Bookkeeping in Provestor
When managing any type of business it’s important to ensure all records are kept. An accountant needs them to calculate tax, and file your accounts and returns, and should HMRC ask to see them you won't want the hassle of trying to dig out 6 years of records.
What we do at Provestor is turn your bookkeeping records into something insightful - LiveCash, profits estimates, portfolio metrics and tax calculations to name a few.
It's good practice to spend a few minutes a week or month to keep your bookkeeping up to date. We also recommend getting everything up to date before using any information in Provestor.
This guide explains how to accurately record and match your transactions in Provestor with your business bank statements.
Tips before you start
Our team has decades of experience helping clients with their bookkeeping. Here are some of the top tips from them:
Don't withdraw cash from your portfolio bank accounts. It can lead to surprise tax bills.
Avoid taking cash for rent. Instead, ask your tenant to pay it into your bank account. If you must accept cash, pay it in full into your bank yourself.
If you're using a limited company then don’t pay yourself without a payslip or a dividend payment. It would likely result in higher tax bills later on.
Keep your bookkeeping balance matched exactly to your bank statement. Any difference will affect livecash and profit calculations.
Don't be afraid to ask for help. If you’re having difficulties, get in contact with your account manager - they are experts!
Bookkeeping in Provestor
We’ve designed Provestor to make bookkeeping as easy. You’ll find many of your transactions are shown as ‘pending payment’ in the bookkeeping area – all you need to do is match them as they appear on your bank statement.
You’ll need to complete this process with all your accounts related to your portfolio, for example current, savings and credit cards. Each of your accounts needs a separate account in the bookkeeping – if you need one adding, for example a credit card, let you account manager know.
Step 1: Import your bank transactions
When you've connected Provestor to your bank using Open Banking, your transactions will be up to date in your statement importer. If they aren't up to date, check for a message in your bookkeeping area about expired connection and follow the instructions.
If you've not connected by open banking, you can manually import a csv file from your bank and import it into Provestor.
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Step 2: Check the starting balance
The starting / opening balance on your bank statement should match the balance of the last transaction you’ve recorded in Provestor.
We recommend checking periodically in case anything has gone out of sync.
Step 3: Confirm your transactions
This step is about making sure all your transactions are in Provestor and to add information on each transaction into your Provestor records.
The aim is to categorise your transactions, e.g. rent, expenses etc so we can prepare and file your returns, and if VAT registered, add details about VAT on each transaction.
Working through your imported transactions from the oldest to the most recent, you’ll :
Check if it's already in Provestor - If it’s already recorded in your bookkeeping records, check the date, amount against your imported bank transaction. Edit it if needed.
Match pending payments - If the transaction imported from your bank statement appears in the list of pending payments (i.e. a transaction Provestor knows about such as a rent invoice you've created or tax payment due) you’ll match it, and confirm the exact date and amount
Enter new transactions – If a transaction is not listed in your pending payments you’ll enter a new transaction
Matching pending payments
Pending payments are automatically created by Provestor for certain upcoming payments. They include payments you’re expecting to receive for invoices you’ve created, salary and dividend payments you need to make, tax payments due, and any recurring payments you’ve created in Regular payments & savings.
If the transaction is shown at the bottom of the page in the pending payments section, you’ll need to match it. Simply click the icon on the transaction and you’ll be asked to check and match the transaction details. Once this is done, press tick the matches statement checkbox and press save.
Entering new transactions
If you have additional transactions that aren’t in the pending payments area simply press “enter new transaction” to create a new transaction.
You’ll then need to select one of the six options:
Other outgoings - use this to record outgoings taken directly from your business bank accounts, for example bank charges, bills and other purchases.
Other income - use this to record income where you haven’t created an invoice, for example income from tenants, interest on savings, etc.
Refund of expense - use this to record when you receive a refund of an expenses, for example if you make a purchase and categorise it as a travel expense, you would record the refund and again select the category travel expense.
Transfer to another account - this allows you to transfer money to another business bank account. If you are using a company credit card or savings account you should use this feature to transfer payment between accounts.
Asset purchase - use this when purchasing an asset (not a property). The asset will be entered into your company’s asset register, as used during corporation tax calculations.
Asset sale - use this when selling an asset (not a property). The asset will be removed from your company’s asset register.
You can then record the details of your transaction.
Step 4: check the closing balance
Finally, you’ll need to check the closing balance to ensure you’ve entered everything accurately. Simply look at the closing balance on your bank statement and ensure it exactly matches the balance shown against the last transaction in the bookkeeping area. If there’s a discrepancy, check your bank statement against the transactions shown in Provestor to find the incorrect / missing transactions.