Over the years, both accounting and bookkeeping services have witnessed a significant transition to a more integrated & cloud-based approach. From the traditional pen & paper, bookkeeping now involves the use of centralized and cloud-based software such as Xero, Sage, MYOB, QuickBooks, and so on.
Due to this, more emphasis is now being put on bookkeeping and its place in the growing organizations irrespective of their size since it helps them know their financial status, cash flow, and much more.
If you’re based in Australia and wish to avoid any sort of tax penalty due to failure to meet any tax obligation, it wouldn’t be unwise to look for professional bookkeeping services. In Australia, the cost for the same, like any other place, is influenced by several factors.
For instance, the nature of the service, the experience of the bookkeeping professional (aka bookkeeper), and the size of your business are a few of them. Continue reading till the end to know all about bookkeeping and accounting services in Australia and our recommendation of the best in the industry.
What Is Bookkeeping?
First and foremost, what exactly is bookkeeping? Simply put, bookkeeping translates to recording a company’s financial transactions regularly. What necessitates bookkeeping is its ability to help organizations take critical operating, investing, and financing decisions based on their organized books.
The person who undertakes the responsibility of bookkeeping company’s financial transactions is called a bookkeeper. Thus, it isn’t wrong to say that without proper bookkeeping, you wouldn’t be aware of your current financial position and the transactions that occur within your company that can lead to negative results in the future.
What Does Bookkeeping Services Involve?
Recording all your financial transactions onto a bookkeeping services platform for easy access
As referenced earlier, bookkeeping today involves a range of online cloud-based platforms for easy access. This means you can monitor your cash flow in real-time, with the touch of a button. Due to this, you can promptly make key decisions before it gets too late.
Before bookkeeping, all businesses used to do was play the guessing game and make decisions based on “gut instinct”. However, bookkeeping has invalidated this guessing game.
The bookkeeper will allocate each transaction to either a specific cost or revenue
For a successful business, keeping your transactions under scrutiny is a critical aspect. To do so, it’s vital to allocate each transaction to either a specific cost or revenue. That’s exactly what constitutes the responsibilities of a professional bookkeeper or bookkeeping services.
A bookkeeper can accurately oversee payments and keep track of credit control to ensure your business is 100% compliant.
Reconcile bank statements
Thanks to today’s cloud-based bookkeeping tools, bookkeepers can ensure that your books are reconciled with your bank statements in real-time. This further ensures that your books match the records of your bank statements of the same period.
Maintaining up to date and accurate book records
Bookkeepers ensure that all your business records remain up to date. Additionally, it’s on their part to flag up any inconsistency(s) between your books and business accounts to resolve the problem(s) promptly.
What are the other bookkeeping services your small business can make use of?
An ideal bookkeeper looks after your books intently and every day. Someone who’s accuracy-based and capable of helping you settle on data-driven decisions by staying up to date with the latest trends and updated books.
Another quality aspect of any bookkeeper for your business is how well-versed they’re with the latest bookkeeping and accounting ledgers & tools such as MYOB, XERO, QuickBooks, CLASS | SUPER, and Sage.
The various other duties of a bookkeeper include:
- Bookkeeping including accounts payable and accounts receivables
- VAT returns
- Payroll
- Tax filing
- End of year reporting
- Processing of transactions and expenses
- Reconcile customer and supplier ledgers
- Preparing analytical reports
How Much Bookkeeping Services Cost In Australia?
The cost of bookkeeping services in Australia is a matter of few things. These include:
- The nature of the services,
- The experience of the bookkeeper,
- Frequency of bookkeeping,
- Integration(s) with the bookkeeping platform,
- Quality of the paperwork received from the client,
- Whether the business is GST registered or no, and
- Organization size.
All in all, all these and other factors are directly proportional to the bookkeeping costs in Australia.
Further, you get the liberty to choose whether you want to hire the bookkeeper on an hourly, monthly, or yearly basis. At times, you might be presented with tailored plans to suit your bookkeeping requirements, thus saving you a few more bucks.
Breakdown of bookkeeping cost in Australia
Let’s break down the standard bookkeeping cost taking into account a few of the above-listed factors.
Nature of bookkeeping services
Going by the nature of the bookkeeping services, they can be either full-time and part-time. Without any discussion, the former is always costlier than the latter. Thus, if you’re a small business owner, we’d suggest you start with part-time bookkeeping to avoid a cash crunch.
Additionally, specific services come with different prices attached to them. For example,
| Services | Average cost |
| General bookkeeping | $100 |
| Accounts payable | $250 |
| Ongoing bookkeeping | $150-250 |
Experience of the bookkeeper
The experience of the bookkeepers is also a vital factor in determining how much you’d have to shell out to enjoy their services. As a thumb rule, the more experience your bookkeeper would hold, the higher the costs. However, keeping aside the cost factor, it’s always recommended to opt for experienced folk owing to the expertise they have built over time in the various processes of bookkeeping.
Business size
The size of your business will determine how much work the bookkeeper would have to do daily, and this will impact the sum you’d have to spend in the end.
Frequency of bookkeeping
How often you do bookkeeping has also a major say in how much you’d have to spend on bookkeeping. While most businesses prefer weekly bookkeeping, others go for the same on a daily basis. Thus, the higher the frequency of bookkeeping, the higher will be its cost.
In a nutshell, there’s nothing fixed about how much bookkeeping services cost in Australia. You’d be mindful of the various reasons supporting the same.
Have you made your mind about outsourcing bookkeeping?
If yes, you’re at the right place. 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 Or info@outbooks.com.au
