Being in business requires a lot of behind-the-scenes administration. From email management to marketing, to managing the incomings and outgoings of invoices versus expenses – if you’re in business, your time can be stretched as you attempt to squeeze in all the important tasks yourself.

If that sounds familiar, it might be time to give yourself some breathing space – and delegate.

If you’re new to business, outsourcing can be a difficult thing to justify while cash flow is still a challenge. But investing in your business – and the value of your own time – can be an important breakthrough that can launch you into the next stage of business growth.

If you’re not a natural numbers person but you’ve been giving your business bookkeeping a go to save money on hiring a professional, it’s time to think again and explore the ways that hiring a bookkeeper for your business can actually benefit your business growth.

To decide on what’s right for you and your business, it’s important to be honest. Taking too long to do something you aren’t really sure how to do can be a bad use of your valuable time.

When it comes to managing bookkeeping tasks properly, there are a lot of things to consider, including:

Legislative obligations

• Keeping up with the changes in legislative requirements
• Knowing what has GST

Yes, paying a professional bookkeeper is an added expense but it’s claimable and, as well as helping you reduce the stress associated with worrying about all these obligations, another one of the benefits in outsourcing your bookkeeping is the fact that money you spend on paying a bookkeeper can be found in many other ways, including:

Reducing Accounting Fees

• Get more accurate information to accountant
• Given in a timely manner – tax planning

Is your business ready for a bookkeeper? Ask yourself these questions:

• Are you efficient?
• Do you take a long time to record your financials?
• Does it take forever to reconcile your bank?
• Are you confident that it’s recorded correctly?
• Do you understand the intricacies of GST and payroll?
• Do you really understand what your financial reports actually mean?
• Will outsourcing my bookkeeping free up time and resources that I can allocate to more appropriate and/or more important work?
• Is bookkeeping the best way for me to spend my time?
• Can someone else do my bookkeeping better and faster than me?

If your honest responses point to the reality that bookkeeping isn’t the most efficient use of your own specific knowledge and time, perhaps it is time that you explore the world of outsourced bookkeeping. It might be that boost you need to take your small business to its next stage of success.

Here are five ways choosing an experienced bookkeeper can save you money:

1. Managing Your Profit Margin

In small business, narrow profit margins are common, and a professional bookkeeper can keep track of these margins, as well as sharing tips on how to turn them into larger returns for your business.

By looking after your monthly transactions, handling payroll, ensuring bills get paid on time and your business meets its official obligations, you’re free to concentrate on growing your business.

2. Minimises stress

Running a small business, especially at the start, can be stressful. Simply trying to survive can mean you juggle multiple tasks at once. Instead of neglecting the important administration tasks that you should be doing to keep business running smoothly, your bookkeeper can take care of them for you and help you avoid penalty fees for late payments.

3. Minimise tax

Paying tax is an important part of any business.

Choosing a professional bookkeeper helps you deliver accurate reporting of all your business expenses, salaries and budgets.

4. Bookkeeping is flexible

One great thing about using a bookkeeper? You can use them just at set times of the financial year. Unless you are turning over big dollars and employ lots of staff, you really don’t need a full-time bookkeeper in your business. What you do need is the flexibility to pay for one to do the tasks you need – only when you need them done.

5. Peace of Mind

When you know your financial reporting is in compliant order, you can de-stress – knowing your business is on the right track. Your good mental health is worth it.
 

Natasha Mackenzie is a Melbourne-based business owner and mum of two young children. Her professional bookkeeping services help others in business experience complete confidence in their financial reporting. You can connect with Natasha on LinkedIn.