What are the benefits of hiring a bookkeeper?
If you hire a good bookkeeper the benefits will be endless. You will wonder why you hadn’t done it sooner. Some of the main benefits are:
- No more late nights doing the bookwork
- No more weekends wasted on doing the bookwork
- More family and friend time for you
- It saves you staffing overheads – we are contractors, so you wont have to pay superannuation, payroll tax or include us on your workcover.
- It saves you operating costs – If we work at our office, then the overheads are ours not yours – if your aren’t working at the office/shed to all ours of the night/weekend then your overheads will reduce.
- Saves you management time – we are highly proficient and have high work ethics, you will not need to manage us in any way.
- Frees up essential capital
- Your business can be more profitable
- More efficient
- More competitive
- It frees you up to concentrate on your business
- We are very efficient, often completing the tasks in half the time
If this sounds appealing to you click here to contact us and set up an appointment.
When should you hire us?
This is different for everyone and every business. We would love to say, as soon as you think about starting a business, but we know that that is not realistic. Following are some indicators you might need a bookkeeper:
- You are too busy to do your invoicing
- The minute you get too busy to send out invoices then cash flow will suffer and there is a risk invoices may be completely missed altogether
- When customers aren’t being chased for money
- Another key sign is when your customers aren’t paying and you don’t have time or you don’t want to chase them because you don’t want to risk the relationship
- When things become more complex
- When you hire employees or sub-contractors you are entering a whole new realm of business. The regulations increase exponentially as soon as you take on staff
- If you are really behind in your bookkeeping
- In this case you are potentially missing claiming GST paid back from the ATO or deductions on your tax returns
- If you are consistently late lodging BAS or tax returns
- The ATO are getting serious about late lodgements, with fines of up to $850 for each late lodgement. If you are consistently late with your lodgements, then engaging a bookkeeper can pay for itself.
- When you Hire Staff
- Hiring Staff changes everything, you now have to be responsible for a weekly/monthly payroll run, paying superannuation and workcover and an increased workload at the end of financial year.
If you are at any of these points in your business, click here to contact us and make an appointment.
What are some of the things you should look out for when hiring a bookkeeper?
Anyone can claim they are a bookkeeper, but there is a major difference between someone who can data entry into an accounting program and an actual Bookkeeper, so be very careful when choosing a bookkeeper. The three main questions to ask are:
- Is your small business bookkeeper a Registered BAS Agent?
- Do they know how to use your accounting software?
- If your bookkeeper can’t answer your question, who will?
If your bookkeeper, or the bookkeeper you are thinking of hiring does not answer positively to the above questions, then click here to contact us.
What is a Registered BAS Agent?
In March 2010 the bookkeeping industry was regulated.
Bookkeepers providing a “BAS Service” are now required to Register as BAS Agents or be working under the direction of a Registered BAS Agent or Tax Agent.
To register as an individual BAS Agent:
- Certificate IV in Financial Services
- Minimum 1400 hours of relevant experience
- Member of a Registered Professional Association
- Professional Indemnity Insurance
If your bookkeeper isn’t a Registered BAS Agent or working under the direction of a Registered BAS Agent, then click here to contact us.