Five signs you need to hire a Bookkeeper

You started your business so you could spend time enjoying the work you do. You probably never factored in the amount of paperwork there would be and how much time it would take you to try and deal with your business accounts.

If any of the following resonates with you, it may be time to outsource to a qualified bookkeeper.

1. Bookkeeping software isn’t a substitute for experience

You’ve seen the TV adverts for numerous accounting software packages that make it sound so easy to deal with your accounts, and you decide to sign up. You register your software, and it asks you to “start set-up”.

To set up your software, you will need to know/do

• When is your financial year?

• Are you VAT registered? Does your business use standard or cash accounting?

If you are already trading, you will need to:

• Import your suppliers and customers

• Journal in your opening balances

If you get any of these steps wrong, your accounts information will be incorrect. Your software could be miscalculating your taxes due, and your supplier, customer and bank balances may be incorrect. All of this will have a huge impact on your business.

Software can be a great asset to your business if set up and used correctly, but nothing can replace knowledge and expertise.  Qualified bookkeepers will give you peace of mind that you are compliant with legislation and filing deadlines. They have the knowledge and expertise to ensure your accounts are set up correctly and are accurate and kept up to date. They will check and file your VAT and provide you with reports to show how your business is doing.

2. Your books are not up to date

Whether you are using software or spreadsheet-based accounting, if it is not up to date, the information is worthless as it won’t reflect the true position of your business.

This will make it impossible to know:

• Are you are making a profit?

• How much do you owe your suppliers?

• How much do your customers owe you?

• If you are VAT registered, what is your liability?

• If you are not VAT registered, how do you know if you have reached the threshold?

• How is your cashflow?

Falling behind can have a significant impact on a business, and if you are in a position where you are unable to keep up to date with your paperwork, it is unlikely that you will have the time to catch up.

3. You haven’t billed your customers and have overdue invoices

Cashflow is key in any business, and one of the most important things to keep on top of is your customer billing and credit control. By not billing at the time of sale/completing your work and not following up outstanding invoices, your cashflow will suffer, and you may even miss billing a customer altogether.

Customers will not pay without an invoice, and without money in the bank, how will you pay your suppliers and employees?

Having your customer billing processed on time and undertaking regular credit control will take care of outstanding debt, increase your cashflow and enable you to take care of supplier bills and overheads.

As an example, following a review of a new client’s accounts, I found nearly £8,000 of unpaid sales invoices! After liaising with my client’s customers, I was able to recover all the outstanding amount.

4. Your bank statements haven’t been reconciled

Most banks have an app for your mobile phone, so it has never been easier to keep track of your bank balance. However, for your business, checking your bank balance every morning does not give you a clear picture of how much money your business has.

You need to consider:

• What you owe your suppliers

• What your customers owe you

• What is your ongoing tax liability?

• Are there any errors in your income and expenditure?

Reconciling your bank transactions is an important step in resolving the above and helps to provide accurate accounts. If you use accounting software, getting a bookkeeper to set up bank feeds will make reconciliation a whole lot easier and quicker. Bank feeds update daily, and processing the transactions daily provides an instant view of your business’s financial position, assuming, of course, everything else is up to date!

5. No time to grow your business

With only twenty-four hours in the day, as a busy business owner, you are constantly juggling your work-life balance. You set up your business because it’s your passion, and you want to dedicate all your time to growing it and developing business opportunities, but you seem to be spending too much time battling accounting paperwork and have no personal time.

Have you tried keeping a log of how much time you spend on your accounts a week/month? Try it, and then calculate how much that time is worth to you. Outsourcing your bookkeeping is a cost-effective way to enable you to grow your business.

Hiring a qualified bookkeeper is not just about their costs. It’s about the time and value they can bring to a business.

👩‍🎓 Peace of mind that you have qualified expertise to deal with legislation and compliance

⚖ Accuracy of information

🧾 Up to date accounts

📈 Time to grow your business

📚 Provide support

🏖 Time back for yourself

I can help you with all of your bookkeeping tasks and frustrations.  Book a discovery call to chat through further and get back to running your business!