Top Tips to Keep Your Bookkeeping in Tip Top Shape—Series Finale
If you have been following along, I told you in the first of this series, you would be better prepared to manage your accounting using the tips I have given. This final series discusses outsourcing your needs and why that might be the best option for your business. I think you will find this helps wrap up this series, giving you clear options to keep your bookkeeping in shape.
Choose Your Accountant Wisely
Choose your accountant carefully. Don’t just look for the lowest fee. Remember, the saying ‘You get what you pay for’, is often, true. That doesn’t mean you need the most expensive firm, because maybe you don’t need all that they offer. But finding the right match for your needs and personality is much more important. When looking to interview for a CPA, you will want to know their assistants also. Look for someone with not only the experience to assist you in finding every deduction and tax advantage available, but someone who also will be available to spend time with you learning about your business and teaching you how to get the most out of it.
Hire a Reliable Bookkeeper
Realize rapidly that bookkeeping is not your expertise, nor your employees. If you know from the start that you have no bandwidth, desire, or experience to deal with day-to-day bookkeeping, it’s best to hire a reliable, professional bookkeeper to help make your life so much easier by staying on top of your bookkeeping needs. Outsourcing is a great option to manage or even oversee the daily business transactions, while saving the overhead cost of an employee. Keep in mind, the same philosophy goes here. You get what you pay for. An experienced bookkeeper can make or break your financial data accuracy, quickly. Hire for experience, knowledge and the ability to manage growth. This will help minimize expense in hiring and training costs.
Don’t Overlook Managerial Accounting
Many small businesses tend to focus their accounting on taxation and compliance. That’s fine, and obviously necessary, but it’s also important to work with your accountant and bookkeeper to ensure that you have measures in place to allow for managerial accounting. If you can access and manipulate your accounting data in a way that readily informs your business decisions, it can help you plan for growth.
I want to conclude this series with this, small businesses start because they want to sell a product or provide a service, not to do bookkeeping or manage their financials. When starting, they are typically in “crisis mode,” simply trying to cope, keep the fires at bay. They manage the operational challenges as they come to them, dropping them on the desk of whomever happens to have time while the smoke is thickening. I recommend to entrepreneurs to take the time to structure accounting categories and procedures that allow for easy analysis, business planning, spotting trends in their industry, as well as keeping in line of simple tax compliance. The benefits of creating purposeful and deliberate accounting procedures and practices, from the start, will return exponential benefits, allowing accurate adjustments for growth.