What is tracking expenditures, and how should you do it

Expenditures, basically, means "what you spend." Whether a business, a family, a single person, whatever, you have expenditures, things you buy, money you spend. You have rent, you have car payments, insurance, groceries, entertainment, and so on and so forth-all things on which you regularly spend money with such regularity that you often forget you're even doing it. This leads to all sorts of money troubles. You forgot you spent money on this, so you spend some on that, and lo and behold you're getting all sorts of fines from your bank. As I mentioned above, this phenomenon is shared by anyone, anything, that spends money-anywhere.
But let's focus on business for a moment. In business, expenditure is a huge, huge issue-a business is spending money all the time, on all sorts of things, great and small. Think about it for a moment. A minute is spending on things as varied as pencils, computers, and cars. A business must pay its employees. A business must play for plane tickets, banquets, expensive computer programming, etc. It can get so that businesses lose large swathes of money without even knowing it. Just little things, little things, that build up.

Thus the important of tracking expenditures. Tracking expenditures means simply that you take a close look at where your money is going. You're like a hunter-you're tracking down every dollar, every scent, nothing escapes your blood-sensitive nostrils. Part of the art of successfully tracking expenditures is having the right people about you-accountants, money people-who understand the nitrifies of finance and can lead you down safe, conservative paths. You want to be safe and conservative when it comes to certain aspects of business. Of course, sometimes it pays to be daring and liberal-sometimes you have to take chances-but when it comes to keeping track of how much money you spend on office supplies, business trips, and so forth, you've got to pinch pennies till the copper drips from them.
Now, the question of how you actually track such expenditures is a little more complicated, far too complicated, in fact, to be covered successfully in a short essay such as this is. But here are a few tips:
 Surround yourself with good accountants, money people. Not that you have to have a horde of them. You don't need a horde of lawyers, just one good one with access to others. Make sure you've got a great accountant. Hire one from the best schools, with the best recommendations.
 Began to keep general track of what you spend on a daily basis. Always start with the daily basis, as opposed to the weekly or monthly basis, because the daily basis is a great model for giving you a picture of your company's carelessness or otherwise with money altogether. No matter what it is you're buying, keep track of it, right down to sticky notes and stamps.
 Gather your company together and explain what it is you're trying to do. Just letting them know that you're going to be keeping a sharp eye on expenses is sometimes enough to make people act more responsibly. ESPECIALLY if you have this hawk-faced, hawk-eyed, hawk-bodied accountant standing at your side staring at everyone as if they were little furry mice.
 Start to think like a money-saver rather than a money-spender. Do you really need to provide your company with that expensive coffee in the morning? Do you really need three vending machines? And so on. These are a few things to think of when beginning to track expenditures.

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