and wonder “just where on earth” the money you worked so hard for went, then you need Summerhill Financial Services’ new Personal Bookkeeping Services.
It works like this…
You provide us with copies of all your bank and credit card statements at a set date; from these we set up the accounts with an opening balance. We’ll give you a list of categories that can be tracked, which you add to if there is anything in particular you would specifically like to track.
At the end of each month after that you email us copies of your bank and credit card statements, loan accounts, and any other transaction lists - print-outs from internet banking for the month are ideal.
Many electronic transactions are self explanatory (for instance utility bills, or mortgage/rent payments); however, when you’ve bought something say at “Myer”, we’ll ask you to write on the statement what it was.
Any ATM withdrawals you make we categorise as a general expense. If we find that these are adding to large amounts each month - such as more than just buying lunch and coffee – we will ask you to break them down.
Once we’ve entered all your transactions, we will email you a PDF report, which clearly shows you how you’ve spent your money.
This is far easier to work from than staring at statements which simply list line entry transactions. It’s with this greater knowledge that you can make simple, but powerful, decisions on how to spend your money.
Seeing how your money is spent, category by category allows you to be mindful of excess, so you can pull back if you think you’re frittering too much away in certain areas.
Summerhill uses Quicken software for service; if you have Quicken we can email you a file to upload into your software if you want to compare the different reports available.
If you have any questions about Summerhill’s Personal Bookkeeping Services, or would like to start with the service, please contact us.
Tags: Cash management, expense management, personal bookkeeping