Bookkeeping is important for any business to survive and flourish. How much did you spend on your last office upgrade? How much revenue did you earn from inventory? If you want accurate and up-to-date records of your financial transactions, you must acknowledge the importance of Bookkeeper. Even the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) emphasizes record keeping for small businesses.
Today, bookkeeping is no longer a luxury, but a necessity for your small business. It’d help you track your cash flow and understand what’s happening on a basic financial level. Furthermore, effective bookkeeping lets you make informed financial decisions that help you avoid under or over-spending.
Moreover, a Xero bookkeeper will help you overcome these questioning financial challenges. If you’re motivated enough to hire a bookkeeper for your small business, here are my tried & tested tips you’d consider.
Here’s how you can hire an ideal bookkeeper for your business
As said initially, effective and sharp financial decision-making is important for every business to develop. Not only it shapes the financial fortunes of your business, but also maximises returns for its shareholders.
What I’ve noticed is that most business owners lack the aptitude of hiring an ideal bookkeeper that’d add value to their business. To overcome this, I’ve compiled the following expert tips for the best hiring. So, let’s dive into this right away.
1. Hire someone with exemplary 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. Don’t trust Google blindly! Ask for referrals from trustworthy 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.
As your last resort, you can contact the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers or ICB.
3. Find out which bookkeeping software they’re familiar with
Today, bookkeeping has gone modular with the introduction of easy-to-use cloud-based bookkeeping solutions such as Xero, QuickBooks, MYOB, Sage, among others. Hence, you’d find out which software among these the candidate is most familiar with. After all, you won’t want to hire someone who is an expert with software you don’t even use or have ever heard of!
For your reference, Xero and QuickBooks are currently the most in-demand bookkeeping software. Hence, either of the Xero or QuickBooks bookkeepers would conclude your search.
4. Hire a professional bookkeeper for more advanced bookkeeping services
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. Keep in mind the candidate’s tax preparation and planning skills
The major issue most businesses face is preparing for the tax season. Hence, the bookkeeper should have the required skills to get your company prepared for tax season. For example, the candidate should know the applicable tax deadlines for items like quarterly tax estimates. Further, knowledge about how to keep books and receipts organised for the tax season and audits is compulsory.
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 free 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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