Do you have financial systems in place in your business and personal life that work really well for you? If you don’t now is the time to put them in place because I can tell you from personal experience they can make the difference between thriving and scrambling.

Last year my partner and I created a spreadsheet of monthly, quarterly, annually, and semi-annual expenses and distilled everything down to a monthly figure. This included seasonal expenditures as well (pellets for the wood stove, mulch in the spring, etc.) as regular monthly items. The impetus behind this exercise originally came from my accountant. We needed a way to to separate items that could be deducted as part of a home office deduction and apply those to a joint account. In this way record keeping would be easier and in the event of an IRS audit, I wouldn’t have to pull the personal records of my partner into the mix.

Last year it was a total project. One of those afternoon long drudgery inducing exercises that left us exasperated and quarreling. We persevered however and at the end of the day arrived at a plan and a monthly figure we would each contribute.

We followed the system for the year (each contributing our portion to a joint account) and lo and behold it worked like magic! What I mean by that is we were able to easily and effortlessly meet our monthly expenses and even those quarterly and semi/annually expenses without having to play cash flow roulette. No scrambling to transfer funds from savings accounts. No shocking quarterly water bills. No shock and awe when annual landscaping tasks needed to be handled. Not only that but we managed to use surplus monies in the account to handle some unexpected household repairs as well. It did wonders for our relationship when it came to money discussions too. No more who is handling what disagreements…it was there in black and white.

So, this past weekend when it came time to update the spreadsheet again I was curious to see how it would go. Well I am happy to tell you it was a total breeze. Sure it took some time, conversation, and focus, but the strong foundation had been in place. We were able to adjust our estimates from last year based on the past twelve months actual expenditures. We were also able to easily adjust amounts based on recent changes in some of our bills. In addition we had a much better sense of the ebb and flow of cash as it related to bigger projects and the need for a cushion for the unexpected.

Creating this system in such a way that we can easily revisit it keeps us accurate, on track, and able to manage cash flow SO much better.

I can’t stress enough that if you haven’t already, take some time to create a system that works for you, work it steadfastly, and revisit it regularly (at least every six months). It not only makes you a good steward of money, it frees you up to attract more money into your life and bolsters your own money mindset.

Try the Queercents Expense Tracker to get you started…

Photo Credit: Roland Tanglao

Paula Gregorowicz, owner of The Paula G. Company, offers life coaching for lesbians to help you gain the clarity, confidence, and courage you need to have success on your own terms. Get the free eCourse “The 5 Crucial C’s You Need to Succeed in Life” at her website.