Are you setting out towards your journey in the tourism business as a travel agency? There are several things you must keep in mind. Always prefer the quality of service over the quantity of amount you receive if you want your customers to keep coming back to you. If you want to sustain as a business, do not take the books, accounts, and finance records lightly. You must not compromise in this regard, either.
Once you have taken the services of a professional bookkeeper, you need to ensure that your team is ready to cooperate with the outsourced professionals to fulfill the bookkeeping needs. When you are catering to the bookkeeping needs effectively, you will notice your business to thrive better.
This article aims to introduce you to the bookkeeping needs of your travel agency that you must cater to carefully.
Six Bookkeeping needs to look out for as a tourism company
For running any business being watchful of the numbers is very important. When it comes to dealing in the tourism industry, the operation of a business has a lot of management going on at all times.
Owing to which, managing and segregating accounts can be a difficult task. Hence it is essential to seek the professional help of Bookkeeping and accounting firms in Dubai to cater to your financial needs. Once you have deferred this responsibility to the professionals, you can focus your attention on key management and operational matters.
The following are the needs that make your cooperation towards bookkeepers and accountants essential:
- Manage cash flows efficiently
In a travel agency business or a tourism company, there are hundreds of transactions going on at any time. These involve both the inflow and outflow of money. The first step towards effective Bookkeeping is to segregate the accounts of different kinds of transactions as the outsourced professionals suggest.
These accounts will help keep a record of cash flows and help fulfill other needs associated with accounting and Bookkeeping. Effective cash flow management is possible through business accounting software or a ledger.
- Track business health via numbers
Setting up a ledger or separate business accounts for each kind of transaction will help track the numbers. You will be able to predict the potential for your business at the end of a six-month or 12 month period. You will find it convenient to keep the receipts up to date. For this, you can even attach images to the transaction records.
You can encourage the bookkeeper to use cloud storage as a backup for the financial data. Keeping up with the receipts will help you determine whether the business is making a significant profit and help guide the decision-making process.
- Assess revenue recognition conditions
Revenue recognition is a principle of accounting that helps you outline the conditions or prerequisites under which you assess or consider sales to be revenue. In the field of books and accounting, you can use the terms ‘revenue’ and ‘sales’ as interchangeable terms.
One of the primary methods used for revenue recognition is the cash method. You need to be sure of the conditions that define the revenue for your business. In this way, you will be assisting the bookkeeping process as a whole.
- Maintain transparent income statement
With a ledger and segregated business accounts, you need to maintain an Income statement. It needs to be transparent to reflect the prospects of profit. Without the accurate representation of data to reflect profitability, you cannot assess the health of your business.
Instead of going into loss and not being aware of it, you need to seek help from professional bookkeepers to maintain a transparent income statement for your travel agency business.
- Business accounts credit reconciliation
Bank feeds may not be accurate and to the point, and relying on those alone can be the cause of your business going downhill. Make sure you reconcile the data every month so that you are not late to catch any inaccuracies or mistakes.
If you ignore problems, they can spiral to get bigger with time, and eventually, things may get out of hand. Thus a team of professionals is essential to fulfilling your bookkeeping needs.
- Categorize the transactions
The categorization of transactions seems to be simple, but it is easier said than done. What was a certain amount of money directed towards? A reward for an employee, an official lunch, a medical bill, first aid service, transport utility form only the tip of the iceberg. Without segregation and the hierarchical division of expenses and categorization of records, Bookkeeping can be an arduous task.
Are you a travel agency start-up owner?
Whether you’re just starting up or are operating as an established business, keeping up with numbers and keeping a record of all transactions is extremely important. Make sure you contact the best professionals dealing with financial management and accounts from the very beginning.