If you only think about bookkeeping when it's time to reconcile your budget or file your taxes, it probably causes a lot of dread. You have to wrangle receipts, transactions, and write-offs. And if you're not the best at staying on top of this work, it makes it worse, since you have to go back through your records to find anything that's missing.
Here are five ways you can streamline and automate the process so when it's time to go over your budget, you're ready and can face this task with more peace and less dread.
Use an accounting app
The first and easiest way to streamline your bookkeeping is by using an accounting app to keep track of income, expenses, invoice status, and quarterly and annual taxes. You need a place to house all your transactions so it's easier to file your Schedule C or other business tax forms.
When you use an accounting app, the values on these forms are automatically calculated from the transactions that were added to the app, so this eliminates the need to make these calculations yourself.
There are many apps to choose from such as QuickBooks, FreshBooks, Xero and Expensify—and many of the best integrate with Zapier so you can automate many of your bookkeeping tasks.
Choosing accounting software comes down to personal preference, but we've put in a lot of research. Get started by reviewing our recommendations for the best overall accounting software.
Connect your payment processors to your accounting app.
One helpful way to automate your income transactions is by linking your payment processor accounts to your accounting app. For example, if you use Stripe or PayPal to receive credit and debit card or check payments, by connecting these apps using a built-in integration or Zapier, you can track income automatically.
Add sales receipts in QuickBooks Online for PayPal sales
PayPal + QuickBooks Online
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Bookkeeping and accounting aren’t at the top of the list of favorite tasks for most people, and there’s no reason to spend more time on data entry than you have to. Use this Zapier integration to automatically add a new sales receipt in QuickBooks Online whenever a successful sale is completed in PayPal.
Create QuickBooks Online customers with sales receipts for new Stripe payments
Stripe + QuickBooks Online
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Increased sales don't have to mean more time lost to paperwork — let Zapier be your personal accountant. This multi-step Stripe-QuickBooks Online integration will happen at any new Stripe charges, automatically finding the right QuickBooks Online customer or creating them if they don't exist, followed by issuing a sales receipt in their name — all in one go.
Add new Stripe charges to FreshBooks New as payments
Stripe + FreshBooks
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When you receive a payment, keep your bookkeepers happy by making sure your accounting tool reflects that payment. Use this Zap to automatically add new Stripe charges to FreshBooks New as payments. That way, your books are up-to-date and there's no manual work to do on your end.
You can also track sales in Google Sheets, Excel, or Airtable:
Add rows to Google Sheets spreadsheets for new PayPal sales
PayPal + Google Sheets
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When business is booming, slowing down to keep records is the last thing you need. Scale effortlessly with this integration. Once active, this Zap will be triggered by every new sale on PayPal, automatically sending those details to a row in a specified Google Sheets spreadsheet.
Add new PayPal sales to Excel spreadsheets
PayPal + Microsoft Excel
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Keeping an accurate record of your sales is vital for your reporting and accounting, but you've only got so many hours in the day. Stay focused on the bottom line by setting up this automation. It will trigger whenever a successful sale is detected on PayPal, automatically adding a new row to Excel with every detail you used to import by hand.
Create Airtable records for new successful PayPal sales
PayPal + Airtable
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When you have new successful sales, you'll want the details added to your database. This integration helps by automatically creating an Airtable record when there is a new successful sale in PayPal. Organizing your sales info has never been easier.
Create Google Sheet rows for new Stripe invoices
Stripe (Legacy) + Google Sheets
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When you have new invoices, you may want the details added to a spreadsheet for tracking purposes. This integration helps by automatically creating a row in a Google Sheet when there is a new invoice in Stripe. It's never been easier to organize invoice data.
Add new Stripe payments to a row on Excel
Stripe + Microsoft Excel
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Whether you need those payments records for your accounting or simply as a precautionary measure, let this Stripe-Excel integration worry about keeping up with your customer activity. Once active, it'll trigger whenever a customer's card is charged, recording the event as a new row on the Excel spreadsheet you choose.
Add new Stripe sales to Airtable
Stripe + Airtable
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Looking to keep track of all your Stripe sales? This Zapier integration organizes all of your Stripe sales automatically, adding them to an Airtable base as soon as the payment is created.
Connect your business accounts to your accounting app
Another helpful way to streamline and simplify bookkeeping is to link your business accounts—debit card, credit card and bank account—to your accounting app to track income and expenses. These integrations will track every transaction that occurs on your accounts from in-store office supply runs to client lunches. If you link your bank account, it will also track deposits and withdrawals that occur in person at the bank.
You'll no longer have to enter transaction details from physical receipts, eliminating the chance for human error.
Upload photos of receipts for business purchases on the go
And talking about receipts, there are other ways to add automation to make it easier to track expenses. One option is to take pictures of receipts, and upload them to your accounting app. You can then tag and add notes for the photo as needed to keep things organized. If your accounting app doesn't offer this feature, you can also upload the photos to a file management or cloud storage system such as Google Drive or Dropbox.
Save new attachments from labeled emails in Gmail to Google Drive
Gmail + Google Drive
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Save incoming files quickly and easily with this Google integration. Set it up, and when you label an email in Gmail, Zapier will save any attachments from that email into a specific Google Drive folder. This automation makes it easier to keep up with your most important files.
Save new email attachments to Dropbox
Email by Zapier + Dropbox
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Make sure you never lose an important email attachment with this Zap. Set it up, then save your new Zapier email address. Then, whenever you send or forward an email with an attachment to that email address, Zapier will automatically save the file in Dropbox for you.
To take the process of tracking physical receipts to another level, you can also use an app like Expensify. They have a SmartScan feature where you take a picture of a receipt, then the app extracts the values and adds them where you need it. It can also create an expense report, so your team no longer needs to manually enter these details.
You can also use automation with Zapier to track reports elsewhere, like saving them as PDFs in Google Drive or adding them to a spreadsheet.
Save new Expensify reports as PDFs in Google Drive
Expensify + Google Drive
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Getting your expense reports out the door is critical to running your business, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of time creating them. This integration can export your Expensify reports to PDFs and save them to Google Drive so you can share your reports without lifting a finger.
Add new Expensify reports to a Google Sheets spreadsheet
Expensify + Google Sheets
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Make sure your expense reports are available to your whole team, anytime. Use this automation to add new Expensify reports to a Google Sheets spreadsheet. Your expense reporting will get an extra boost of visibility and everyone will stay in the know.
Track expenses for service providers on a spreadsheet
There are certain business transactions that might not have an easy way to automatically track in your accounting software. Things like monthly service provider transactions, software fees for email marketing providers or web hosting, or payments for social ads.
If you've linked your credit card or bank account, those should filter in, but if you haven't done so—or if you want more detailed tracking for these kinds of expenses—you can add these fees to a Google Sheets spreadsheet or Microsoft Excel workbook. Since these transactions tend to have an email that includes the invoice or receipt details, you can easily create a Zap that will pull the needed data from the email and track them in a spreadsheet.
You can then use new rows in that spreadsheet to upload expenses to your accounting app either as a bulk upload or by using Zapier to make it an ongoing process. Include columns in your spreadsheet for things like transaction category (example: advertising expense, office supply expense, travel expense, etc.), so when you are ready to upload the data, each line item will be seamlessly applied to the correct category. This also eliminates the need to hunt down individual receipts in your inbox.
Take new Gmail emails from a specific sender and add them to a Google Sheets spreadsheet
Gmail + Google Sheets
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Have you had important emails get lost amongst the hundreds of other emails you receive each day? This Zapier integration takes new Gmail emails from a specific sender and then adds the contents to a new row in a Google Sheets spreadsheet. You'll be able to quickly and easily read emails from a specific address without them getting lost in your ever-growing inbox.
Add row in Microsoft Excel for new Outlook emails with specific term in the subject line
Microsoft Outlook + Filter by Zapier + Microsoft Excel
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Automatically log new Outlook email messages with a specific term in the subject line in a Microsoft Excel workbook to create an archive of invoices, expenses, or other often-received messages.
You can add a third step to these Zaps to also send this information into your accounting software. To add a step, simply click the plus sign after your spreadsheet step.
Automate bookkeeping and increase efficiency
By using any number of these strategies, you will be sure to simplify your bookkeeping process so you can spend more time working on your business and less time balancing your books.
