Struggling to keep track of your business expenses, cash flow, or revenue from inventory? Many small business owners face these challenges, leading to inaccurate records and poor financial decisions. Without proper bookkeeping, it’s difficult to know how much you spent on your last office upgrade or how much revenue your inventory generated. This uncertainty can result in under or over-spending, putting your business at risk.
Accurate record-keeping for small businesses is no longer a luxury but a necessity for smooth operations and informed decision-making. A professional bookkeeper helps you track every transaction, ensuring your financial records are up-to-date and reliable. With cloud-based tools like Xero, a qualified Xero bookkeeper can help you overcome common financial challenges and streamline your processes. If you’re ready to hire a bookkeeper for your small business, here are some tried-and-tested tips to guide you in 2025.
Here’s how you can hire an ideal bookkeeper for your business
Effective financial decision-making is essential for every business to thrive. Not only does it shape your business’s financial fortunes, but it also maximises returns for shareholders. However, many business owners struggle to hire an ideal bookkeeper who can add real value to their operations. To help you overcome this challenge, here are expert tips and insights for hiring the best bookkeeper for your Australian business in 2025.
1. Prioritise Attention to Detail
Since a bookkeeper is going to track, record and organise your business’s day-to-day financial transactions, the candidate’s attention to detail is the deciding factor here. That is, if your bookkeeper lets things fall through the cracks and doesn’t follow up on every minute item, he/she is going to let your business down.
An ideal bookkeeper is one who is a hawk, i.e. someone who fusses about being able to account for every financial detail correctly in their books.
2. Seek Referrals from Trusted Industry Sources
When you’re hiring a bookkeeper for your small business, your obvious Google search “best bookkeeper near me” isn’t going to produce useful results. Instead, relying on your industry’s referrals is a much better option.
For example, if you have an accounting firm that you trust, enquire whether they can provide you with bookkeeping services as well. If not, ask them if they have contact with any trustworthy bookkeeper they can refer you to.
3. Assess Familiarity with Bookkeeping Software
Modern bookkeeping is modular, thanks to easy-to-use cloud-based bookkeeping software such as Xero, QuickBooks, MYOB and Sage. Ensure the candidate is proficient in the software your business uses. For reference, Xero and QuickBooks are currently the most in-demand platforms. Xero bookkeeping services offer intuitive tools for automated feeds, real-time reporting and seamless integration.
4. Hire a Professional for Advanced Needs
Put the myth “bookkeeping services are fairly straightforward” off your mind when you’re looking for a bookkeeper. This is because not all bookkeepers would work the same way and generate the same financial reports for you.
For example, the standard bookkeepers offer the following standard financial statements to understand your business’s financial health.
- Income statement,
- Balance sheet,
- Cash flow statement, etc.
However, as your business will grow in the future, merely the above basic statements won’t suffice. Thus, you’d need someone who could accommodate your requests regarding the statements like:
- Statement of changes in shareholder equity,
- A capitalization table,
- Sources and uses of funds statement, etc.
This can only be done by a professional bookkeeper. Therefore, it’s better to hire a professional bookkeeper.
5. Check the professional demeanor of the bookkeeper
Merely business knowledge isn’t everything you must take care of. The candidate’s professional demeanor is also a serious point of consideration here. Bookkeepers are the key aspect of the fiscal operations of your small business.
Thus, they will engage with both your staff and outside clients & vendors. Hence, hire someone who can conduct themselves professionally and whose personality matches your company’s culture.
6. Assess Financial Preparation and Planning Skills
The major issue most businesses face is preparing for the financial period. Hence, the bookkeeper should have the required skills to get your company ready. For example, the candidate should know the important deadlines for items like quarterly financial estimates. Further, knowledge about how to keep books and receipts organised for the period and potential reviews is essential.
Pro-tip:
Hiring a bad bookkeeper could hinder your business operations and financial growth. Hence, you must perform due diligence before inviting anyone for the hiring process. Further, if you’re not in favour of a full-time bookkeeper, contact any outsourced accounting firm.
They will provide you with both, affordable part-time bookkeepers & other support(s) without hitting your pocket hard.
Final Verdict
To further assist you in your record-keeping, we’ve got something for you. We, at Outbooks, don’t just picture bookkeeping as mere data entry practice. It’s not something anyone can appoint a junior person from staff with no information on accounting to do.
When you hire bookkeepers, you long for peace of mind, which also involves taking chores like recording and payroll off your plate.
And when done correctly, the bookkeeper can stay with you for a long time and genuinely have a striking effect on your business’s success.
We take immense pride in introducing you to our certified bookkeepers, who carry an abundance of experience on their shoulders and are the support pillars of infinite firms they have worked relentlessly for.
Not to forget that we are certified by XERO. In a nutshell, we are proficient in multiple-accounting software and that’s our identity.
Contact us today to book your expert trial and you focus on the work that matters to you and we’ll take care of the rest!
Let’s connect on +61 451320102
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Parul is a dedicated writer and expert in the accounting industry, known for her insightful and well-researched content. Her writing covers a wide range of topics. She is committed to producing content that not only informs but also empowers readers to make informed decisions.