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Being a small business owner can be fantastic! You get to be involved in every aspect of your business, from marketing to event planning, from sales to employee development. Being involved in so many areas of your business saves you from boredom and allows you to use skills you might not have known you had.

There is one area that many small business owners hate to be part of but still choose to take responsibility for: bookkeeping.

Most business owners don’t choose to do their own bookkeeping because they love it; it’s usually because they want to save money. However, what they might not understand is that handling their own books often winds up costing them more money in the end, not to mention the time and energy that goes into a task they despise or, at the very least, don’t fully understand.

Here are some ways avoiding hiring a bookkeeper can hinder your company’s success:

Poor business decisions

Every day you make financial decisions about your company and those decisions have an effect on how successful and sustainable your business is. If you’re responsible for the bookkeeping, you could be making errors that affect the decisions you make. You may think, because of an incorrect decimal place, that you have more money in the bank than you actually do. Or you may not fully understand how a decision today affects your business tomorrow.

A bookkeeper keeps track of your company’s financial health and can advise you on decisions that can help you grow your business. They can also warn you if you’re about to make a decision that could hinder your long-term growth.

Consider that you have a great month with a lot of money coming in so there’s extra cash in the bank account. You might be tempted to upgrade your office computers, but a bookkeeper can warn you that there are upcoming payments the money is earmarked for. They can help you determine the best time to purchase those computers, so you won’t suddenly find yourself with a zero balance.

This information becomes even more important if you’re looking to undertake major financial transactions, such as taking out a loan or purchasing office space. A bookkeeper can help you fully understand the financial ramifications of such a move.

Late transactions

You might think a late bill payment here or there doesn’t affect your business, but the fees associated with late payments add up and missing the wrong payment can affect your company’s credit. That may make it more difficult to get a business loan or credit card.

Worse, you could miss vital transactions in one month that have ramifications for your business the next month or later on. By missing a payment in May, you may think you have extra money that then gets spent—until you notice in June you have to double up on a payment.

Bookkeepers stay on top of your financial transactions and understand how every transaction affects your business. They can help determine when the optimal time to pay debts is, and let you know if clients are behind on payments.

Bookkeeping Software

When your bookkeeper or Registered BAS Agent gains a thorough understanding of your small business, they can recommend you a home bookkeeping software that is best suited to your needs. For example, Xero bookkeeping, MYOB bookkeeping and Quickbooks Online have a range of different plans and it can be difficult to understand what features might benefit you.

On top of it all, bookkeepers also stay aware of changing laws, so they can ensure your company is compliant with payroll and tax laws, as well as any other financial rules and regulations that affect your business. Bookkeeping services usually include support for you to ask questions around payroll, software or general bookkeeping questions (for example, a common question we are asked is, “What is Double Entry Bookkeeping?”)

Final thoughts

The information and insight a bookkeeper provides goes a long way to helping you make smart business decisions. Not having a bookkeeper not only adds unnecessary work to your load, it increases your stress and further increases the chances of errors being made.

With all the negatives to doing bookkeeping yourself, why wouldn’t you hire a bookkeeper so you can focus on growing your business?

Whether you’re just after some bookkeeping tips, basic bookkeeping services or a software package such as MYOB, Xero, Quickbooks Online or Receipt Bank, we can help. Your business will be better for it, and so will you.

See below for our bookkeeper locations; if you’d like to ask a question, please feel free to use the form below!

Our Bookkeepers

Justine Day: Southern Highlands / Bowral Bookkeeper
Amanda Graham: Southern Highlands / Bowral Bookkeeper
Petra Austing: Southern Highlands / Bowral Bookkeeper
Karin Evans: Gold Coast Bookkeeper
Pru Hall: Wollongong Bookkeeper
Jackie Short: Canberra Bookkeeper