The “book” in bookkeeping refers to the financial books, or records, of your business. If you have a business it is best to keep the books of the business separate from your personal financial records.
The books include all of the transactions that take place in the business and the financial balances. The transactions are separated into types such as assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses and then classified into categories such as furniture (an asset), loans (a liability), sales (revenue) and rent (an expense). Once sorted, the transactions can be used to create reports such as a balance sheet or profit and loss statement that help you to run your business and file your taxes.
I would recommend recording your transactions at least weekly. There are also many apps that allow you to store the related receipts. Keeping receipts is important for filing your taxes, among other things. At the end of each month you should receive bank statements that you will want to reconcile (match to your books) in a timely fashion. At least quarterly you will want to review your key financial reports. You may have some tax payments to make quarterly (or, occasionally, monthly), as well.
As for an LLC that does not make money, depending upon what its tax type is (such as partnership or corporation), it most likely will still need to file a tax return. Some LLCs pay taxes directly and some “pass through” their profits or losses to partners or shareholders. Whether or not the LLC or the partners or shareholders would need to pay any income taxes in a year the LLC does not make money depends on the particular tax situation of the LLC.
