6 Signs Your Business Needs a Bookkeeper
Messy bank accounts. The business accounts have personal transactions, your personal accounts have business transactions…or there are no business accounts at all. Streamlining and separating business and personal allows for better managed cash flow and profit analysis. Read more about separating business and personal expenses here.
You’re over the excel spreadsheet and ready to tackle an accounting software program. A bookkeeper can help set this up so that you get it right from the beginning. An accounting software program will collate your business expenses and income through automation. A direct feed to your bank will display transactions ready to be allocated through reconciliation. The transition can be made faster, especially when a back log of data exists, by uploading CSV files of data, another process that a bookkeeper can help with.
You’ve lost track of invoicing…and who’s paid you. The collection of payments is vital to the survival of your business and should be seamless and efficient. Customers need to be clear on terms and ways of making payment. The ATO specifies requirements for invoices/tax invoices determined by whether a business is registered for GST (read more here). A bookkeeper can help you with this, as well as discuss options for customer payments and collection when invoices become overdue.
You want to know your business’s real time profit margins and financial position. A bookkeeper is skilled in building and producing reports such as the Profit and Loss Statement (P&L). Our previous blog gives guidance on how business income and deductions are allocated into a business’s P&L. Analysis of this and other reports can help a business owner budget, establish cash flow and plan for future growth.
The time spent managing your books is taking you from your business. Although bookkeeping is an essential requirement of business, it’s not why you decided to start your business. The two cannot grow simultaneously under one person’s 24 hours, there becomes a point where your time is worth more spent in your business.
You're pestering your accountant more and more. As your business grows, the capacity and margin for error within its bookkeeping requirements becomes higher. It’s also likely your accountant will be charging you accountant fees for answers a bookkeeper can give you.
BAS Agent – A Registered Bookkeeper
The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) set minimum qualification and experience requirements for BAS Agents who must adhere to the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (TASA 2009). This includes a Code of Professional Conduct addressing Continual Professional Education requirements for an Agent’s yearly registration renewal. As Australian Taxation Office legislation is constantly changing and being updated, the small/micro business owner can rest assured knowing their business is compliant.
Working Together
The mission of any good bookkeeper is to bridge the gap between the business owner and their accountant; supporting, guiding and informing throughout the financial year. With the use of Cloud Based Accounting Software, the business owner and bookkeeper can work in unison to build a strong financial platform for the business. The small/micro business owner can learn to read financial statements and further create and implement strategies to grow their business. Balance My Books WA offers Coaching, to full Bookkeeping Packages.
Do you have frustrations in managing your business’s books? Share below…