Why You Need to Keep Good Records

How profitable is your business? You'll never know if you're not keeping track—which is reason enough to set up some sort of recordkeeping system.

Keeping records can be both a defensive and an offensive (in a good way) activity. It's defensive in that you have key information about your business in case you ever need it in the future—to answer a query from the IRS, to investigate a customer complaint, or to notify customers in the case of a product recall. It's offensive in that you can use this information to generate more sales, by selling additional items to your existing customer base.