I have spent the last couple of weeks primarily writing about how problems may occur in the workplace. Granted, my goal there was to provide some insight on how to respect others and learn to productively work together, but it is never that great a feeling to concentrate on potential strife.

So this week, I want to continue in the vein of working toward a comfortable, happy workplace, but hopefully from a more positive direction. Because, after all, shouldn’t everyone be able to embrace having confidence in your company’s direction?

Over those last couple of blogs, I discussed how some work issues could arise because of different general philosophies - whether someone is promotion- or prevention-focused when it comes to general belief and strategy. Those are concepts that cannot often be proven right or wrong because they are more ephemeral. This can lead to endless debates with no hope of resolution, but a business should always have some concrete pieces that are indisputable.

This is one of the reasons that it is key to keep accurate, up-to-date (and honest) books.

Not having books in that state is causing a lot of large companies trouble lately (read this recent article from USA Today to find out more about that). I can’t imagine people who work in those places read such things and feel that confidence I mentioned. It is difficult enough for employees in such companies to feel they have any hand in the direction of a company, so it can be damaging for them to then feel those in power are incompetent and possibly nefarious.

There is still a warning here for small-business owners, though, that the more concrete, definite and timely you can be with your financials, the better off you are.

The concrete and definite part leads to the confidence that is necessary for that happy workplace. For even when people have those previously mentioned differing philosophies, one can still instill some faith if big ideas are backed up with hard evidence.

The timely piece is probably affecting many this time of year as companies scrambled to get their financial information together for tax season. If you are conscientious about your bookkeeping, that isn’t such a trying endeavor. For many, though, that is not the case.

(Sidenote for those of you hit with a tax bill you were not expecting: Better bookkeeping can help with that, too. A quarterly review of financial statements, after all, helps estimate taxes that should be paid. )

This isn’t necessarily an awful thing. You didn’t enter your business because you were excited about keeping its financials in order and being ready to pay your taxes every year. Most of your efforts should be focused on the areas of your business that excite you, those reasons you started the business in the first place.

Some of us, though, started businesses because we do love those parts of business. We like the peace, confidence and power that can be given by making sure that bookkeeping and tax information is kept up-to-date and accurate.

So if this time of year is showing that some increased bookkeeping power would be a positive thing for your business, we would love to hear from you.