Paperwork

I have a bit of free time in the morning and the evening since my wife is away so I thought I would catch up on paperwork -VAT enquiries by HMRC, billing dispute for a cancelled service, tracking expenses, etc. I had done this last week as I needed to clean up my desk for some guests who would be staying in my office on the futon. It took me about 30 minutes to do all the paperwork so that is pretty good. However, there are times through this week I have filed stuff, responded, or organised my paperwork so the amount of time spent on this task is likely more. It is critical to keep on this task, develop a system of recording and filing, and use technology. For example, I need to track the funding of the business as I have funds in both USD$ & GBP£ and in two different accounts at the moment. The reason for this is I need to pay many suppliers in dollars so it is not beneficial to move the funds o the UK and incur commissions/fees and currency conversion expenses. However, I need to make sure that the funds are carefully accounted for. By keeping track of each wire payment (expense) with each transaction, it takes me about 5 minutes to record the item in a spreadsheet. This morning within a couple minutes I was able to reconcile the balance of the account to my spreadsheet and have the confidence I’m doing a ‘good job’. If I hadn’t been doing this all along I think I would be confused, could loose track of payments, and run afoul. On top of my inbox is a letter from HMRC indicating they are going to call me proactively to discuss VAT since I am newly registered. It is always a good thing to have your records prepared when you get a call from the ‘tax man’!