| Have you ever boarded a commercial or private airplane and noticed the pilot(s) with their head down focused on reading documents before takeoff? They aren’t brushing up on “how to fly this thing.” They are going over a detailed checklist of all the important things they must accomplish before leaving the ground. They know it is extremely difficult to pull over and fix something after take-off if they skip an important step. |
| We should all treat our recordkeeping with the same level of scrutiny. If we miss something in the accounting process, it can cost us unwanted penalties and interest, not to mention missed opportunities. |
| At Red Wing Software, Zoe, our amazingly efficient internal accounting person, has a spreadsheet with four tabs containing lists of items that need to be accomplished weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually. These tabs each have as many as 50 items. Without such a document, I can’t imagine anyone trying to remember all these tasks. |
| Of course, having such an extensive list is not worth much if there aren’t processes to explain how to accomplish all these items. So, she has a twenty-six-page supporting document that tells how each of these tasks should be completed. These lists and processes should evolve and be updated over time as the need arises. Having these documents in place also helps business continuity should a personnel change occur. Thanks to our previous, equally amazing, internal accountant (Zoe’s mother), Zoe was fortunate to have a head start on these lists and processes. |
| While I focused primarily on the accounting processes, having checklists and supporting processes documented for all important areas of the business is equally important. |