If you started your own business, it is likely that you are passionate about running it and concentrating on the tasks you love doing. However, if you are like most business owners, you are not so interested in recording all the details of every financial transaction.
Without proper bookkeeping, it would be easy for transactions to go unrecorded or left to stack up until the end of a financial period. Mistakes could be made and important details could be lost or forgotten. So, this is when a bookkeeper can help you. They can lighten the load on the business and take away the day-to-day recording of receipts, invoices and other financial transactions
Focus on your Business
When starting up your business, you will want to put your undivided attention into growing your idea into a viable product or service. Your time and focus should be devoted to strategy, marketing, funding and other key areas rather than the daily operational tasks of a business.
Accurate Financial Records
One of the reasons why small businesses fail is because of inaccurate financial records. A professional bookkeeper will have the experience and education involving every aspect of bookkeeping to make sure it’s done correctly. They also presumably enjoy this type of work! A business owner does not necessarily have the accounting skills and may not enjoy it.
Free yourself from the mundane tasks
It’s hard to imagine that the financial aspects of your business make you excited. You likely have no passionate feelings about tallying up payroll or paying the bills. However, your bookkeeper may enjoy those tasks, so it makes sense to hand these jobs over.
Work-Life Balance is Important
As you could focus on core business needs and handle everything else business related, you will have no time left at the end of the day or week for yourself or your loved ones. Therefore, you will be missing that important balance which every person needs in order to stay healthy and not burn out.
View your business from a different angle
You may have a good understanding of how your business is positioned financially however it always helps having a second pair of eyes on it. Your bookkeeper can put the financials in order and allow you to see the ‘big picture’ of how your business is progressing and highlighting any areas of concern.
Accounting Software Knowledge
A great bookkeeper is certified in the accounting software they use, so they will have a greater skill set than the average business owner would have in using that software which eliminates errors. They also have knowledge of different types of software that integrate with the accounting software and can recommend the best ones for your business.
Payments made on Time
You are likely to be busy running your business and on the go most of the time which in turn means some tasks are likely to get left out along the way. And that quite often ends up being the bills that need to get paid. You don’t want your credit impacted by late or forgotten payments, so put a bookkeeper in charge to give you the confidence that everything has been handled on time.
Maintain Cash Flow
When you are busy and concentrating on your business, you may not realise that there are outstanding payments from your customers. Any late payments could have an impact on your cash flow, therefore having a bookkeeper who is on top of this side of things will make sure your cash flow remains optimal. This will also look good should you require further funding because you will be able to show positive cash flow which you might not have been able to without the assistance of a bookkeeper.
Reduce Costs
Although you may think you save money by doing everything yourself, the fact is that a professional bookkeeper actually saves you more. What may take you five hours to process, might only take a bookkeeper half an hour due to their experience in this field. Also, your time is money that you could be using towards getting your business established and bringing in the revenue to move to the next level.
Tasks of a Bookkeeper
Bookkeepers are trained and use the same financial recording methods as accountants. They do this so that your accountant can quickly and easily process your financial information. When hiring a bookkeeper they will typically complete the following tasks
Take all your receipts, invoices and other transaction details.
Record these transactions in accounting software using accounting methods
Accounts Payable
Accounts Receivable
Double Entry Bookkeeping
Manual Bookkeeping if required
Journal entries
Bank reconciliations
Maintaining chart of accounts
Producing financial reporting (e.g. Balance Sheets, Trial Balance, Profit and Loss)
Work with you to make sense of the numbers
Advise you on solutions to streamline your business workflow
Payroll services to simplify the way you pay your staff
Training for small business on using accounting software.
They can also offer day-to-day support for small business owners.
A good bookkeeper is your partner in keeping things running smoothly within your business.