Monthly Money Checklist

Monthly Money Checklists

It’s a new month, new quarter, and new season. Whether you made a lot of money last month, or not, it’s important to start every month off with positivity and intention. Here’s our monthly money checklist to help you stay on top of your finances.

1. Review your Expenses & Income from Previous Month

The first step to a monthly money checklist is understanding your spending habits. It’s important to know where your money is coming from and going. You should have a bookkeeping system in place so that you can do this easily and efficiently each month.

What is bookkeeping?

In simple terms, bookkeeping is recording the money you’ve earned and spent. If you bookkeep routinely, it’ll be easy to review this monthly. For our clients, we use a bookkeeping software/app to do this. How does it work? The app is synced to their bank account, so their transactions are automatically recorded. Then, we categorize each transaction at the end of the month. This allows them to see exactly how much they have earned in sales and spent on eating out, shopping, bills, etc.

2. Prepare & Evaluate Budget for Upcoming Month

Now that you know how much you earned and spent last month. Budgeting is easier than you think.

Do I really need a budget?

The fastest way to lose money in business is by not having a budget in place. A budget is crucial for the success and growth of your business. It allows you to have control over your money and see exactly where it’s going. We have step by step breakdown on how to create a budget here.

3. Check your Credit Score

It’s easy to forget about your business credit score. But, by having this on your monthly money checklist, you can stay on top of it. If you have a bad credit history, work with a professional to change it immediately. Good business credit allows you to have more opportunity for high-reward credit cards, funding, and good payment terms.

4. Update Calendar with Important Dates

Quarterly tax payments, invoice due dates, and payroll. Your calendar should be noted with important dates that affect your finances. Knowing when bills are due and ensuring they are paid on time makes you look more credible as a business but also improves your credit score. These days, the majority of your expenses will be on autopay, so add the amount and due date of each bill to your calendar. By noting the due dates and amounts on your calendar, you always know when and how much money is coming out of your account each day. You can use the calendar on your phone, a planner, or keep a calendar up on your wall at home – as long as it’s somewhere you can see it often.

5. Breakdown Goals

We all make goals at the beginning of the year, but why is it that only a small percentage of us actually accomplish these goals? One key thing that helps is breaking those yearly goals down into monthly milestones. To prevent getting overwhelmed, only make 3-4 financial goals in the beginning of each year. Next, break those goals down by quarter, then by month. Every month, review those goals and hold yourself accountable. For example, if one of your yearly goals is to make $100k/year, break that down to $25,000/quarter. Break that down again to $8.3k a month. By breaking down huge goals, you make them more obtainable.

6. Set a Priority for the Month

Setting 1-2 priorities for the month allows you to focus on what really matters. We can get distracted often with news, ideas, and the loads of information we consume daily. When you allow yourself to focus only on 1-2 priorities, you remove the need to try to do everything. Some areas of your life will need more attention than others, but you cannot make everything a top priority because you wouldn’t get much done.

By trying to accomplish everything in 30-days, you risk stretching yourself too thin and experiencing overwhelm or burn out. Always set an intention and priority for the month so that you don’t feel obligated to do everything. Focus only on what will make the most impact.

I hope this monthly money checklist was helpful for you. If you have any questions, please ask. If your beauty business struggles with budgeting, bookkeeping or finance in general reach out to us – Centure Financial. We have a team of experts to help, or you can work with me directly. 🤍