With the April 15th tax deadline behind us, it's a good time to reflect on what it took to get your records in order for you to file your taxes this year. And it's a great time to make plans to simplify the process for next year.

Many small business owners have trouble keeping track of all the paperwork they'll need come tax time. Here are some tips to save you hours when the tax deadline is approaching.

1. Put all your receipts in one place. It sounds easy, but can be a difficult habit for some to adopt. Make a point of pulling business-related receipts from your pocket, portfolio, or purse on a regular basis. Choose a spot to collect them - a box, file folder, drawer - so they are all in one place.

2. Keep up on your filing. Nothing wastes more time than looking for missing documents. Set up a convenient system for filing your business paperwork. It does not have to be an elaborate system - it just needs to be functional. A quick system could include files for the following: bank statement, credit card statement, invoices to customers, business expenses, and tax forms. You can always break it down further if these categories are too broad.

3. Use your business credit card to track expenses. Keep a separate credit card for business-related expenses so that it's easy to pick out what are deductible expenses. Set-up recurring payments, like cell phone bills, to be paid directly from the credit card. That way at year-end, you'll have a nice record of all the expenses in one place. Discover Card and Capital One have attractive credit terms and make year-end expense tracking a breeze.

4. Track your income and expenses ongoing. Don't wait until year-end to see if you made a profit. Record your income and expenses at least monthly. There are plenty of accounting systems out there that can help. QuickBooks has a free version as does Microsoft Accounting. Of course, if your income and expense records are pretty straight forward, the good old pen and paper will work too.

5. Track your charitable donations ongoing. All those $10 donations and bags dropped off at Goodwill add up. TurboTax ItsDeductible is free to use and allows you to enter your donations year round. Come tax time, simply download the information to TurboTax or print a copy for your records.

6. Delegate the task. Most small-business owners could use a bit of help to keep up with the administrative tasks required to run their business. If you want to avoid the expense and headaches of hiring an employee, consider enlisting the help of a virtual assistant, or VA, as they've come to be known. A VA is an individual or team of professionals who work as independent contractors performing a variety of tasks to support business owners. You can find a VA to help with just about anything. Many hold advanced education and training and come with years of experience.