"Yes!" Your personal finances should be in an accounting system

For sure! This is highly recommended if you have or run a household. There are so many things to think about as an adult with financial obligations, and having it in an organized system can only make things easier to manage. Have kids, or dependents? They come with their own expenses, too!

I personally started doing this 10 years ago through a program I heard about from Ramit Sehti, called YNAB (You Need a Budget). One of the gems Ramit recommended as well is to try and pay all bills on the 7th of every month. It took a month for me to reorganize (and yes, it meant paying one bill twice in one month in some cases), but it was worth it, and I have done this ever since.

This may not be feasible for everyone's financial situation, and that is understandable. If you can though, consider it.

With my personal transition from living in the US to living in NL, I outgrew YNAB, and moved to QuickBooks Online. I turned on multi-currency and it helps me see all of my money in one spot. How it helps me now:

• My bank and credit cards auto-sync
• I do a 'soft' reconciliation everyday so I know exactly where my bank balance stands
• I enter expenses in advance so I can budget and always stay out of the red (currently I can only do this for USD transactions)
• I reconcile my accounts monthly
• Even though my personal bank statements end on random days throughout the month, I still reconcile as of the last day. The accountant in me...
• I can review reports about my income and spending in so many different ways. I like looking at columns by month (profit & loss)
• I can see all of my outstanding liabilities in one place (balance sheet)

Just because the accounting programs market themselves towards businesses, individual finances are not at all excluded. Not only have I moved my own personal finances, but I have clients who are strictly household only, and need us to pay their bills, and then we have artists who are not yet incorporated that use their SSN but are running a business.

It works the same. All you need is a great chart of accounts set up, link the bank and credit card accounts, and you can expect the same valuable reports you would receive if you were one of our small business clients!

Do you think you might need to bring your books into a formalized system? We can help! Get in touch ss@siennaworks.com