One pair of hands, and a pile of receipts.

The paperwork

• Your inbox read and sorted

  Everything that lands gets read and put in order, so what opens first is what actually matters. A customer waiting on an answer comes before a newsletter, and neither of them needs you to work out which is which.

• VAT read off every receipt

  Photograph it and the supplier, the date, the net, the VAT and the total come off it. The receipt in your footwell is VAT you never claim back, and it is usually worth more over a year than this costs.

  Watch it

• Expenses filed under the right heading

  Each one goes under a heading that makes sense — materials, travel, food, subscriptions — so that when your accountant asks for the year, it is already sorted rather than a carrier bag.

• Mileage logged as you go

  Send where you went and it is written down at the approved rate, with the rate kept beside the figure so it can be checked later. Most people forget the short journeys, and the short journeys are most of the miles.

• Deadlines kept where you can see them

  Insurance, registrations, certificates, the MOT on the van. The things that are fine until the day they are not, kept somewhere that tells you before rather than after.