When’s the right time to hire a bookkeeper?

This is a great question! The answer depends on your individual circumstances.

If you can relate to one or more of these scenarios it may be time to consider hiring a bookkeeper:

• Your business is growing and you’re at the point where you simply can’t do it all yourself. Your health and/or personal relationships are starting to suffer.
• You’re making mistakes with your figures (due to rushing, lack of training or simply getting numbers the wrong way around).  You’re finding that the stress and time taken to find mistakes and correct them is not worth it anymore.
• You find it stressful keeping up with tax office obligations and deadlines
• You want to focus on the income-producing activities of your business, such as producing your products or services and generating new leads
• You don’t enjoy bookkeeping (that’s okay – it’s not everyone’s idea of a good time)
• You’re happy to do the ongoing bookkeeping but need a hand getting started or when doing something new for the first time
• You’re behind in your bookkeeping and need your books up to date for the end of financial year or BAS lodgement time

These are all common indicators that it may be time for you to find yourself a good bookkeeper.

Where should you look for a new bookkeeper? Either use someone that you have personally met and who you feel has your business’ best interests at heart, or you can talk to your accountant and other business owners for their recommendations.  Find out what education and experience they have.  In Australia, they must be a registered BAS Agent in order to charge you a fee for BAS related services.

The 3 main advantages to engaging the services of a professional contract bookkeeper as opposed to hiring an in-house bookkeeper are:

• No need to pay superannuation, holiday pay, sick pay, holiday leave loading or WorkCover.
• No need to provide extra desk space and equipment or to be tied to the office waiting for them to finish their work – many bookkeepers will do your bookkeeping off-site.
• They are business owners like you – they know the ups and downs and how the small business world works.

 

Happy bookkeeping…

Sarina