Are you using your receptionist to do your books?
Many small business owners believe this saves money. But do you ever get financial reports? Are you confident they are accurate? Many business owners tell us they have no idea how much money they are actually making! With great bookkeeper you should be getting accurate, timely reporting that helps you make great business decisions.
Outsourcing your bookkeeping saves you time and money — and gives your peace of mind.
1- You can keep your focus on sales & marketing
A startup needs the attention of its founder, including his or her attention to growing the idea into a viable product or service. That means that, as that founder, your time should be devoted to strategy, marketing, funding and other key areas that require your focus over the daily operational tasks of a business.
2- You won’t have to become a financial expert.
Not many founders have backgrounds in finance or even a working knowledge of accounts payable, accounts receivable or taxes. Bookkeeping and accounting software has a big learning curve and is very time consuming. In order to succeed in business you need to know what activities are profitable, you need accurate financial statements and up-to-date books; without these you are operating blind. A great bookkeeper and will have all of your financial data available in accurate reports on demand.
3- It gives you time for work-life balance.
While you could focus on core business needs and handle everything else in your startup, the problem is you’ll have no time left at the end of the day or week for yourself or your loved ones. Therefore, you’ll be missing that balance every person needs in order to stay healthy and not burn-out on what you are doing.
4- You get timely and accurate financial reporting that helps you make better decisions.
Although you may believe you have a good idea about the state of your startup during the development phase, it helps to have another pair of eyes on this. Your bookkeeper can put the financials in order and run reports showing how you are doing each month, where the funds are going, and how your efforts are paying off (or might need improving upon). The “big picture” is made clear through the numbers being crunched.
5- Make sure everything is paid on time.
Between traveling, keeping the startup moving forward, putting out the daily fires that pop up, and staying balanced, something most likely gets left out along the way; that often ends up being the bills that need to get paid.
You don’t want your credit impacted by late or forgotten payments, so put a bookkeeper in charge to give you the confidence that everything has been handled on time.
6- Ensure correct tax filings.
The last thing you want is to get audited or have the IRS after you just because you forgot those quarterly or annual tax filings. Depending on the type of business structure you’ve created for your startup, you will have various tax requirements; including estimated tax payments, corporate tax payments, 1099s for contractors or freelancers and other filings.
7- Maintain cash flow visibility.
Because you are so busy, you may not realize that there are outstanding payments from your client base. Any late payments here could infringe upon the cash flow you need to keep your startup humming along. With a bookkeeper working for you, he or she can stay on top of this and send out reminders to make sure your cash flow remains optimal. This will also look good when it’s time to seek another round of funding because you can show positive cash flow you might not have been able to show without that assistance.
8- Reduce the cost of financial obligations.
Although you may think you save money by doing everything yourself, the fact is that a professional bookkeeper actually saves you more. That’s because there is a reduced level of risk for human error, lack of knowledge, missed payments and tax obligation due dates and delayed accounts receivable.
