When Should You Hire a Bookkeeper?
Small business owners or entrepreneurs have a common habit of wanting to do things on their own. From operations to marketing and paying bills, the idea of saving on labor costs can be tempting. After all, one employee less is one financial obligation taken off your chest. Sometimes it just makes sense to do it yourself, especially when you think you can do it on your own.
Or does it?
Even if you aren't sure whether you need help with bookkeeping and accounting, chances are that you do. All too often we’ve come across small business owners who are juggling spreadsheets and paper receipts and are confused about the numbers. This makes it hard to know your financial position and what you should be doing to improve it.
Do I need an accountant or a bookkeeper?
Many people go straight to an accountant when they think about hiring someone for accounting advice. However, there's another option that you can use before you get an accountant. That option is called a bookkeeper. A bookkeeper will do everything that your accountant will do, except they work in a more scaled-down setting, tending to your day-to-day tasks such as invoicing, bills payment, and even payroll.
However, when you want to have the more complicated financial processes in your business taken care of, like taxes, you need to hire an accountant.
We made a simple overview on the differences between a bookkeeper and an accountant below.
In most cases, a business owner who wants to secure their daily, monthly, or quarterly financial transactions would choose to hire both.
We’ve listed down 3 signs to help you decide whether it’s time to hire a bookkeeper or accountant for your business.
When to hire a financial expert:
1. You should hire a bookkeeper or accountant when you don’t know how to do it yourself.
You may have the right talent and skills to start and run a product or service-based business, but doing your books — billing, invoicing, payroll, filing tax returns, etc. — is another ball game. Are your taxes up to date? Are you paying your bills on time? Are your audits accurate? A financial expert makes sense of all this recorded information. They give you a picture of your business’ financial health and what you can do about it.
If you have little to no bookkeeping or accounting experience, it only makes sense to get yourself a professional. Having your financial concerns in the hands of an expert makes sure you don’t miss anything important!
2. You should hire a bookkeeper or accountant when you spend too much time doing your own books.
Even if you have knowledge and experience in accounting and finance, sometimes it just takes too much of your precious time. You might think that not hiring a finance expert and deciding to just do your books yourself can save you a little on labor cost. However, you actually might be spending valuable time instead which could have been used for business operations and making more sales. A hired finance expert focuses on maintaining accurate records so you can focus on other areas to grow your business.
When you look at the bigger picture, you can actually lose more money by not hiring a bookkeeper or accountant for your business. Fortunately, hiring a professional doesn’t have to be expensive either. At our Expert Marketplace, you can find verified bookkeepers and accountants offering services with rates that best fit your needs.
3. You should hire a bookkeeper or accountant when you’re looking for more financial security and clarity.
When growing a business, sales and transactions are also expected to increase. This can make tracking all your sales and expenses more complicated to record.
A bookkeeper or accountant creates systems to record, monitor, and interpret data accurately. With their knowledge in bookkeeping and accounting softwares, they are also able to provide regular updates and reports so you can create better predictions and smarter financial plans for your business. Financial experts make it easy for you by dealing with the complicated financial concerns that anyone could overlook when they’re running a business.
By delegating financial tasks to a bookkeeper or an accountant, not only are you protecting your business from losing money, you are also preparing for it to grow.
Overall, hiring a professional bookkeeper or accountant for your business helps you gain confidence in your business’ performance in terms of numbers. Hiring a finance professional online even broadens your options; with a wider pool of experts to choose from, you get to select the bookkeeper or accountant that best fits your business and budget.
Here are some other important benefits of hiring a finance expert:
- Detailed recording
- Better predictions, ergo smarter plans
- Improved bank or investor relations
- Organised and stress-free audits
A lot of small business owners may not need a full-time bookkeeper or accountant; in these cases, it may be best to hire one as needed. A part-time, or contract bookkeeper or accountant can help fill any gaps created by your own business needs.
Whether you’re hiring a full-time or part-time finance expert, it’s safe to say every business owner benefits from one. By outsourcing your books, not only are your finances handled in far less time, you also get to spend more time on the parts of the business that need help. In doing so, you are able to keep overhead low and free up valuable time which you can use to expand your business.