Delegate to technology

In the process of learning a tough lesson on running a small business: never think you can do the accounting manually! It is a cost that you think you can avoid, but no matter how great the urge to be frugal, you have to get a proper accounting software package.

I've been creating invoices in Excel for 5 years and today it bit me. There is a query with a large client - I have the invoice, they have the invoice. They say they paid it but naturally Excel doesn't know - and I don't remember. I now need to sit and go through hordes of bank statements and invoices to figure out what is going on. This is going to be a monumental waste of time.

My first investment in 2007 is going to be some accounting software. Lesson learnt!