Happy New Year! Download your bank statements!

One of the first emails I got this year was one from my bank letting me know “Your statement is available.” Of course, I receive this email once a month for each of my bank and credit accounts, at varying dates in the month depending on when the account was opened. And prior to being a bookkeeper, I knew that these documents were probably important, but not important enough to follow the email to the bank’s website, log in, find the statements and download the latest one. That’s a lot of steps for something that seems like a low priority.

Before I was a bookkeeper, I would immediately delete these emails. Now, they are my monthly reminder to actually download my bank statements (and then I delete them). I’m here to tell you that I believe you also can and should find 3 minutes in your day to download and glance at your bank statements, and here’s why:

To be aware of your spending

Even if you spend only one minute glancing through your bank statement, it will help you be aware of what you are spending money on. This is especially important for recurring transactions, like utilities or subscriptions set up on auto-pay.

To follow up on cancellations

I’ve had it happen a few times where I unsubscribed from a service, or requested cancellation, and continued to be billed on auto-pay. If you are checking your activity monthly, you will catch this before you are billed an additional 6 months for something you don’t want or need anymore

To be aware of fraud

Bad actors may be able to sneak funds out of your account, but not without it showing up on your statement. Many years ago, I was a victim of identity theft. At the time I wasn’t reviewing my bank statements regularly and didn’t see for around 4 months that someone had stolen one of my checks and cashed a $500 check. Fortunately, once I caught it, I was able to have it refunded, but I would have caught it a lot sooner if I had been routinely reviewing my bank statements.

Your bookkeeper wants your statements

The first step to getting your business bank statements to your bookkeeper is getting them downloaded. If your bookkeeper asks for your statements and they are already downloaded, it’s no chore at all to send them over. If your bookkeeper asks for your statements and you have to log in, find, download, and email the statements, it’s much more likely to be put off.

You may need them for home loan or rental applications.

Sure, you could wait until you are applying, but your future self will thank you if the statements are already ready to go.

To comb through transactions at year-end for tax deductions.

There are a number of deductions that may be available to you, such as tuition expenses, child care expenses, charitable contributions, self-employed health insurance premiums, and medical expenses, just to name a few. If you own a small business, you should check to see if any business expenses were paid from personal cards, and reimburse yourself.

I have faith that this year you will get a jump on your taxes some time before April 14, and one big step is to make sure you have all your bank and credit card statements for 2022 downloaded. Get to it!