Good financial management is key to running a successful business. The company needs to be on top of its accounts to ensure they are not spending money they don’t have, and to keep an eye on specific areas that are costing them money so that any problems, potential or realized, can be rectified. Bookkeeping is a way of recording the transactions of a business, and accounting is the overall analysis of the company’s performance.

Every single transaction the business makes should be recorded in a cash book, however seemingly insignificant the amount. Problems can and will occur where records are inaccurate or entirely missing. Businesses need to be able to account for every single penny that passes through their hands, both for their own benefit and that of the law – a yearly government audit will soon highlight any irregularities and the company could be heavily penalized. Cash should be forecast-ed on a weekly and monthly basis, to help the company set a realistic budget that they should stick to.

Deposit accounts can be used by businesses to gain interest over a set amount of time on money that is not needed for the day to day running of a business. For example, a business could put away a lump sum for a year, and gain a higher rate of interest on it than they would in a regular account. There are restrictions on a deposit account, however, such as withdrawal conditions, which will be set when the money is deposited. This means money can only be taken from the account as specified intervals, so this could be risk if the money is likely to be needed in any emergency situations. However, they are seen as a fairly safe place to keep money, as interest rates are often guaranteed not to fluctuate over the duration of the deposit.