It's Taxing

Behind again.
 
Wasn’t it last year at this time I decided I must do better on keeping my writing business financials up to date? Sure enough. But instead my records look more like this image—without the nice basket.
 
It’s not that I don’t have methods. My desk drawer has current year manila folders in hanging folder for copies of receipts and for income statements or copies of checks received. But when I get in a hurry, these items just get dropped on my desk . . . amongst the other miscellaneous papers.
 
There’s the 3x5 card that lives in my critique group folder. On it I record when we met, where, and what I brought. I have spreadsheets: writing day log, writing expenses, and writing income. But, unfortunately, I don’t enter the info promptly.
 
Which results in days like yesterday and today where I spend time photocopying receipts (since originals fade), verifying the expenses are entered in the spreadsheet, checking to make sure all event trips are entered in the spreadsheet (which sometimes involves reading old emails to verify the information!), double-checking the mileage to said events, etc., before I can work on my taxes. Talk about taxing!
 
I think what I need to do to solve my problem is dedicate a time slot each week to catch up finances. For me that means I’ll probably set up a calendar reminder to nag myself.
 
But I’d love to hear what others of you do. Feel free to share in comments.

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