Perhaps you’re just starting out in business and looking to make the most of your limited funds; perhaps you’ve been operating for a lengthy period of time already, and have undertaken bookkeeping duties yourself. If you’re wondering what the reasons are for hiring a bookkeeper, chances are you definitely need one.
A bookkeeper can help make the process of documenting and reporting financial activity go smoother than you ever thought possible. Hire great local bookkeeping services and hand your finances off to a professional, secure in the knowledge that you’ve made the right choice for your business.
Keep your focus where it matters
Bookkeeping is one of the most vital roles in any company, but focusing on this often takes personnel away from other important work. Hiring a dedicated bookkeeper allows you to keep your focus where it should be. Hiring personnel for their highly specialised skills in marketing, development, or strategy, and then also making them responsible for the task of bookkeeping, is madness!
Even very small companies could benefit from bookkeeping services, whether that’s a part-time position or a specialist coming in a few days a month. The key thing is to allow yourself to focus on what you do best.
By delegating this task, business owners and employees at small to medium-sized firms are able to spend their days working on giving their customers excellent services or improving their products.
Handing over the reins to a professional bookkeeper will also help most small business owners to get their work-life balance right. Instead of spending nights poring over the books, you can kick back over a family meal.
Keep financial information correct
A bookkeeper’s job is to take information from source documents — and that could be anything, from receipts to company credit card statements to invoices and credit notes — and record it in the appropriate place.
Bookkeeping is all about recording and creating these documents that show what a business’s financial year looks like. They are important for tax and legal purposes, but they are also vital as tools to show you in real-time where you could be making improvements or what you’re doing well.
To make sure that you have an accurate idea of what money is coming into and going out of your business, financial reporting is non-negotiable. How it is presented is, by and large, up to your own preference.
Many bookkeepers still use sturdy classics, like Excel. In fact, some still use ledger books and handwritten records! This is less advisable in the twenty-first century, though, when fast, efficient, safe software such as Quickbooks is available. Your bookkeeping service may have a preferred software, or they may work with you on whichever one you choose. Make sure to enquire when discussing your needs.
Source documents and reports should also be stored in a way that they can be accessed if and when they’re needed. There are all sorts of situations in which you may need to pull up an invoice from four months ago, and knowing how to locate it and which filing system is in place is invaluable.
Even a sporadic bookkeeping service will be able to put a system in place that makes sense to you and your business, and to the way you want to work.
Get another perspective
It can be extremely beneficial to have an outsider’s point of view when it comes to analysing your business activity. This is doubly true if the person in question has an accurate understanding of your financial health.
Bookkeepers differ from accountants in that they are not expected to have an in-depth understanding of financial legalities and forecasting, but they still work with numbers all day every day. They can be excellent resources when it comes to checking the financial reality of your company.
Your bookkeeping service will be able to tell if you have priced your services or goods at the rate of their worth, and if you are paying too much for overheads. They might be able to make sensible recommendations for ways to increase your business’s profit margins, or ways to build towards a more profitable future.
Another benefit is that a bookkeeper may be able to weigh in on any disputes between business partners or management. Sometimes, having an outside eye really is the best way to handle a potential conflict.
Conclusion
Businesses aren’t legally required to have a bookkeeper on staff, but it’s a smart choice anyway. Taking on a professional and giving them the responsibility of managing your financial records and reporting frees up time for more important things. They can be a voice of reason, giving you another perspective on your company’s activities, and they are responsible for keeping source documents organised, too.
Hire a bookkeeping service in your area, hand over the financial reporting, and spend more time on the things you love.