Should I have a Bookkeeper to Manage My Accounting Year-Round?

Money matters never end when you own a small business. 

As a business owner, you can only get away with DIY bookkeeping for so long, especially if your business is undergoing growing pains. In addition, it can be challenging to keep up the pace of financial management when you still have other areas to manage like sales and marketing, human resources, production, and inventory. So, you’ll have to bring in a bookkeeper sooner rather than later.

Poor cash flow management is one of the top reasons small businesses fail. But does this mean you think you need a full-time, in-house bookkeeper to manage my accounting?

Unless your business has about thirty or more employees or generates over a million dollars in annual revenue, you probably don’t require bookkeeping help year-round. Instead, you can bring in a fractional bookkeeper to provide the same level of expertise as a full-time bookkeeper. 

Hiring a Full-Time vs. a Part-Time Bookkeeper

Many business owners overlook the value a part-time bookkeeper working remotely can bring to their organization and continue asking themselves, “Do I really need a bookkeeper to manage my accounting?” Yet, while they may work less than full-time, their experience and expertise are just as high (if not somewhat higher) than the average accountant. 

At a minimum, a bookkeeper records transactions, tracks cash flow, creates invoices, and handles payroll tasks. They also track company expenses and ensure every financial transaction has been entered and recorded correctly. A part-time bookkeeper may charge an hourly or monthly rate depending on how much work or whether there’s enough catch-up bookkeeping to be completed. 

The significant difference between a full-time and part-time bookkeeper lies in how many hours they work for you. That said, a part-time bookkeeper may bring excellent experience to the role as they work for various companies across different industries and lifecycles. In addition, they may offer more accounting know-how at a much lower cost than their full-time counterparts. 

The truth is that many entrepreneurs can carry on with outsourcing bookkeeping services for some time. However, until your company revenue tilts over the $1 million mark, you probably won’t have enough work to justify hiring a full-time bookkeeper and forget asking yourself, “do I need a bookkeeper to manage my accounting?” 

Here’s a tip: bring in a full-time bookkeeper when your part-timer spends two or three full days working on your books and still falls behind. 

Choosing a Remote Bookkeeping Solution

Good bookkeeping is a vital part of running a business. It ensures you’re compliant and have accurate financial reports to inform your decisions. Unfortunately, accounting errors can get expensive, especially if they involve taxes. So, unless you run an accounting firm, chances are your company’s bookkeeping requirements will stretch the limits of your expertise reasonably quickly. 

Some signs you might need a remote bookkeeper are:

• You have a backlog of paperwork and a ton of untracked receipts. In short, your books are always outdated.
• You don’t have enough time to run the money-making function of your business.
• You’re having trouble keeping track of your finances, and your cash flow is all over the place.
• You find yourself scrambling to update your books just before tax season, which means you tend to miss a few tax deductions.

Or maybe you’re just tired of QuickBooks.

If any of the above situations apply to you and it’s finally time to answer that question, “should I have a bookkeeper to manage my accounting?” it’s time to bring in the experts. Goode Bookkeeping & Consulting has all the bookkeeping services you might need in-house. As a result, we can effectively manage your books and ensure you have the time and peace of mind to grow and scale your operations.

Contact us for all your bookkeeping needs. We can customize our service offerings to your unique business needs.