When you’re starting out as a small business owner, the temptation is to go DIY with your bookkeeping. Hiring a professional bookkeeper or tax adviser costs money, and that’s an overhead you might think you can avoid by managing all the financial tasks yourself, right?
But is DIY bookkeeping the most sensible option for your business? And why might partnering with an experienced bookkeeper be a valuable investment in your future?
The 5 Big Challenges of Managing Your Own Books
At the initial stages of founding your business, you might think that raising a few invoices, paying a few supplier bills, and making sure there’s cash in the bank is well within your abilities.
However, as the business grows, and you take on more customers and employees, your finances are likely to get far more complicated – not to mention far more time-consuming. So, should you still be managing your books solo at this important stage of your growth?
Here are five of the common challenges of going down the DIY bookkeeping route:
1. The Knowledge Gap
Grasping the finer points of bookkeeping principles and tax regulations is complex. If you try to navigate these financial complexities without the right knowledge and experience, you greatly increase the risk of errors, missed deductions, poor record-keeping, and non-compliance with tax laws.
2. The Drain on Your Time
Managing bookkeeping, payroll, day-to-day accounting, and BAS filings takes a lot of time out of your week. For example, recent stats show that business owners spend an average of 6 hours and 19 minutes per week on financial administration. If you’re spending a large chunk of your week working on finance admin, that’s time you’re not spending on growing the business. As an ambitious owner, you should be concentrating on business development and the other strategic tasks that will push your growth – not doing the books!
3. Staying Up to Date with Regulations
Tax laws and accounting regulations change frequently. If you’re not on the ball with the latest regulatory changes, there’s every chance that you’ll fail to meet your compliance duties. And you may also miss out on the latest government incentives and tax reliefs – financial perks that could well be the key to funding the next stage in your business expansion plans.
4. Anxiety About a Company Audit
Going through a company audit from an external auditor can be stressful. Depending on the status of your business, you may well have to comply with the rules for regular auditing. But with no bookkeeper, your record-keeping may be haphazard, making the job more difficult, time-consuming, and disruptive.
5. A Lack of Strategic Insight
If you’ve never run a business before, it’s likely you’ll lack the awareness of how good financial management drives your strategic insight. The better your books, the higher the quality of your finance data, reporting, and management information. This data and reporting can be a goldmine of information when making big strategic decisions, setting budgets, and forecasting cashflow.
How Working with a Bookkeeper Turns These Challenges into Business Benefits
Having full responsibility for your own business finances is a major drain on your time as an owner and business leader. But the good news is that partnering with a bookkeeper can quickly lighten this load and get you back to focusing on your business.
By engaging a bookkeeper to take on your financial management, you get:
1. The Knowledge of an Experienced Finance Professional
When you hire a bookkeeper, you add a financial expert to your team. They’ll help you navigate the complexity of bookkeeping, keep your records accurate, and ensure compliance with all relevant tax regulations. This minimises errors and maximizes your deductions.
2. More Time to Focus on the Business
By delegating your bookkeeping, payroll, accounting, and BAS filings to a bookkeeper, you free up valuable time. This gives you more time in the day to talk to customers, develop growth strategies, and build relationships with clients, partners, lenders, and investors.
3. Stay Ahead of the Regulatory Curve
A professional bookkeeper knows exactly which legislative and regulatory changes are planned and will make sure you’re always ticking the right compliance boxes. They’ll also be aware of any new government tax deductions or funding incentives that may open up extra cash for your business plans.
4. Peace of Mind When It Comes to an Audit
With a bookkeeper managing your accounts, you can rest assured that you have the best possible record-keeping, reporting, and financial compliance. This is a major bonus when you face an external audit process. Your bookkeeper can even represent you during the audit process, cutting down the potential stress and keeping you focused on running the business.
5. Expert Strategic Guidance
Bookkeepers do way more than just crunching numbers. Your bookkeeper will work with you to analyse your financial data, manage your cashflow, identify patterns and trends, and provide valuable insights you need to inform your decision-making. A bookkeeper is a key part of your management and strategic team, helping you drive the success, efficiency, and profitability of your business.
Talk to Us About Outsourcing Your Financial Management
Hiring a great bookkeeper is definitely a better investment in your business than opting for DIY bookkeeping. Instead of getting bogged down in bookkeeping or going red in the face with record-keeping, just hand over the financial management workload to the experts.
We’re here to lighten the load, sort out your books, and put you back in complete control of your finances and strategic decision-making.
Get in touch to discuss taking on your bookkeeping tasks.
If you are looking for a Xero Bookkeeper in Melbourne, Centegrity offers Xero Bookkeeping services as well as Business Mentoring to help grow your business without being Key Person Dependant. No matter what bookkeeping solution you need, we can help. Contact us or fill in the form below to get started.