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If you find that you’re spending too much time on bookkeeping tasks, it’s a clear sign that you need to hire a bookkeeper. By outsourcing this task, you’ll have more time to focus on other important aspects of your business. A small business bookkeeper can be a valuable asset when it comes to obtaining financing for your business. Bookkeepers can help you create financial statements, such as profit and loss statements and balance sheets, which will give lenders a clear picture of your business’s financial health.
A part-time bookkeeper can be a good idea to help close out the month, prepare payroll, or help prepare for tax deposits. Rates for a part-time bookkeeper can range from $15 to $65 per hour, depending on your location, the bookkeeper’s location (remote or in-office), and the overall workload. Then we built Wave Advisors to lend you a hand if you’re looking for one-on-one coaching for your bookkeeping.
You Don’t Have Enough Time to Handle Everything
Are you considering finally hiring a bookkeeper to get your finances in shape? Call us today to discuss how Fusion CPA can save you time, energy, and money through our bookkeeping services. A bookkeeper helps small businesses keep an eye on the map and their surroundings so they can navigate perilous financial situations with ease. They track your accounts payable and accounts receivable, following up on overdue invoices when needed, so you’re always on top of your cash flow. While hiring a bookkeeper is an investment, it will make your life much easier.
A bookkeeper has the expertise to handle complex financial tasks accurately and swiftly, allowing you to concentrate on your core business operations. Furthermore, a bookkeeper can provide insights and recommendations to streamline your financial processes, ultimately leading to improved productivity and profitability. Knowing hire a bookkeeper is one of the most difficult decisions facing entrepreneurs, but the benefits of one are pretty well-known.
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They might help you in the long run, but there’s no denying that it can take a while to get the hang of something. While there are plenty of great reasons to hire a bookkeeper, there are some drawbacks you might want to consider. There’s always the option of hiring a bookkeeper to take the load off your hands—but with this choice comes the added expense. Having a great workplace is crucial to finding the right talent – whatever the job title. Download our magazine, The Insperity guide to being a best place to work, to learn how to create an attractive culture. Entrepreneurs who hire accounting help usually discover they weren’t doing nearly as well on their own as they thought they were.
What’s more, if your books aren’t up to date, you’ll have a ton of catch up bookkeeping to do during tax season, making a typically stressful time of year even more difficult. Compare your “salary” as your own bookkeeper against the price of professional bookkeeping. Once you treat the time you spend bookkeeping as an actual expense in cash, you’ll have a better idea of whether you should keep doing it. When a bookkeeper is experienced with businesses in your industry, they understand common expenses—and can let you know which business expenses are tax deductible. If your business is new and your bookkeeping is minimal, you may be able to do your own bookkeeping with a simple spreadsheet. But as your business expands and becomes more complex—and profitable—it’s time to consider professional assistance.
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Paper-based bookkeeping means gathering your physical papers and records and reviewing them in person. Digital bookkeeping is usually a cloud-based process of tracking records, and is the preferred method for most small businesses today. Most small business owners do not have the time or resources to handle all of their accounting tasks on their own, which is why hiring a bookkeeper can be such a valuable investment. For business owners who aren’t as detail oriented, having someone else handle the books is a big stress reliever. And even if you are good with details, wouldn’t you rather focus that time and attention on growing your business?
- Bookkeeping is a vital component of any successful business, as it involves the accurate and timely recording of all financial transactions.
- This is where hiring a bookkeeper and an accountant becomes essential.
- That money would be better spent on marketing to grow your business.
- Without a system in place to monitor your books, an accountant will need ample time to organize everything, and potentially charge a hefty fee along the way.
With outdated books, you’re also never truly prepared for tax season—which means you’ll always scramble to update your books at the end of the year and cause yourself even more stress. You become vulnerable to the smallest changes around you because you’re unable to catch them in time. Simply having bookkeeping software isn’t enough to maintain your financials. Most new business owners find a staffing solution somewhere along the continuum that ranges from trying to go it alone and paying for full-time help. An accountant can analyze the big picture of your financial situation and offer strategic advice.
As your business grows, a dedicated bookkeeper can help reduce that stress. It’s important that your invoices and receipts are managed properly. Bookkeepers help keep track of all of your organization’s purchases, expenses, and sales. This content is for information purposes only and should not be considered legal, accounting, or tax advice, or a substitute for obtaining such advice specific to your business. No assurance is given that the information is comprehensive in its coverage or that it is suitable in dealing with a customer’s particular situation. Gentle Frog, LLC does not have any responsibility for updating or revising any information presented herein.
It’s up to you to consider and gauge your time, financial resources, as well as capacity and willingness to learn bookkeeping, in order to answer the make-or-buy decision for your books. Like any small business choice, this might require a bit of trial and error—but you’ll eventually find the solution that works best for you. Putting your confidence in a competent and experienced bookkeeper can eliminate stress from complicated accounting concepts. Great bookkeepers will get to know your specific financial needs and can even provide you with expert insights into your business’s finances. First, performing your own bookkeeping can definitely teach you new business skills in accounting and finance.
You could contact one directly, or you could ask if your business partners or clients have any recommendations. Without proper bookkeeping, it would be easy for transactions to go unrecorded, left to pile up until the end of a financial period. Mistakes could be made and important details could be lost or forgotten. Part of a bookkeeper’s job is to take every business expense you incur and categorize it properly. In the process of doing so, they’re able to spot obvious deductible expenses such as mileage. Your tax season won’t look like this if you hand off messy or incomplete books to your accountant.
When the growing pains are over, it won’t take long to see how efficient a bookkeeper’s recommendations can be compared to your old methods. Interested in learning more about building a healthy foundation for your small business? Be sure to check out the RISBDC’s online trainings that cover a wide variety of business topics. If you choose not to hire a bookkeeper, fire won’t rain down from the sky.
Bookkeeping is taking up too much of your time
First, start tracking how much time you spend per week on bookkeeping. Then, using an online calculator, determine how much your time is worth, and figure out how many “dollars” you spend on bookkeeping per month. Since accountants generally charge more for their time than bookkeepers do, it means you’ll end up paying more. If you have a bookkeeper do the job properly in the first place, you’ll save money in the long run. If you’re unsure whether you’re ready to hire a bookkeeper, consider these major benefits and how they can positively affect your work days and business success.
