Small business owners start out having time to wear all the different hats in a business. You had the time to do the marketing, the sales, the administration, and the bookkeeping. Then you start to take on more and more work, and things start getting more complex. Now might be the perfect time to outsource some of those tasks. Especially those you have not trained to do.
Outsourcing certain aspects of your business to professionals who have specialised in those areas means that you can focus on your business growth and development and taking the best care of your customers.
Outsourcing accounting and bookkeeping, makes a great deal of business sense for a small business. These are extremely complex tasks, with huge challenges and consequences if they are done incorrectly, or not on time.
With increasing compliance requirements with GST, employee requirements of PAGY and Super Guarantee, income tax, FBT, it’s difficult for small business to keep up. Seeking the guidance and assistance of a qualified professional will ensure you keep up to date with all your compliance AND if you find the right team, you can get a lot of other information from your accounts that will help you to grow your business and achieve your goals.
So, considering all this, how do you know if it is time you outsourced your bookkeeping and accounting?
Find out more: What can a bookkeeper do for your small business?
Here are five signs that you need to get yourself a bookkeeper.
1. Doing the bookkeeping is consuming too much time and taking you away from other needs of your business, or your family life.
If you find yourself spending more and more time, at night and on the weekends doing your bookkeeping, it’s time to find a bookkeeping team that can take that stress away and keep everything up to date for you.
A bookkeeper can help you set up your accounts, so they produce meaningful reports, help with collection of money from your customers and invoicing, process your invoices and expense receipts and prepare payments, never missing a due date and keeping your cash flow healthy.
This will mean you can get back to implementing all those well laid plans you had for building your business, and you might even get your weekends back.
2. When you’re struggling to keep up to date with your bookkeeping, late paying supplier bills, customers not paying on time and your BAS lodgements are late.
Business growth is exciting, but as your business grows as will your bookkeeping requirements.
Most small business owners are struggling for time, there are just not enough hours in the day. Doing the book work often gets put off and left until BAS or Tax is due. But letting your bookkeeping fall behind means you could be in or heading towards trouble and you may not even realise it.
Having your bookkeeping up to date and having access to up-to-date reports can show you a lot about the health of your business. A good bookkeeper can work with you on keeping track of your business vital signs and help you to make changes, before it is too late.
So if you’re falling behind on your bookkeeping, you should seek help straight away.
3. You are unsure if you are bookkeeping skills are up to scratch. Not sure how to allocate correctly, or if you are using the correct tax codes.
Let’s face it, we can’t all know everything. We would not know how to build a house, so we find an expert who does. Likewise, business owners are not expected to know how to set up and maintain your accounts. But we do, so let us help you.
If you find you are spending too much time trying to figure out if how you have processed your accounts is correct or not, it’s time to bring in the expert — a small business bookkeeper.
Professional, qualified bookkeepers will save you time and money on the hassles of bookkeeping. You can be sure that your accounts will be accurate and on time. Leaving you to spend more time in other areas of your business, where your expertise is far better utilised.
4. Tax and compliance complexities are increasing as your business grows.
Every business in Australia must comply with specific ATO requirements and employment regulations. Then there may be other compliance obligations if you are a public or listed company if you are going for Grants or even specific contract agreements.
As businesses grow their compliance becomes even more complex. Keeping up with increasing complexities and growth can be overwhelming. Rather than letting the overwhelm take over, and you get behind with accounts you just don’t fully understand, seek the assistance of a qualified professional bookkeeper. They can help you to take care of the compliance, see through all the complexities and focus on what matters to the growth of your business.
5. Tight cash flow and not seeing enough profit in your business.
Cash flow issues are the top reason why small businesses fail. If you find that you are struggling to pay suppliers on time, wondering how you are going to meet payroll this week, make loan repayments, not to mention paying yourself, then these are signs of cash flow that needs to be strategically managed for your business to be able to survive.
A bookkeeper who has experience and knowledge with cash flow and profit maximisation strategies can see you through tough times and help you to realise your business goals.
When you are stressed and overwhelmed with the daily running of your business it is often difficult to identify when the time is to bring in help. If you are experiencing any of the above situations, please give us a call to see how we can help you.