It may happen that you make purchases for your sole proprietors but have not paid for them with your business account. A personal bank account or maybe just paid cash?
Don’t worry because that purchase can still appear in your accounts! A wrong payment is easy to make: go into the shop and accidentally use the bank card from your business account. Or you are in the middle of starting up your self-employed activities, you already want to make some purchases here and there, but the bank card from your business account is still a bit late.
Does a business account impact your accounting?
With sole proprietors, it makes no difference at all to your accounting whether you pay from your professional account, a private bank account or cash, for example. You don’t even have to mention it anywhere in your accounts.
With companies, it’s completely different! This is also the difference between single-entry bookkeeping (for sole proprietors) and double-entry bookkeeping (for companies). We don’t want to make it too technical, but below we briefly explain the difference between single-entry bookkeeping and double-entry bookkeeping.
In single-entry bookkeeping, you just have to keep track of everything, think of your purchases, sales, bank statements, etc. But you don’t have to make a connection in accounting between your purchases and sales and the bank statements. You have to process your purchases in your accounting package and, of course, also enter your sales invoices. If you have done that, then you are done in single-entry bookkeeping; in other words, you don’t need to start processing your bank statements in your accounting package again. You must be able to present the bank statements should you have a tax audit, but you must not have done anything else with them.
With double-entry bookkeeping, you also need to make the connection between your purchases and sales and the bank statements. So you have to start processing your bank statements in an accounting package, that way you can connect them with your purchases and sales. This is much easier if you have a professional account, because only then can you use handy software tools to help you do this.
Some more tips about a professional account
Still try to pay everything through your professional bank account, even if it makes no difference to your accounts.
Because as soon as you have paid for purchases for your sole proprietors with a personal bank account, this account also becomes a professional account for the tax authorities. This means that a tax inspector may also look at all bank statements from that account. This can’t hurt, of course, but you may prefer not to let an auditor look into your private bank account as well.
Tip:
If you would like to know more about a professional account, discover the article here.
Of course, for your own summary, you can always transfer between a professional bank account and your private account. For example, did you make a payment in the shop with your private account, while it was a purchase for your company?
Then you can make a transfer from your professional bank account to your private account yourself. So this has no impact on your accounts or your taxes, but this way the bank balances match your own summary and feel again.
Open a business account?
Fortunately, you have a lot of choices as an entrepreneur to open a professional account! Think KBC, Hello bank, ING, Belfius, etc.
Through these websites you can also find a lot of information about a business bank account. Also know that in the beginning you will look very closely at the cost price of such an account, which is quite logical. Be sure to look a bit further ahead: which bank can grow along with your trajectory as an entrepreneur?
What is the process for applying for a loan you might need in the future? What is the cost of my package if I need more accounts? If I need a Visa or Mastercard? …
