Do Your Own Accounting in 5 Steps

Even though it's not mandatory to hire an expert to handle your company's accounting, know that doing your own accounting is not within everyone's reach. Mistakes can have serious consequences for your business's future, which is why we're giving you all the essential steps to successfully do your own accounting!

Is it legal to do your own accounting?

No regulation prohibits doing your own accounting, regardless of the company's status and form. Indeed, you can manage your accounting alone without calling on an expert. This will be a choice specific to your company, imposing however the heavy responsibility of flawless accounting management. If you do decide to call on a professional for part or all of your accounting needs, they must be a certified accountant.

Indeed, as accounting is not limited to creating invoices, tracking inventory or maintaining the revenue ledger, it's also necessary to master everything related to the entrepreneurial world in fiscal, legal or social terms, as well as maintaining constant vigilance on regulatory updates. Doing your own accounting is thus only possible if you have all these skills and enough available time. As a precaution, you can always seek an expert's opinion to check your work.

The fundamental steps to successfully do your own accounting

Thanks to various training programs offered to businesses, as well as advanced accounting software, it's possible to do your own accounting in an informed manner.

Research your accounting obligations thoroughly

Doing your own accounting will be more or less complicated depending on the accounting obligations that apply to each business form and tax regime. Specifically, all companies under the real tax regime will have a lot on their plate to manage their accounting without calling on an expert! If you still want to embark on this accounting adventure alone, it will be essential to get proper information from the organizations your company depends on.

Accounting obligations are thus very heavy for commercial or liberal companies, while for independent natural persons it will be slightly easier.

Get trained to do your own accounting

Once well informed about all the obligations that apply to your company, it will be essential, even vital, to train accordingly before launching into 100% autonomous management of your accounting. Indeed, let's remind once again that if you don't master all the necessary skills, your company could quickly be put at risk. Many comprehensive training programs, adapted to your company's form and obligations, are available.

Subsequently, depending on your skill level or simply your availability, you'll have the choice between:

1. doing your own accounting entirely, including entry posting, balance sheets or accounting monitoring;
2. doing the main accounting work yourself (entries, accounting documents, etc.) and delegating to an expert the control of your management as well as official reports such as closing balance sheets or tax returns.

For entrepreneurs wishing to combine money savings and secure accounting management, the second option is a wise choice.

Use compliant and practical accounting software

This is again a significant step to successfully do your own accounting: finding practical, compliant accounting software at affordable rates. Depending on the complexity of your accounting obligations, choose an adapted package allowing you to manage all essential accounting points without falling into unnecessary options either.

Doing your own accounting on Excel is thus strongly discouraged, especially for business forms with complex obligations. For example, it's recommended for a company to use accounting software offering at least the following options:

• generate invoices chronologically;
• automatically integrate your sales and purchase invoices into your accounting entries;
• link banking operations to entries;
• produce annual accounts for each closing balance sheet;
• set up the general ledger and any accounting book mandatory for your activity;
• produce a document listing all accounting entries, required in case of tax administration audit.

Note that doing your own accounting also generally involves taxation, which is why your accounting software should preferably also allow you to manage tax returns.

Define your accounting software settings

Setting up your accounting software is essential to successfully do your own accounting without errors or time loss. You'll need to:

• enter all your company data: Company name, status, business contact details, opening and closing balance sheet dates, your tax regime, etc.;
• customize features: Set up user profiles and their respective access, automated or manual invoice integration into entries, etc.;
• set up accounting: Create the chart of accounts and all mandatory accounting books.

Launch into accounting self-management

Once trained and in possession of compliant accounting software, you can start doing your accounting alone. This involves monitoring your accounting regularly and ensuring proper entry of transactions as they affect your business. Finally, it's always possible to get support from an accountant, at least initially, to check your work.

The advantages of managing your own accounting

Doing your own accounting, partially or completely, notably saves on accountant fees. This is the primary reason that motivates companies and individual businesses to manage their accounting alone. The consequences of such a decision, when properly executed, allow the company to better understand its business workings and better identify the most appropriate projects for the company.

Note that it's entirely possible to do your own accounting on the essential condition of mastering all accounting, legal, fiscal or social skills, and equipping yourself with efficient tools like online accounting software with packages adapted to your needs.

Given all the complications of doing your own accounting, we advise you to use online invoicing software such as Flexina where you can easily manage your payments and reminders yourself. You'll only need to send your documents directly by PDF or Excel file to your accountant without even traveling thanks to our very practical export feature.

Don't forget to come test our online invoicing software for free for 15 days. Do you have questions, need tips or want a free demonstration of our software? You can contact us at any time. We'll respond as soon as possible.