The start of a new year is often when business owners take stock of what went well during the previous year and what they’d like to improve during the upcoming year. Many people make New Year’s resolutions for personal habits such as eating better and saving more money, but it’s fun to make new year resolutions for your business too.

4 New Year Resolutions for Your Business

Here are a few things we commonly hear our clients saying they’d like to do differently as part of their new year resolutions for business.

Open those brown envelopes from the Canada Revenue Agency

This one may seem funny, but it’s true! Some business owners are terrified to open those brown envelopes that come from the CRA. They’re scared they’re going to open the envelope to find they owe a whole bunch of money. Other entrepreneurs are scared of receiving an audit notice.

You don’t have to be afraid of either one of these things. If you’re working with an accountant there should be no surprises when it comes to how much you owe the government. If you do receive a statement saying you owe them money, it’s always a good idea to have your accountant check it over.

The same goes for CRA audits. If you’re working with an accountant who knows the current tax laws, there is nothing to fear when it comes to an audit. You can rest assured that your accountant has prepared your taxes accurately, they will have records of the credits and deductions claimed, and the audit will go smoothly.

Keep up with bookkeeping

Does “I’m going to get this done earlier next year” sound familiar? Many business owners put off doing their bookkeeping because they don’t enjoy it. Some put it off because it’s overwhelming. If either one of these are the case for you, you may want to consider hiring a bookkeeper or having your accountant do your bookkeeping for you.

And that brings us to our next point . . . 

Hire an accountant 

Hiring an accountant can be daunting if you’ve never done it before, but it’s well worth it for your business. If you’ve been winging it and filing your own tax returns, you will see a huge improvement once you start working with an accountant.

If you’re not sure how to find an accountant, here are some questions you can ask to find out if they’re the right one for your business:

  • Do you have other clients in my industry?
  • What are some tax changes that may affect my business?
  • Are you available to answer questions or will I be working mostly with one of your team members?

Check out our blog post “How to Hire an Accountant” for more tips.

Be more organized

If you had this as a resolution for your business, you are not alone. Being more organized is always a top resolution whether you’re a business owner or not. One way you can be more organized in your business, is to implement systems. A good system helps with organization by eliminating redundant tasks and wasted time. It should be easy to follow and use so everyone at your organization can take advantage of it.

For more information on business systems, check out this post.

Whether you want to get more organized, hire an accountant, or pay less tax, the new year is a great time to start planning how you’re going to do that. If you need help with any of your new year resolutions for your business, contact us today to learn more about how we can work together.