As a mobile food business owner, you wear a lot of hats. On any given day, you might have to work as a customer service rep, a food critic, a buyer, an employee manager, and even a janitor. It was probably your love of food and people that got you into the mobile food industry. And so sometimes, it’s easy to forget the “business” part of that phrase. The hat that most food truck owners have the toughest time wearing is that of the financial manager. Today we share a tool to help: Quickbooks.

Even if you are an accounting whiz, you’ll find that you won’t have the time or desire to spend your workday balancing the books. Instead, you’ll be dealing with the myriad day-to-day headaches that pop up in your business, things like: the produce wasn’t delivered or your driver is out sick.

There are a million ways money is moving in and out of your food truck, and it’s essential that you keep track of every penny. As the saying goes, if you can’t count it, you can’t manage it.

Get Your Food Truck Financials Under Control With QuickBooks

QuickBooks is a wonderful resource for food truck owners who want to take control of their finances. There’s a reason that QuickBooks is so commonly used by business owners: it’s easy to use. If you’re not a finance whiz, no problem—you can manage your business simply and effectively with QuickBooks, no accounting knowledge necessary. All you need is a desire to take control of your mobile food business’ finances.

There are many different versions of QuickBooks available. Food truck vendors seldom need to use anything other than the basic version, and if you decide down the road that you want something with more capabilities, you can always upgrade to QuickBooks Pro. When QuickBooks is installed, it configures an accounting system specific to your business. Its setup helper, called Easy Step Interview, is a great tool. However, many vendors ultimately decide that QuickBooks’ pre-made restaurant tools don’t work perfectly for their business. It is possible to design a custom system for your food truck, but it is often a better use of your time and money to contact an accounting professional well-versed in QuickBooks to do it for you.

When setting up your QuickBooks, you’ll have to select a start date. If you’re starting QuickBooks the first time you make a transaction, congratulations! Your mobile businesses’ finances are off to a great start. But if you’re like many small business owners, you were too busy getting things up and running to set up an effective accounting system right away.

You can retroactively enter your past financial data, which ideal but is a time-consuming and often difficult process. If you choose not to do that, it’s best to at least retroactively enter your date up to the first day of the current year, so that come tax-time, all your accounts are in the same place. If you feel overwhelmed by the prospect of re-organizing your old financial data, consider finding an accounting professional who can help you do it right the first time.

You can purchase Quickbooks online <here>