How a Great Bookkeeper Will Improve Your Business

As a professional bookkeeping business, we know that clients need their bookwork done and their tax obligations met and rely on us to do those tasks.  What some businesses may not realise is that a good bookkeeper will actually improve the business by performing their day to day tasks.

Here are just some ways that experienced and qualified bookkeepers will make a very positive impact on your business:

Time.  Time and time again (excuse the pun) we are hearing how busy business owners are.  Particularly in small business, the owner has to focus on so many things; from marketing, sales, operations, customer service, delivery and then, of course, the finance and admin side of things.  Often also, the business owner is the worker as well – so time is an absolute challenge.  The consistent thing that they are lacking is time.  So, a great bookkeeper will give them back time.  Because a professional bookkeeper knows how to perform bookkeeping, is up to date with the main programs (like Xero and MYOB) then they will do it right and will do it likely quicker than the business owner themselves.

Distractions.  By someone proficient doing the bookkeeping side of things, this allows the business owner to focus on what is important – working, growing and keeping the business running successfully.  Having to pay a bill or reconcile a bank account is not always the best use of a business owner’s time.

Get paid.  We have found that many business owners, especially if they are delivering the service, often feel uncomfortable putting on the hat of debt collector.  Sometimes they simply don’t know how to do it most effectively and certainly often hate having to ‘hound’ their valued clients to get paid.  However, we all know that ‘cash is king’ so by having a separate person do this, and do it well, it improves your cash flow whilst still keeping a good relationship with your customers.

No mistakes.  When a business owner or their partner, spouse or friend is running the bookkeeping and finance side of things, they are not always qualified and experienced in that area.  Sometimes they are simply thrown in the deep end.  By having a qualified bookkeeper, who is also a Registered BAS Agent, then you know it’s going to be done right.  We have to prove our skills and experience to the licensing board, maintain professional development and keep current with legislation, often through our professional memberships.  This equates to a more professional and accurate service to the client.  Good bookkeepers will often have systems and processes to ensure the work is done right and nothing is forgotten.

Great audit outcomes.  Unfortunately, it’s not a matter of if a business will be audited, but when.  Knowing that your bookkeeping is being done right means you sleep at night.  It also will reduce (but not entirely eliminate) the possibility of an audit.  This is because we know how to do tasks correctly, complete BASes correctly and therefore not draw attention to you with blatant and obvious mistakes.  When the ATO see a silly mistake, there is often the temptation for them to dig deeper.  One example of how we help our clients is ensuring that we have all the paperwork so that should an audit occur you are ready and prepared.  By also seeing the paperwork, we get the right facts – based on paperwork, not memory or guesses.

Support and guidance at your fingertips.  We do not replace your accountant, but we do provide a gap service.  A professional, licensed and Registered BAS Agent will ensure your bookwork is right and that reports are provided to you in a timely manner.  If you have questions, we are more than happy to answer them.  We know how your business is going because we’re in the middle of it – so we can help, make suggestions and keep you on track with your obligations.  Bookkeeping is not just about doing the bank reconciliations, but may also involve correct processing of payroll, budgets and cash-flow analysis.  Every business owner has different needs, so it’s all about great communication to meet those needs.

Decisions based on timely facts.  In my many years of bookkeeping, I’ve seen some silly mistakes made by (other) bookkeepers.  Examples include the data entry person coding $20K of capital injection as income with GST.  This both increases the tax liability and wrongly increases the GST bill.  It also misleads the business owner to believe they had a better month than they actually did.  If the business owner in that scenario is making decisions based on figures – they need them to be the right figures.

Good bookkeeping reduces business failure.  It’s a statistical fact that 5% of failure businesses occur because of very poor or no bookkeeping.  Bookkeeping is more than preparing documents so that you can have a tax lodgement done, or pay your BAS.  It is so much more!  Good bookkeeping means you know who has paid or not, and so who to chase.  It shows the business owner what services or products are generating income.  You can know from your bookkeeping what your margins are, your overhead costs or perhaps how the cash-flow is going.  You know if you’re making money or not?  You know if you’ve got more bills to pay than money coming in.  Many decisions in business are made around money, so it makes sense you know where you are with the money side of your business.  Businesses fail for many reasons, but this is one area where you can actually help your business.

We help organise you.  As experienced bookkeepers, we know how to organise and set up great systems for your back end.  We know what software works well (ie, we’re a fan of ReceiptBank) and how to get things happening in a timely manner.  We offer ideas, suggestions or simply come in and organise you.  The better a business is organised, the more streamlined it is and efficient, and we all know these things contribute to an improved bottom line.  Often embracing (the right) technology will improve your back end as well, and we can often guide you with programs that link into Xero or whichever accounting package you are using.

We save you money.  That’s right, although you’re paying for the bookkeeping service; we often save you money in a few ways.  Firstly, with not having ATO audit fines and interest charges that can also represent real savings.  Paying the right amount of tax and GST is also important; none of us loves paying taxes and we certainly don’t need to pay more than our fair share.  If bills are paid late, there is often a late fee, or perhaps you will miss out on your ‘pay on time’ discount.  We meet deadlines as much as humanly possible.  The other aspect is that when your accountant gets your file, they won’t need to spend a heap of time tidying up the bookkeeping, finishing off things or making massive corrections.  They can focus on their task – accounting and tax advice.  Saved time usually means less fees for you, the client.

Whether you are looking for a Redlands bookkeeper, Bayside bookkeeper or Brisbane Southside bookkeeper – we’d love to talk to you about our bookkeeping services and how we can help you.  We offer an initial free consultation so simply give me a call on 0438 382 489 or fill out our contact form on our website or email [email protected].