Gmail in your books

Gmail isn't an account and no money moves through it. It's where most of the documents behind your entries first arrive: receipts, vendor bills, contracts, renewal notices and the occasional bank alert. Each one is evidence for an entry, and an entry with evidence attached is one a reviewer can trust.

Each kind of email leads somewhere different. A receipt for a card charge gets attached to the charge that already came through the card feed. A vendor bill gets recorded as a bill in accounts payable on its bill date, before it's paid. An annual contract or renewal notice may need to be set up as a prepaid.

QuickBooks Online and Xero both let you attach a file to a transaction. An emailed receipt is usually enough if it shows the vendor, the date and the amount.

Before you close, search the inbox for bills dated this month that aren't in the books yet. Each one belongs in accounts payable or accrued expenses for this month, even if you'll pay it next month. Then match the receipts to the card charges still missing one.

Have receipts and bills sent to a shared finance address instead of one person's inbox. When that person leaves, the evidence stays.

Attached documents are the audit trail. Prepaid expenses covers the annual contracts, and Google Drive is where the signed versions should live.