Engaging a bookkeeper to help you manage your financial reporting can be a positive way to help your business grow.

But how do you choose the best possible bookkeeper for your business?

We asked Roslyn Van Welie from Choice Bookkeeping Services to offer her advice.

Questions to ask your bookkeeper:

• Are you qualified?
• How much experience have you had?
• Are you a registered BAS Agent?
• Are you a member of a Professional Body, e.g. Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (ICB), Australian Bookkeepers Network (ABN)?
• Do you attend regular meetings to keep your knowledge up to date?
• Have you had experience within my industry before?
• Do you offer only one software solution of do you have experience with different types of software?
• What happens to my data if I stop my subscription?
• I have staff - do you have HR Resources that I can utilise?
• Do you only work offsite, or do you work onsite as well?

Software. The 3 main Software Solutions that I use are…

Intuit QuickBooks Online:  This has a fantastic app on the phone that enables you to work and see how your business is going when you are not in front of your computer.  You can add expenses, prepare quotes and get these authorised by a client directly on your mobile device.  You can then convert this to an invoice and email this directly to your client.  You can take payments using your phone, when linked to a Square Device.  This enables you to get paid as you go.  No more waiting for payment. You can conveniently see your profit and loss and balance sheet via your mobile device.

Xero: Xero Dashboard helps a business owner quickly see their bank accounts and any other section of their business that they want to track.  They may choose to have invoices showing on the Dashboard.  This means that either from their PC or mobile device they can quickly see what money is due to them and follow up.  Again, Xero allows for payments to be taken on your phone which does help small businesses with cashflow.

MYOB Account Right: If your business is wanting more specific types of reporting than you cannot go past MYOB AR.  This program integrates all of the tracking and time billing reports including multiple profit and loss reports without having extra apps.  MYOB does not have a limit on the number of staff that you have as there is one fee for as many staff members that you need.  The only downside for MYOB AR is it is not a true mobile solution as you will always need to have the program installed on your PC.

Intuit QBO and Xero both allow for the business to grow by starting with smaller packages.  These do have limitations on them but for a new business the cost of start-up is a major factor, and some businesses rely on Excel spreadsheets at the beginning as they are not aware that you can start with a lower package and go to the next level as your business grows.  MYOB does have Essentials, but this does not upgrade to AccountRight.

Tip - With all accounting software it is imperative that the business owner checks to find out how long they keep your data for if you decide to stop your subscription.  Some will keep it for the regulated number of years but will charge you to recommence your subscription.  Some will delete the data after a set number of days from when the subscription is cancelled.  Always make sure that the data is backed up and that either paper or electronic copies of all receipts and invoices is kept.

TSheets is a time billing app that is great for new businesses to track how much time they spend working on different projects so that they can onbill their clients. TSheets integrates with QBO Intuit and Xero. Staff input their hours in on an app and then this is uploaded into the software to allow for wages to be prepared and clients to be billed.  If you are billing for fixed fees, this also allows for tracking of the time spent on a project so that you can see if you have gone over with the estimated hours to complete a project.

As an android user I also use SNote on my phone for quick message taking.  This links to my Tablet and also to my computer, so wherever I am I can see my notes.

You can connect with Roslyn on LinkedIn.