Are you a small business, wondering if you need bookkeeping services? Many small business owners pride themselves on doing everything themselves. This is resourceful and can minimise costs when you first start up your business however as your business grows so does your responsibilities.
Within a short amount of time a ‘do-it-yourself’ approach can become unsustainable and this can be very apparent in DIY bookkeeping. Usually when a business begins, your bookkeeping is prepared using Excel but as your business grows so does the paperwork and financial needs. The time will come when managing the books is the last thing you want to worry about.
Common signs of who needs bookkeeping services:
You don’t have enough time for everything
When your business is growing, you have more clients to service, more back-office paperwork and a continually growing to-do list. If you can’t find the time to get everything done then you need to prioritise and focus on what is important to the business. Outsourcing your bookkeeping could free up time to finish other tasks.
Your books are out of date
If you are like some of our clients, tackling anything ‘accounting’ may feel daunting and so you therefore put that task to the back of your mind. This is when a backlog of paperwork appears, untracked receipts, unassigned expenses and late invoicing. The problem with out-of-date books is that you will never have a true understanding of your business’ finances and it is therefore harder to gauge the financial health of your business.
You update your books just before the tax deadline.
Everything becomes a panic when you need to prepare for the tax deadline. Because you leave everything to the last minute, you never have up-to-date books which should guide your business decisions. Also looking for bookkeeping services at the last minute, will ultimately mean you spend more. Your accountant will only file your taxes, if they have to do more than this then they will charge.
Tax deductions were missed
Many business expenses are tax deductable including phone bills, online subscriptions and downloads. These expenses can be offset against your total business income and reduce the tax owed. Bookkeepers record all transactions and assign the right expense category to reduce your total tax bill.
You don’t believe in your bookkeeping skills
You can’t be an expert at everything. If you have doubts about whether you are managing your books properly then it might be worth hiring a bookkeeper.
Your cash flow is unpredictable
Bookkeepers track your accounts payable and accounts receivable and follow up on overdue finances so that your cash flow figures are up-to-date at all times.
Determining who needs bookkeeping services is not hard to do when you look at a company’s books. The list above is just a few reasons why you should consider outsourcing to a bookkeeper. One last tip to remember is that bookkeeping and accounting are not the same so ensure you choose a bookkeeper to do your books and this in itself will save you money.
If you believe that you have reached the point to outsource your bookkeeping then please get in touch and we can have a discussion about how we can help.