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5 Ways to Accurately Track Your Financial Transactions
Keeping track of all your financial transactions can be challenging, especially if you deal with many transactions daily. Needless to say, you need to come up with various ways to accurately keep tabs on your finances. Most people set budget goals to help keep track of their expenditures. However, they find themselves bleeding cash from sources they can’t find. With an accurate way of tracking your financial transactions, you can highlight your expenditure, allowing you to plan your finances properly. Here are a few ways to consider.
Make a List of your Transactions
The best way to track your expenditure is by making a list of all your income and expense transactions. You can do this every day to factor in some expenses and income not accounted for in your budget or regular expenditure. To make a list, you need to keep all your receipts to act as a point of reference. Keeping the list helps you remember every detail of the transaction. Take a picture of every receipt and store them well; the photos may come in handy when the receipts are worn out or lost.
Use an Accounting Software Solution
The development of accounting software has made it easy for people and businesses to keep track of their financial transactions. With this software, you don’t have to worry about writing down every transaction you make, all you have to do is enter the values and reasons, and the software takes care of the rest. Due to technological advancement, there is software that allows you to take pictures of receipts, and the algorithms take care of the rest. Accounting software is precisely set to provide you with accurate data as you feed it. With this software, you can review your transactions weekly, monthly, quarterly, or even annually. This depends on the frequency you choose.
Create an Accurate Budget
As stated before, most people find themselves bleeding cash in expenditures they can’t account for. Creating an accurate budget can help you account for and track all your transactions. However, you first need to list all your transactions, both income, and expenditure. This way, when designing your budget, you can allocate a section for all the additional spending. Having a budget also helps you efficiently allocate all your income. For example, you can use the budget to allocate funds to your house rent, utility bills, mortgage, or even servicing loans. When making a budget, it’s best to bring out all your saved receipts. This way, you can trace your expenditure under a section you marked miscellaneous. By reviewing your receipts against your budget, you can easily know where your expenditure goes and where you are bleeding cash.
Use a Ledger
When people think about ledgers, they think about businesses. However, a money ledger can be helpful both in a business and at home. Ledgers are used to record every transaction you make, with each value being credited or debited. These documents indicate the amount you started within the morning, highlighting all your transaction throughout the day. At the end of the day, you have to make an entry of what you’re left with against your initial cash. This way, you can keep track of all your transactions. There are several types of ledgers, all designed to keep tabs on your transactions. Some of these include
- Sales
- Creditors
- Purchase
- Debtors
- General
These ledgers accumulate data from different sources to compile a final list of transactions. For instance, a general ledge collects transaction information from your journals. This may seem like an old-school approach to things, but it is arguably one of the most efficient ways.
Keep Up-to-Date
You don’t have to wait till the end of the week or month to review your financial transactions. It’s advisable to go over your income and expenditure as often as possible. This way, you can come up with an accurate list of all your expenses and incomes. By regularly checking your finances, you can accurately keep track of your transactions even when circumstances change. On top of your regular time frame, it’s wise to randomly check your transaction to help you identify emerging trends you may not have taken into account.
Conclusion
Keeping track of your financial transactions is one of the best ways to achieve financial independence. Take time to go over all your expenses and keep all the records. This you can come up with an effective financial plan to help you achieve a financial breakthrough.
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