Taking care of your small business finances can be an overwhelming task. Keeping your personal finances and your business finances separate and in order can take hours of hard work and a great deal of frustration.

But hiring a bookkeeper in today’s economy is simply out of the question. Luckily, there are things you can do to streamline your small business finances and free up some of your time for more important tasks.

Pay Your Business Bills Automatically

Setting up a direct deposit from your business account to pay your vendors and other service providers is one way to make your bill paying more efficient. You do not have to worry about sitting down and writing out checks, filling out envelopes and running to the post office to get your bills paid on time. With direct debit, the payment comes out automatically on the same day each month without you even thinking about it.

Purchase a Good Finance Software Program

There are several software programs that will link directly to your business account and record transactions as they happen. This relieves you of the task of writing down each transaction by hand and calculating a new balance each time. ERP software for accounting purposes is ideal for keeping track of your company’s finances and there is a variety of ERP software vendors, packages and companies so you can find the best one for your tracking and calculating needs.

Get Rid of Unused Accounts

If you have accounts that you rarely or never use, why not just cancel them? Dealing with these accounts only takes time away from dealing with the accounts that you do use. If you have money in those accounts, withdraw it and put it in the accounts you use the most. By closing your unused accounts, you can also improve your business’s credit score and make it easier to keep track of the money available to you.

Sign Up for Overdraft Protection

Overdraft protection is an important service to have if you have a bank account. Even the most diligent checking account balancers can make a mistake every once in awhile which can result in an overdraft. Overdraft fees can wreak havoc on your small business’s finances and they can pile up on top of each other until you owe hundreds of dollars just in fees. With overdraft protection, however, the bank will transfer money from one of your accounts to another to cover any transactions that you do not have enough money to cover.

Have an Organization System

You might think having bills, bank statements and receipts scattered all over your work desk is a good system for your business finances. Unfortunately, this is not ideal. Create folders for different clients and vendors and have a filing cabinet so you can keep everything organized neatly. A few seconds of organization can save hours of searching later.

Utilizing more efficient ways for dealing with your small business finances will save you time, frustration and even money. As a result, you can use these resources toward building your small business and having some time left over for yourself as well.