As a small business owner, you’re probably keeping a close eye on every cent you spend. You need to have a good eye on your income and expenses to manage your cashflow, so that’s a good thing. However, it might mean that you are wasting time micro-managing your finances and not hiring people to help give your business a boost. Hiring a bookkeeper can be a great investment fro any small business.
What Does a Bookkeeper Do?
A Certified Bookkeeper will take care of your daily business financial management. They’ll make sure your books are up to date, balanced and reliable so they can support the best possible decision making. They’ll manage your invoicing (accounts receivable), track your receipts and general expenditure and reconcile your accounts payable.
All of the frustrating daily and weekly financial tasks that you hate or that just sucks up half your day, they love doing. Not only do they love that work, they are likely a lot faster and more efficient at doing it than you are.
Hiring a Bookkeeper Saves You Time
Unless you’re a bookkeeping whizz and love those debits and credits, you might find your bookkeeping to be a headache-inducing waste of time. Chances are, you’ll put off your bookkeeping until its a massive chore. This means it takes up more time and you like it even less. Even if you do enjoy it, doing this day-to-day book work is dragging you away from the parts of your business where you should be focusing your energy and passion. Your time is valuable. You’re much better investing your time in value-adding activities like sales, networking and marketing your business.
The time you spend trying to understand your financials could be better spent on tasks you’re good at. A Certified Bookkeeper will be more efficient than you, they won’t spend all day reconciling bank accounts and attaching invoices and receipts. They’ll have it done in minutes. They won’t have as many errors and overall, they will save you a mountain of stress.
Your time, and your sanity, are worth investing in a Certified Bookkeeper.
A Bookkeeper is on Top of Your Cashflow
Hiring a bookkeeper means that you’ll always have someone with an eye on your cashflow.
They’ll help you get paid. Many small business owners have a hundred things to get on and do. It’s easy for things like invoicing and accounts receivable t fall down the list. It is essential to your business survival that you send out invoices as soon as possible. It is equally as important to follow up with late payers to see what’s going on. These are harassing calls, just a friendly, personal reminder that the invoice is outstanding and due for payment. You might feel bad doing this, which is why its the perfect task for your friendly, professional bookkeeper.
Your bookkeeper will also ensure that you don’t end up getting any of those calls from your creditors. They’ll ensure that your bills are paid on time.
Id there any better investment in your business than one that makes sure you’ve always got cash flowing and money in the bank?
Hiring a Bookkeeper Prevents Costly Errors
A Certified Bookkeeper knows their stuff. They are committed to professional excellence and undergo ongoing professional development to make them experts in their field. They won’t make the same mistakes that you’ll make, either because you’re rushed or because you haven’t got around to reading the latest 53 page IRD tax bulletin.
Some mistakes might seem small and insignificant at first. However, data entry errors, mixing up expenses and mis-claiming GST, can all quickly add up. These mistakes cost you more time and more money.
If you are doing your bookkeeping and then relying on your accountant to clean things up a year-end, you’re burning money. What you are doing is then getting your accountant to be your bookkeeper, at accountant’s hourly rates! It also takes a lot longer to unpick and re-reconcile transactions that happened months or even years ago.
At the worst end of the scale, consistent mistakes, even little ones, could flag you for an IRD audit. An audit can cost thousands to resolve, and that’s even if things are nice and tidy!
It’s best, and cheapest, to get it right from day one. Get in an expert to keep your books in order.
Certified Bookkeepers are Experts
Are you up to date on every movement in tax law? Do you understand how small changes to the rules effect your business? A Certified Bookkeeper is. They can advise you about any changes that are coming that may impact on your business and can offer insight into how to prepare and minimise any impact or maximise any benefit.
Hiring a bookkeeper can also provide you with insight into your company’s financial position. If you’re short on cash, overspending in certain areas or struggling to collect accounts receivable, your bookkeeper will tell you. They can also work with you to help remedy these issues. If there is something you don’t understand about your business finances, your bookkeeper can help to explain it to you. Because they are slightly more human than accountants, they can even explain it all in plain English, not accountantese. So your business financials will never be a mystery again.
Hiring a Bookkeeper is an Investment in Your Business
With a Certified Bookkeeper on board, you can sleep easy knowing your business books are in the hands of a professional.
Not all bookkeepers are created equal. At MBP, all of our bookkeepers are trained professionals and are Certified Bookkeepers with the Institute of Certified New Zealand Bookkeepers (ICNZB). The ICNZB ensure that they are professionally competent and that they uphold the highest standards of continuing professional development and ethics. And the best part, our Ceritfied Bookkeepers are about half the cost of an accountant, so you get exceptional value from your investment.
Want some help with your bookkeeping? Get in touch with the team of Certified Bookkeepers at MBP, or book in a chat with us today.