Swapped to a separate business bank account 8 months ago and actually saw the difference yesterday

My accountant told me to do it for years but I kept mixing personal and freelance money in one account. After 8 months of separate accounts, my tax prep took 45 minutes instead of 6 hours. Has anyone else noticed a big time save from a simple change like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

finleym3717d ago

45 minutes is still a long time for tax prep if you are just a freelancer. Something else is probably making it take that long unless you have a lot of transactions each month. The real time saver is using a separate credit card for business expenses, not just a separate bank account. If you are still sorting through a bunch of personal charges on that business credit card, you are missing the whole point. Might want to check if your business card has a simple expense tagging feature. That cuts the time way down to maybe 10 minutes.

cora_west517d ago

My neighbor tried that separate credit card trick and ended up accidentally using it for a Disney vacation because he forgot which card was which. Now he has a whole spreadsheet just to explain why Mickey Mouse is a business expense. I think the real secret is just having a shoebox and a prayer like the rest of us. At least that's what I tell myself when I'm digging through receipts three years later.

ray56217d ago

Is it just me or does this whole thread prove a bigger thing about how we try to fix life with tools instead of habits? Like everyone is out here looking for the perfect credit card or app, but the real trick is just building a simple routine that sticks. I used to download a new budgeting app every month thinking it would magically fix my spending, but I was just wasting time learning a new interface. The neighbor accidentally using his business card for Disney is basically all of us with any system we overthink.