Five Accounting Tips for Your RV Mobile Business
TL;DR Running a mobile business? Cut down on admin time with these 5 hacks:
Use apps like MileIQ to track miles.
Store receipts in Google Drive, organized by purpose and date.
Swap Excel for free accounting tools like Wave.
Learn what qualifies as a deduction (hint: it must be “ordinary” and “necessary”).
Skip the blogs—get tax info straight from the IRS and your state.
By Adam Nubern #131230
No one wants to spend time on administrative accounting tasks.
The reality, though, is a small business entrepreneur is the CEO, CFO, COO and all other kinds of Xs and Os.
Here is a list of five efficiency hacks to get you creating and exploring, and spending less time paper pushing.
1. Use a mobile phone application like MileIQ to automatically record miles driven. Set aside time on Wednesdays and Saturdays to categorize trips as business or personal. , www.mileiq.com
2. Use a cloud storage solution such as Google Drive to house all of your business receipts. Get away from that shoe box full of receipts! When you have a business expense, snap a picture and upload it to Google Drive. Create a folder labeled “Business Receipts.” Categorize that folder by month. Name the file with your business purpose, such as “Lunch With Sam To Discuss Pinewood.”
3. Stop doing your books on Excel spreadsheets. If your business margins do not justify spending money for accounting software, try out Wave. This is a free accounting software solution. It will save you loads of time building your accounting books. , www.waveapps.com
4. I get a lot of questions about what is a legitimate business deduction. Consistently analyzing what is and is not a business deduction takes up a lot of your creative time. At the simplest terms, the IRS expects that any business deduction be “ordinary” and “necessary” in the carrying on of your business. The IRS has a fairly well presented description of what they mean by ordinary and necessary. Section 162(a) of the Internal Revenue Code is where all of this magic is happening. ,www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/deducting-business-expenses
5. Go straight to the source. When you have accounting and tax-related questions, the IRS and your state of domicile have sources that you can consult. The IRS has great resources for small business owners at (https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/business-taxes-for-the-self-employed-the-basics
Most state-specific answers can be found at your Secretary of State’s Website. Too often we waste time getting bogged down in blogs, forums and Google searches. It’s always best to go straight to the source when you have a question.
