Bookkeeping simply means writing down the money that comes in and goes out of your business. It sounds dull, but it is the habit that makes everything else possible: pricing, knowing your profit, applying for support, dealing with tax, and showing an employer that you can be trusted with money. Shop and sales adverts in Ghana regularly ask for record keeping and customer records.
The basic record
You need just one list, kept every day. Each line records one transaction:
- Date
- What happened, such as "Sold 2 tubs shea butter to Hawa, Kumasi" or "Bought 10 tubs".
- Money in (sales)
- Money out (expenses)
- How paid, such as MoMo, cash or bank, and the transaction ID for mobile money
At the end of each week, add up money in and money out. The difference shows how much your cash changed.
Notebook or spreadsheet?
Both work. A notebook is cheap and needs no battery. A free spreadsheet app like Google Sheets on your phone or computer adds up columns for you, can be backed up to your Google account, and is easy to share with a mentor or a programme officer. The SUM function totals a column for you; for example, typing =SUM(C2:C50) adds every number from row 2 to row 50 in column C.