Pretty much at the start of any business you have the issue of dealing with the numbers. After all, no matter how small or large a business is, accurate records must be kept of every single transaction. This includes everything from sales to expenses and even payments. Any cash flow moving in or out of your business must be accurately tracked.
While it’s entirely possible to do it yourself, a lot of entrepreneurs aren’t effectively trained in bookkeeping. Therefore, it is very common to see business owners outsource this work to professionals, such as Bould Bookeeping.
In this guide, we will be going over why hiring a bookkeeper is a good idea or even an essential idea. From there, we will look at ways you can hire the best bookkeeper for your business.
3 Reasons You Need a Bookkeeper:
If you are just getting started with your business, you might be thinking that you can get away with not paying attention to your books. You might even feel it’s sufficient to allow your accountant to sort out the numbers on their own once every quarter or even once per year. However, that is not the case. There are very good reasons to consider hiring a bookkeeper instead. In this article, we will be going over 3 of them.
1. They Will Save You Time
Unless you are already an expert bookkeeper yourself, it is a bad idea to attempt to handle all of the bookkeeping tasks on your own. Having to do things like process receipts, payments and expenses is only a small fraction of the work required. A professional bookkeeper will know exactly how to go about assigning expenses to various clients, they’ll be able to take the numbers and run them into your respective accounting software, and help you understand them. A reputable and experienced bookkeeper is going to know exactly how transactions should be analysed and looked at in order to provide useful information for business reports. It is a very skilled job and having a professional bookkeeper will allow you to get all of this done much more efficiently than attempting to handle it on your own.
2. They Fully Understand Your Business
A professional bookkeeper handles all kinds of accounts. Because they handle these accounts on a daily basis, they are going to have a better insight into your business’ operations and finances than you would be able to. By having someone looking at your operation from an outside perspective, they will be able to help you work out where your business stands and where it should be going. They will be there to flag any potential issues that you might want to deal with and help you prioritise them according to which are most important. A valuable bookkeeper will help watch over your finances and help you navigate ways to stay out of trouble.
3. They Can Help Manage Your Cash Flow
One of the most valuable services they will be able to do is help you manage your daily cash fluctuations. While accountants are valuable in their own right especially as it relates to strategic advice and tax issues, they aren’t going to be looking over your books on a daily basis. Therefore, they won’t be able to keep a close eye on your accounts as a bookkeeper can. This can help you mitigate cash flow disasters and help you achieve the kind of business growth you are looking to achieve.
Know What You Need
Hiring a bookkeeper to help with your business is just like hiring any other professional. You want to understand your own needs when you are trying to find the right one. Here are some questions that you should be thinking about when you are looking into hiring one.
What Type of Business Do You Operate?
For one, you want to think about the type of business you have. For instance, manufacturing businesses are going to have very different bookkeeping requirements when compared to retail or service-based companies.
How Many Transactions Do You Make?
Knowing how many daily, weekly, and monthly transactions you make is key to finding the right bookkeeper that is capable of helping you.
What Type of Accounting Software Do You Have?
It can help if you are using online software. That way, the bookkeeper you end up hiring can share the data with you as securely as possible.
Do You Require Credit Control, Debt Collection or Payroll Services?
This is another important thing that you are going to want to consider because some bookkeeping companies are going to offer the service of chasing customers that owe you money at a fee.
What Are Your Key Dates?
Knowing the key dates you have in your business is crucial to finding the right bookkeeper. The key dates you want to pay close attention to would be tax return deadlines, payroll days and even your scheduled meetings with your accountant. You want to get a bookkeeper that is going to be able to keep up with them and one that is going to review reports every month to ensure your business is performing up to standards. One specific example would be the generation of an accurate Profit and Loss report.