If you were asked to list the most important factors to business success, bookkeeping would rarely (if ever) be near the top of that list. But the truth is a great bookkeeper is a crucial piece of the profitable business puzzle. Here are 6 reasons why your business must have a great bookkeeper.
1. Profit Tracking If your business consistently spends more money than it takes in, you aren’t running a business - you're running a charity. The only way to know for certain if your business is profitable is through good bookkeeping. Timely record keeping of money received and money spent is crucial to knowing the financial health of your enterprise.
2. Cash Flow If your business frequently has “more month than money,” you have cash flow issues. An experienced bookkeeper will help you minimize the amount of time it takes to get paid for your products and/or services. He or she will also help you maximize how long money stays in your account before you need to pay your suppliers and creditors. Finally, experience can also help you avoid ‘cash crunch problems’ in times of quickly increasing (or decreasing) volume.
3. Cash Management An experienced bookkeeper can implement timely invoicing procedures, capitalize on supplier discounts, and maneuver invoice dating to positively impact Profit and Cash Flow. It’s like playing a piano - the amateur plunks out a song you recognize, but the professional plays a mesmerizing ballad that brings joy to your heart. This is what a good bookkeeper can do too.
4. Taxes Ideally your tax professional and your bookkeeper should work hand in hand as a team to serve you. Good planning and communication about tax issues can save even the smallest companies a tremendous amount of money at tax time. The goal of your tax and bookkeeping team should ALWAYS be to help you pay as little tax as legally possible. If these two parties aren’t working in lockstep to serve you, it may be time to explore other options.
5. Find and Fix Errors Rare is the company that hasn’t received an inflated charge from a utility, a fraudulent charge on a credit card, or an error on a supplier invoice. An attentive bookkeeper can sometimes save his or her entire yearly fee by finding these errors and getting them fixed.
6. Focus on Financial Health When you hire a bookkeeper, they focus on one thing - the financial health and wellbeing of your company. Many business owners “do the books” as an afterthought when they get some extra time. Wouldn’t your time be better spent doing what you love and what you are are best at doing? Hiring an experienced bookkeeper can transform your business and eliminate what most business owners consider an unpleasant task.
Are you ready to discover what an experienced bookkeeper can do for YOUR business? Contact Navigate Bookkeeping for a free 30 minute no obligation consultation.