I got that letter in the mail that every person, entrepreneur or not, fears: a letter from the IRS with the word audit in it. Thankfully, it isn’t a full audit, but it has been a pain just the same. The most intimidating thing about the letter was the list of documents they needed a copy of, all from 2005 except one, which dated back to 1998. YIKES!
The first thought I had when I saw the list of what I needed to submit was there’s no way I’m going to find all these
things. It may be hard for some of you to believe, but I am not a very detailed-oriented nor organized person. Don’t get me wrong - I can be when I need to be, but it doesn’t come naturally. The good news (and a prudent lesson for any leader) is that I had hired people much more capable than myself in areas I felt weak. This happened to be one of those areas. Thanks to my super-organized Controller and COO, I was able to fish the 2005 boxes out of my basement and quickly find not only canceled checks but in-depth details of the transactions I needed. The document from 1998 was gone but a call to our vendor and they were able to fax us an archived version of the information we needed. Any holes remaining in our records were filled by our long-time accountant. Thank goodness for them (did I say that out loud?)!
Through this experience I have developed a new appreciation for detail-oriented and organized people. Even though I am running as a solo-preneur right now, I’ve maintained the record keeping set up and organization I had when I had 24 people working for me. Sometimes it feels like overkill, but it is easier to keep it organized now than it would be to dig through it and find information later. After all, you never know when the IRS will come knocking!
