Outsourcing your bookkeeping: the case FOR (and how to find the right team)

Business owners face many challenges in their day-to-day operations one of which is bookkeeping for small business.

While it may not be the most complicated part of running a small business, it can be one of the most time-consuming. Many find bookkeeping overwhelming, dedicating a significant amount of time to keeping all your financial accounts clean and organised instead of, you know, running things.

So why not make it a point to outsource it to someone else?

We aren’t talking about outsourcing your bookkeeping overseas – after all, each country’s regulations are unique. What we are talking about however, is handing bookkeeping to a dedicated professional instead of trying to DIY it all the time.

Outsourcing your bookkeeping to a dedicated bookkeeper can be one of the best decisions you make – provided that you find the right bookkeeping service for your small business, that is!

What is outsourced bookkeeping? Why should I outsource my bookkeeping, anyway? The benefits of outsourcing, explained…

When you decide to outsource your business bookkeeping, you are essentially hiring a third-party service provider to take care of your bookkeeping instead of relying on in-house staff to track your small business’s finances.

You might be hesitant to outsource your bookkeeping, especially if it is your first time doing so. What about accountability, or transparency?

This is understandable – take our word for it however, doing so will help you protect your business from incorrect and inefficient bookkeeping, and help you take your small business to the next level at the same time.

Outsourcing your bookkeeping can give you a valuable opportunity – one that you will not want to miss out on!

Save time and focus on what you’re good at

Tired of spending hours going through spreadsheets, logging receipts and entering bank records?

Here’s an idea: let somebody else do it for you!

Outsourcing your bookkeeping to a bookkeeping service in Melbourne saves time, end of story. Instead of going over everything yourself or soaking up your team’s time, you can instead focus on other things.

Outsourced bookkeeping takes all the extra work off your plate, letting you and your team shift your attention from organising your business books and accounts to focusing more on what you do best: managing operations and growing your business,

How much does it cost to outsource bookkeeping?

You’re probably worried about the costs of hiring an external bookkeeper.

We aren’t going to lie, it will add to your expenses – if you ask us however, what you get in return is completely worth it!

For most small businesses, outsourcing is also more cost-effective than adding a dedicated bookkeeper to your staff – instead of paying a full-time employee with benefits, super and everything, you’ll only have to worry about a single monthly fee.

Don’t forget about the time savings, either – time is money, after all!

Get a variety of bookkeeping services

Outsourced bookkeeping services provide a variety of bookkeeping solutions for your business – if you run into unexpected trouble or need more sophisticated services, your bookkeeper can quickly scale up to meet your demand. 

Specialised services like audit preparation, consultation, account clean-up… these are just some of the services that our bookkeepers in Melbourne are trained to perform.

By contrast, what happens if you run into one of these issues and you do your own bookkeeping? In most cases, a lot of late nights and trial-and-error learning as you try to figure out what you need to do to fix the problem.

It’s a lot of work – why not just hand it off to somebody whose entire job it is to perform bookkeeping tasks, and who can quickly rise up to bookkeeping challenges as they pop up?

Experience and skill

You probably aren’t a trained bookkeeper. You may not even be that good at maths. And there’s nothing wrong with either of these things.

The problems start however when you start involving your all-important business finances and records.

Bookkeeping companies bookkeeping professionals who are skilled and experienced in a variety of fields, with rigorous vetting to ensure they know their stuff.

All of this ensures that your finances and records are being handled by someone who can look after your business without making mistakes and errors along the way.

Not only that, but as we mentioned above, hiring qualified bookkeepers can help you solve other types of bookkeeping problems as well like mismanaged accounts and unreconciled transactions.

Plus, you can even get expert financial advice on business decisions that you need to make!

Bring your bookkeeping into the 21st century

Why do everything with physical ledgers and spreadsheets when there are so many faster, more efficient options out there?

Outsourced bookkeepers can set you up with faster, easier and more time-efficient bookkeeping solutions that don’t just make things quicker, but also reduce mistakes and increase accuracy at the same time.

Our bookkeeping team are certified cloud bookkeeping specialists – our team includes MYOB bookkeeping experts, QuickBooks bookkeepers and Xero bookkeepers in Melbourne.

We can set you up with any of these platforms, helping make your bookkeeping easier than ever before. Our team can:

• Sync your new system with your bank accounts and other systems
• Install plugins and extras for a truly customised system
• Migrate your existing bookkeeping records over
• Provide ongoing training and support, no matter which platform you choose

Tired of doing things the old-fashioned way? Give our team a ring, and we’ll set you up with a faster, better way of doing your bookkeeping.

How do you outsource bookkeeping? Finding the right bookkeeper for your business

Ask for a referral from a trusted source

One of the best ways of finding the right bookkeeper is to ask for a referral from a trusted source. This can either be from a colleague or a business in the same industry that you’re friendly with.

Ask them about their experience, and how satisfied they feel overall with the service they’ve received. In particular, ask about how their bookkeeper helped when things didn’t go according to plan, as this can be especially telling.

Hire somebody who specialises in small businesses

While bookkeeping fundamentals don’t change regardless of whether or not it’s a small business or a multinational, there are plenty of other things that do change – namely, the way your bookkeeper handles your needs.

For example, larger businesses might:

• Require more work, monopolising your bookkeeper’s time
• Get priority when it comes to bookkeeping services, slowing things down
• Be given preferential treatment at your expense

It’s a bit of a moot point since most large organisations have their own in-house bookkeeping departments (they can afford it, after all) – what we’re trying to get at is that this is often brought up as a selling point, but it can also often be a downside!

Get someone who can answer your questions

A good bookkeeper is here to help you out – that means answering your questions, no matter what they may be.

Be sure to ask lots of questions when talking to a bookkeeper for the first time. Don’t just pay attention to their answers, either – for the questions they might not have the answers to, focus on how they handle it. For example, do they…

• … respond by explaining what they would do if they encountered that issue?
• … talk about their processes for dealing with unique or unexpected requests?
• … discuss how their services can be tweaked to fit the situation?
• … or fumble and dance around the issue?

However they respond, make sure you’re happy with their response and satisfied that they’ve given you the answer you want.

Look at their services

You might only need a bookkeeper to handle one specific task – for instance, performing BAS and IAS lodgements on your behalf. However, it doesn’t hurt to choose somebody who can do more than that, just in case!

You’ve probably had rough quarters or periods where you’ve lost some important invoices and receipts. These are just two of the unexpected issues that can arise with regards to your business’ bookkeeping and finances.

Choosing a bookkeeper who offers extra services can help you deal with these issues as they arise, helping you get out of a bookkeeping emergency later down the line.

Hire the right bookkeeper in Melbourne – call Maximum Business Solutions today!

Stay in control of your business’ accounts and records with the help of a bookkeeper in Melbourne.

Maximum Business Solutions helps you grow and focus on your business –  our team of expert bookkeepers take care of all your business’ finances, so you have nothing to worry about in the future.

We offer simple to advanced bookkeeping services to businesses throughout Melbourne’s southeast. Whether you need bookkeeping in Brighton, account cleanup in St Kilda or help with invoicing for your business in Moorabbin, you can trust our experience in:

• Payroll solutions
• Invoicing
• Debt collection
• Balance sheets
• Cloud software implementation
• Consultation
• Audit preparation
• Business Activity Statements (BAS)/ Income Activity Statement (IAS)

Call a bookkeeper in Melbourne on (03) 9589 0128 or fill in the form to find out how we can help your business thrive!