Keeping your company finances in order is essential to the long-term success of your business. There are an endless number of benefits to maintaining accurate books, from having the data you need to make smarter business decisions to fulfilling your tax obligations more easily, strengthening your application for a business loan, and even helping you to eventually sell your business. But many small business owners wonder if they can truly afford a bookkeeper.
If you lack the time and skills needed to keep your books accurate, organized, and up to date, but your business is too small to warrant a full-time, in-house bookkeeper, then outsourced bookkeeping may be the answer. Discover how you can outsource bookkeeping services for your small business to save money and time while keeping your financial information secure.
Advantages of Outsourcing Bookkeeping Services
Take a look at these top advantages of outsourcing bookkeeping services to see how your small business could benefit.
1. Save Money on Staffing Costs
Hiring an in-house bookkeeper is a costly business decision. Even if you opt for a part-time bookkeeper, hiring a new employee means that you will have to take on the expense of paying an hourly employee and covering the cost of employment taxes. When you choose to outsource bookkeeping services for your small business, you gain the expertise of an experienced bookkeeping staff without taking on the risk and cost of adding another employee to your roster.
2. Avoid the Hassle of More Software
Keeping financial records accurate, organized, and up to date requires specialized software. If you decide to handle your bookkeeping in-house, you will also need to take on the cost of purchasing this software in order to do it right. By outsourcing your bookkeeping needs instead, there is no need to invest in costly software; your bookkeeping firm will have the software needed to efficiently and accurately manage your records.
Software can cause headaches beyond its cost as well. Employees who are tasked with managing the books may not know how to use bookkeeping software or its features. Training employees to use bookkeeping software takes valuable time away from your day-to-day operations, and you may end up footing the bill for a training course just to get them started.
3. Keep Your Financial Information Secure
When you outsource bookkeeping services for your small business you have the advantage of separating the management of your financial records from the employees of the business itself. By hiring a trusted, established firm to take care of your bookkeeping needs, you gain peace of mind about the security of your information.
4. Gain from Outside Expertise and Resources
When just one employee handles the bookkeeping for your business, you only have one person’s expertise and resources at hand to keep your records in order. If your in-house bookkeeper hits a snag, they have no one else in your company to turn to for advice or help getting the job done. When you outsource your bookkeeping needs, an entire bookkeeping firm is at your disposal and ensuring that your records are properly managed.
5. Take Bookkeeping Tasks Off Your Plate
As a small business owner, you are constantly being pulled in hundreds of different directions at once. You have to delegate responsibilities to your employees to ensure that everything gets completed on time. If you decide to handle your bookkeeping in-house, especially with an employee not trained as a bookkeeper, you add to your own workload as well. When you outsource bookkeeping tasks to a professional, you make sure the work is done accurately and on schedule without additional work for you.
When you outsource bookkeeping services for your small business instead, a professional bookkeeper uses their professional experience to determine how best to schedule bookkeeping tasks to ensure that you have the right information at the right time.
6. Reduce Stress During Tax Season
Many small business owners dread collecting all the necessary information to complete their tax returns. Tax season is even more daunting when you do not have organized, accurate financial records at hand.
It is much easier to prepare for your tax accountant when you use a bookkeeping firm to manage your records. All of your financial documents will be available in one place, and you will be able to easily access any supporting documentation that is requested during the filing process.
7. Secure Access to Your Books from Anywhere
Small business owners who keep bookkeeping in-house often store financial records as paper binders that can only be accessed in the office. At first, it can seem like a convenient way to cut down on software costs and training time, but it’s not worth limiting the accessibility of your books.
One of the biggest advantages of outsourcing bookkeeping services in the digital age is that it allows you to securely access your financial records from anywhere at any time. If you are in a client meeting and receive a call from your tax preparer regarding tax documentation that is needed as soon as possible, that information can be accessed without a trip to the office disrupting your meeting.
8. Scale Your Business
If you want to grow your business, it is imperative that you maintain up-to-date books. This information about your company’s finances can provide the insight you need to determine when you can hire new employees. It can also provide proof to a lender that your business is worthy of a loan.
But relying on a single in-house bookkeeper to manage your records can delay opportunities to scale your business. Not only is a valuable employee distracted with bookkeeping tasks, but they may not be able to keep up with the increased volume of transactions that come with growth.
With a bookkeeping firm, you enjoy the benefits of having another company available to adjust to your needs as your business grows or scales back.
9. Improve Cash Flow
There are many ways to improve your cash flow, and simply knowing where your business stands financially can help with several of them. For instance, clean books can allow you to better identify potential cash crunches, follow up on overdue invoices, and plan to build up your cash reserves. You can also identify which products or services are most profitable and if you are getting the best pricing from your vendors.
Outsourced bookkeeping services allow you to access up-to-date financial records and make better business decisions. The end result is an improvement in your cash flow and a bigger bottom line.