10 Steps to Getting Your Finances in Order

One of the most important things you can do as a business owner is regularly monitor your business performance and finances. However, there’s little value in reviewing out-of-date information.

Increasingly, accountancy firms (ourselves included) price year-end accounts and tax services based on the quality of your data — so keeping your records accurate and up to date can not only give you better insights, but may also reduce your fees.

Our 10 steps to getting your finances in order are listed below — a simple way to bring everything up to date and close the chapter on the current financial year with confidence.

Getting your finances in order in Xero

This guide focuses on Xero, but if you’re using spreadsheets or other systems, many of these principles will still apply. The aim is to ensure your records are clean, complete, and ready for accurate reporting.

The 10 steps

1. Ensure all bank transactions have been reconciled
Once everything has been processed, check that your bank balance matches your actual bank account. Don’t forget to include credit cards, merchant accounts (such as Stripe and PayPal), and Direct Debit feeds.

2. Review your sales invoices
Have they all been paid? Are there any that need to be chased, credited, or written off as bad debts? Are there any missing that still need to be raised?

3. Review your purchase invoices
Are they genuinely still outstanding? A common issue is duplication — for example, when a bill is entered and the bank transaction is also recorded separately as a “Spend Money” transaction.

4. Check for missing supplier bills
Are there purchases that haven’t yet been paid but also haven’t been recorded in Xero?

5. Record personal expenses
Have you logged any costs you’ve personally paid on behalf of the business?

6. Record business mileage
Ensure any business journeys have been captured and recorded correctly.

7. Review your stock (if applicable)
If you hold stock, carry out regular stock takes (monthly as a minimum) and record any adjustments for wastage or discrepancies.

8. Review your Profit & Loss report
Go to Accounting > Reports > Profit & Loss and review your figures.

9. Add a comparison period
Set the report to last month and include comparison periods to spot trends and inconsistencies.

10. Investigate anomalies
Your monthly expenses should be relatively consistent. Investigate anything unusual — it could be a mis-coded transaction.

For example, software costs may be split across different categories, which is fine if done consistently. A common issue we see is wages being misallocated — payments should be recorded against Wages Payable, not directly to Salaries, which can distort your reports.

Following these steps will help ensure your books are accurate, up to date, and genuinely useful — giving you clarity over your financial position as you move into the next period.

There are, of course, further steps you can take as your business grows, but these can become more technical and are often best explored through structured learning, such as the Business Finance Basics course from the Association of Accounting Technicians.

As you prepare for the next chapter, it’s worth considering where your time is best spent. If keeping on top of the numbers is taking you away from running your business, we’re here to support you — so you can move forward feeling organised, informed, and ready for what’s next.