for those DIY-ing their books or managing them for someone else
Before I launched my bookkeeping business, I was doing the books inside another company. And honestly? That version of “DIY bookkeeping” looked a lot like what most small business owners can follow today.
I handled accounts payable, merchant payouts, and transferred sales data from our point-of-sale system into QuickBooks. It was messy at times, but it taught me everything about consistency, confidence, and clean systems.
Most small business owners are in that same stage.Some of you are doing your own books. Some of you are the appointed admin-turned-bookkeeper. And some of you are learning bookkeeping for a company before you ever plan to turn it into a business.
Wherever you fall, this workflow will help you stay organized and feel more confident in your numbers.
Why a Weekly Routine Matters More Than You Think
Bookkeeping doesn’t need to be complicated. But it does need consistency.
A weekly workflow keeps you:
- aware of your financial healt
- confident in the numbers you’re managing
- prepared for tax time
- ahead of messy catch-up work
- operating with clarity instead of guessing
Daily Quick Check-In (1 to 2 minutes)
This isn’t bookkeeping. It’s business awareness.
Every day, I quickly looked at:
- bank balance
- credit card balance
- any unusual activity
- unexpected increases in spending
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If you use any of my referral links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you, but I only recommend tools I genuinely use and trust in my own business.
Monday: Enter Sales from Your POS System
If you use an external point-of-sale system, this will be your biggest weekly task.
My Monday routine:
- export prior week’s sales reports
- clean the data
- map the fields to QuickBooks
- import using Spreadsheet Sync (if you have QuickBooks Advanced)
- record merchant deposits
- document sales taxes collected
- verify total sales matched bank deposits
Why weekly is best:
Daily is too time-consuming and easy to lose track of. Weekly keeps your sales clean doing so in bulk, without overwhelming you.
Tuesday: Record Merchant Payouts + Processing Fees
On Tuesdays, I handled:
- merchant processor payouts
- matching payouts to clearing accounts
- recording processing fees
- checking for missing deposits
What’s a clearing account?
It’s like a temporary holding account in QuickBooks where money sits in between the moment your customer pays and the moment your bank receives the deposit.
If you take credit cards, you must use one. It keeps your numbers accurate and prevents reconciliation nightmares.
Wednesday: Enter Bills + Review Vendor Expenses
Most of our expenses were on auto-pay, but Wednesdays were my bill and expense day.
My process:
- review and enter all incoming bills
- categorize expenses
- clear the QuickBooks “For Review” tab
- check for doubled charges
- confirm subscriptions were still needed
- verify receipt uploads
Pro Tip
Create a bills@yourdomain.com email and have all your accounts payable vendors send invoices there. I also recommend creating an expenses@yourdomain.com email for all your autopay vendor receipts. Using two separate emails makes it so much easier to distinguish bills that need action versus subscriptions that simply need to be categorized.
If you’re using Google Workspace, you can create both of these addresses through Google Groups, which is one of my favorite ways to manage multiple bookkeeping-related emails without paying for extra inboxes. You can forward both addresses directly to your custom QuickBooks email (and to your personal inbox) so receipts automatically upload into QBO and nothing gets missed. It keeps everything organized, streamlined, and easy to maintain… especially if you’re DIY-ing your bookkeeping.
And if you sign up using my Google Workspace referral link, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools I’ve personally used to run both my business and my clients’ workflows.
If you don’t have QBO, the Cash Flow Pro Tracker lets you manually track expenses across up to 3 accounts with built-in checks to prevent mistakes. Perfect for DIYers.
Thursday: Pay Vendors + Schedule Payments
Thursdays were my bill pay days.
- paid all vendors who were on terms
- scheduled payments early when cash flow allowed
- checked due dates for anything upcoming
- updated my open items list
This prevented late fees, vendor confusion, and mid-month stress.
I also would make intercompany bank transfers between accounts as needed for cash flow.
Friday: sweep day
Friday was my sweep day. Any open items that were left unresolved throughout the week got tackled here. This included stray transactions, questions that needed follow up, or anything in the books that did not look quite right. Keeping everything written down in one place made these Fridays so much easier for me.
That is why I like using a simple planner that focuses on goals and gives me space to track the items I need to revisit at the end of the week.
The layout of planners helps me stay organized, stay on top of my priorities, and keep all my sweep day notes in one spot instead of spread across sticky notes or emails. It is an easy way to bring clarity into your bookkeeping routine and into your week.
Monthly: Reconcile Everything Within 10 Business Days
Once statements posted, I reconciled:
- bank accounts
- credit cards
- merchant accounts
- loans and liabilities
While reviewing my reports, I checked for:
- negative expenses
- duplicate income
- assets showing as negative (red flag!)
- liability accounts that didn’t make sense
- uncategorized transactions from imports
- transactions categorized to parent accounts
This is where clean bookkeeping actually happens — in the reconciliations.
The Takeaway
This weekly system taught me everything:
- discipline
- consistency
- confidence
- financial clarity
- how to avoid messy cleanup
- how to think like a bookkeeper
If you’re DIY-ing your books, you don’t have to be perfect. But routines matter. And one simple weekly workflow can keep you organized, even in the busiest mom seasons. Check out my FREE DIY bookkeeping checklist here.
resource roundup
- Cash Flo Pro Tracker – Track up to 3 accounts, categorize expenses, see trends, and use check-figures to avoid mistakes.
- DIY Bookkeeping Checklist – Your monthly blueprint for clean books
- 1Password – Keeps all your logins secure and organized
- 2026 Goal Planner – Set your goals and plan your week for this upcoming year
- Outsource Your Bookkeeping – Stay intentional and focus on your business