As your business expands and grows, so does the demand for what's called back office support, which includes accounting and bookkeeping for your business. 

Think Kevin, Angela and Oscar from The Office. They were accountants doing all the business accounting and bookkeeping work in Dunder Mifflin's back office.

Does Your Business Need a Bookkeeper? 🤔

I'm going to give it to you straight: most likely, yes. And, here's why...

First, never once in all my years have I reviewed a set of books maintained by a business owner that didn't require rework, adjustments and revisions. 

Bookkeeping isn't just "entering transactions." You must enter transactions with foundational knowledge to make sure available cash balances, financial reports, and data are accurate. Planning and generating cash-flow projections partly relies on looking at the past and understanding where money is spent, why and how this fits with your future plans.

The other point I'll make here is that QuickBooks Online isn't an out-of-the-box solution. Your chart of accounts should be setup, streamlined, and ultimately it drives how your financial reports look. And, depending on your business, and complexity of transactions, there's a long list of to-do's to make sure EVERYTHING is right.

Even if you have a new business, and you think you're saving time and money by doing it yourself, you aren't. Chances are, you're going to cost yourself more money in the longrun. Unless you have a really sloppy tax preparer who doesn't care what your books looks like and is happy to take your money each year to prepare your returns before going MIA for another twelve months. This is common. Do you want peace of mind or will you worry for several years after filing tax returns how much trouble you're in if you get audited?

How Much Should You Be Paying for Bookkeeping Each Month?

Determining the cost of bookkeeping services for small businesses depends on several factors, including:

👉 entity type
👉 company size
👉 monthly transactions
👉 payroll requirements
👉 financial reporting needs
👉 expected level of responsiveness
👉 how experienced the accountant or bookkeeper is. It's true--you get what you pay for. 

These variables, along with the cost of your accounting software, impact total cost.

Basic Bookkeeping vs. Full-Service Accounting

New and early-stage businesses often prioritize compliance-related tasks. This means you're most focused on making sure your accounting system is setup correctly, all financial transactions are correctly entered and all business accounts are being reconciled on a consistent basis. 

This typically applies for new businesses generating less than about $200,000 in annual revenue. The one thing you probably don't want to do is go it alone. Definitely reach out to an accountant or bookkeeper to at least make sure your accounting system is setup correctly.

Pro tip: make sure you separate your business and personal finances, even if you're a sole proprietor. Go open a separate business checking and keep business transactions separate from personal transactions. This helps for many reasons including streamlining bookkeeping. If you haven't been doing this, then start now. And, know that this can be fixed for your year-to-date transactions. Contact me for more help here.