Bookkeeping Services Guide

If you’re reading this article, I’m going to assume that you are a small business owner.  I think that’s a fair assumption because if you were part of a large company, you would have your own internal bookkeeping and accounting department.  Many small businesses consist or one or two people and don’t have a full-time accountant or bookkeeper on staff.  If you’re a one-man operation I’m going to tell you right now that it is in your best interest to not do your own books and hire a professional to do it for you.

The main reason that small business owners don’t like to outsource the bookkeeping function is that it’s “too expensive”.  I’m going to refute that notion right off the bat.  If you’re like most small business owners that I’ve dealt with, you generate most (or all) of the revenue for your company.  That makes your time pretty valuable, right?  So why would you spend your valuable time fumbling around with checkbook balances and debits and credits?  Also, if you’re like most small business owners that I know, you absolutely suck at accounting and bookkeeping!  You’ve had no formal training and have no idea what you’re doing.  You waste a lot of time on it and still don’t get it right!

Hiring a trained, qualified professional to take care of your bookkeeping is a no-brainer!  It frees up more of your time so that you can generate more revenue (or maybe even play more golf!)  It also makes it much more likely that your accounting records will be up to date and accurate.  Sure, paying for bookkeeping services costs money, but it’s cheaper and much more efficient than doing it yourself.  I’m a believer that you should outsource everything other than your core business.  If it’s not something you specialize in, then pay someone else to do it.  It will pay off in the long run.

One benefit of having a professional do your books for you is that when it comes time to do your taxes at the end of the year, your books are in good order.  This means that the even more expensive CPA that prepares your tax returns spends less time on them and charges you less.  Just make sure that you point out to your tax preparer that you have hired a good bookkeeper, so it should take them less time than in prior years.

Hopefully I’ve convinced you to hand over the bookeeping function to a professional and stop wasting your own time trying to be an accountant when you are a much better salesman (or whatever it is that you do!)  So, how do you know if you are hiring a good bookkeeper?  I think that’s an excellent topic for another post!  Look for it soon.  In the meantime, please drop me a comment below if you have any questions or comments.