Are you new in business or thinking of becoming an entrepreneur? Have you been a business owner for a while but still handling most (or all) of the jobs to be done? One of the tasks you should consider delegating is your bookkeeping.
Many entrepreneurs start their companies because of a passion they have for the product or service they sell, and they want to share it with the world. Doing the bookkeeping is often an unwanted task that goes along with being a business owner.
I recommend hiring a bookkeeper because using the financial information presented in reports is extremely helpful in assessing the health of your business. But beware! Because of the economy, many are taking jobs they may not be qualified to do. Hiring someone who doesn’t understand accounting can leave your books in a mess.
Some business owners searching for bookkeepers don’t know what questions to ask or what to look for when hiring someone to do this work. And even those who do may be mislead by someone’s statements of experience. Just because someone has done data entry doesn’t mean they understand bookkeeping. You’ll want to ask questions to find how much experience the potential bookkeeper has working with your industry and entity type. Give a scenario of something you do in your business and ask how they’d handle posting the transactions to properly reflect the activity.
If you are looking for a bookkeeper, you’ll want to make sure you are hiring an expert to guarantee your books will be accurate. We (or other accounting professionals) are not going to be the least expensive, so if you are shopping by price, you won’t pick us. However, think of the cost of having a poor set of books. Expenses may not be classified correctly, or your income may be overstated. If your CPA has to make corrections in order to file the tax return, it is going to cost more for those adjustments to be made. When you do realize the need for a good set of books, the clean up (or creating a new file with accurate data) is going to cost more than having it done correctly in the first place.
When looking for a bookkeeper, keep in mind the value of accurate information is much more important than the amount of money it costs you to get the work done. Remember, hiring a bookkeeper is an investment in your business, and the information you’ll get will be extremely useful! If you don’t yet have a bookkeeper and are ready to hand off this task, I’d love to chat with you!