You may already have an accountant for your business, but you may also be thinking of hiring a bookkeeping service or bookkeeper. Your accountant has a somewhat different role from your bookkeeper, and while your accountant can keep you in line with your audits and taxes, your bookkeeper can be your best partner in terms of your financial records and data and how it is kept and recorded. Your bookkeeper will essentially take charge of the day to day tasks of recording your financial transactions, and they can do the job of keeping your accounts up to speed. They can also give you timely advice regarding your finances, especially when it comes to potential problems with your cash flow. But while bookkeepers and bookkeeping services may be plentiful, how sure are you that you are hiring the right one according to your requirements? The following is your best guide to hiring the ideal bookkeeper for your needs.
Know How Your Bookkeeper Can Work with Your Accountant
Your bookkeeper and your accountant will work in conjunction with each other since they will have the same financial data from your enterprise. They can then share the information they have using accounting software. It would be a good idea to find the ideal accounting software that is cloud-based so they can easily share information and access it securely from anywhere. Since they have access to your financial data, they can give you advice on the status of your business and where it is going. Your bookkeeper can be your daily contact regarding your finances, and they can then inform your accountant of vital information they will need for tax preparation, auditing, and so on.
The Best Time to Hire One
Ideally, you should have a bookkeeper once you start your business. Their services can be highly useful for your business operations, even if you are just in the beginning stages. If you don’t hire one as soon as you can, you could face a few months of invoices and receipts for processing, and this will take up a lot of time, not to mention be a challenge to do correctly.
How You Can Find the Right One
The bookkeeper you hire will be the one handling your finances and financial information, so you need someone you can trust and rely on. Fortunately, there are plenty of bookkeeping services that are experts in their field, although it pays to opt for one who can present you with good referrals and has a high level of experience, especially in your own niche or industry. If they have worked with businesses that are similar in scope and size to yours, it means that they will already have a fair idea of what you require.
If you already have a business accountant, they may have some referrals for you as well; in the same vein, you could ask your business partners or consultants if they have recommendations. Once you have a short-list of potential bookkeepers or bookkeeping services, it would be a good idea to check their work record and get in touch with their referrals. If your accountant agrees, they could meet with your prospective bookkeeper as well.