Tip: Getting organised starts right now

Happy new year!

The start of another tax year is customarily greeted by a) daffs, and b) groans from the vast majority of self-employed people.  Where are those train receipts?  Who was the person I took out to lunch 8 months ago...and why? What is that PC World receipt for? Why can I only find half my invoices?

The one certainty is that you have a tax return to do and that you weren't as organised as you should have been for the last 12 months.

The worst of it is the knowledge that you have till the end of January to sort out the mess. Great! You can leave it, and leave it, and leave it....

But it doesn't have to be like that. 

Here are a few ideas we've kicked about on our business skills workshops:

1. Buy a concertina file (or just a box file) and put it next to your computer - or wherever you usually do your paperwork
2. Label it 'Receipts for tax year 2010-11' - and the time of the week you're going to sort receipts (see point 4)
3. Download one of our free spreadsheets for keeping track of everything and save it somewhere really obvious on your computer
4. Set aside 10 minutes at the same time every week to put any receipts in the file you just bought, and fill in the details on the spreadsheet you have downloaded

You won't need more than 10 minutes a week if you do this regularly. I find keeping all my receipts in the same place in my wallet works well. The wallet gets too bulky to close properly after about a week, so I'm forced to sort it.

The beauty of it is that by the end of this tax year you will have effectively done your tax return without even realising it.

If you have an accountant they should even charge you less.

So don't put it off. Get organised today. Think of it as a new year's resolution. 

And have a very, very happy new year.