Setting up your writing business correctly from the getgo gives you the peace of mind to get on with what you do best: writing. And in 2019 to beyond there is absolutely no need for any professional writer to be approaching the accounting side of their writing business with a shoebox
filled with crumpled receipts and an excel spreadsheet.
Once you’ve registered your business and grabbed yourself a business registration number (ABN, ACN, VAT etc) and you’re setup for tax, make sure you start using some type of accounting system immediately. You don’t need to spend very much to get a nifty smartphone app that tracks your expenses, easily reconciles your bank statements, and (most importantly) enables you to invoice your clients and customers on the fly. Having a decent invoicing
system is absolutely essential if you are going to make money as a writer.
It might seem like a good idea to just use the invoice template in MS-Word to invoice your copywriting clients, the attendees at your poetry workshop, or the writer’s festival who has booked you as a speaker. But as your business grows (and you're invoicing more and more jobs) you’ll misplace those invoices, you’ll forget to hit ‘save as’ and copy over them, and be forever in your sent items looking for something you think you sent but can’t quite
remember.
I use a little Quickbooks app which costs only AUD$4.99 per month. It hooks into all my bank accounts (plus my PAYPAL account) as well as enabling me to send invoices and track payments. The best thing is every single bank transaction is flagged automatically, so I can see immediately what invoices have been paid as well as make sure all my deductible expenses are included in the tax reports.
When you’re a professional writer truly all you want to do is write. So take the time to setup your accounting and taxation records correctly, then it only requires a minimum of maintenance a couple of times a month.
