Balancing Your Checkbook for Responsible Financial Management

Recording all your additions and deductions in your check registry can be tedious and time-consuming, but it is an important part of responsible financial management for both businesses and individuals. Balancing your checkbook's registry to reflect all transactions over a given time period keeps you accountable for your spending and gives you an accurate, real-time snapshot of your available cash. It also helps you create (and stick to) a budget.

If you have been slack on balancing your checkbook registry consistently or haven’t gotten around to starting an organized registry, some reasons to start now:

See spending habits

Don’t have as much money in your checking account as you thought you did? Everybody has been there. You likely neglected to jot down one or more of your expenses. If this is a recurring problem, a more detailed look at your spending may be necessary to see exactly where your money is going each month so that, ideally, you can make positive changes to your budget and spending patterns. You won't know what to cut if you don't know where all your money is going.

Analyze cash flow

Balancing your checkbook is important for giving you an up-to-the-minute picture of your available cash on hand, but it also helps give a larger picture of how your cash flow fluctuates in a given month, quarter, and year. Reconciling your accounts and matching your check payments with your other types of payments and charges is simpler, more efficient, less time-consuming, and far more accurate when you start with a balanced check registry.

Spot mistakes

Financial errors that go unnoticed for too long are very difficult to fix. Balancing your checkbook regularly and comparing your amount to the one reflected in your bank statement tells you right away if an error has occurred.

Spot fraud

Your employees, clients, and associates are honest. And yet, fraud is prevalent and costs businesses billions of dollars every year. If multiple people have access to your account, it is advisable to always review check and spending records and make sure each transaction is recorded. Opportunities for check tampering can be limited by using an automated online check printing and mailing service that keeps all users accountable for their actions and gives real-time, universal access to a registry of every check issued.

Spot fees

Unexpected, recurring fees that go unnoticed for months will start to add up. Some of them may not be able to be reversed. Reviewing your bank statements and aligning them with your balanced checkbook is the best way to safeguard against surprise fees that will end up draining your cash.

Checkeeper does the recording for you

If your check registry is inaccurate, out-of-date, or incomplete, online check printing with automatic recording can help. Online check printing is not only convenient, but it is the easiest way to get your check finances organized. Online check printing through Checkeeper comes with an automatic check registry that:

· records a cumulative list of all checks issued from your account

· identifies the user who initiated each transaction

· allows you to search for a check using any field: payee, amount, date, or memo

· enables quick downloading and/or printing for when you need a partial or lifetime check history

Checkeeper makes balancing your checkbook an automatic endeavor that takes up no time or energy on your part. Checkeeper integrates with many other online financial platforms for businesses and individuals so that data need only be entered once and bookkeeping is as painless as possible. Checkeeper will even mail your checks for you for even more convenient payment management. All checks issued through Checkeeper are stored in a secure, searchable registry and can be retrieved on demand from anywhere you are living, working, or traveling.