A good bookkeeper is one of the most important hires you can make for your business. This is true whether you’re a small business owner or a startup who’s founded what you’re hopeful will be the next big thing. No matter the size or industry of your business, bookkeeping services are an absolutely critical function.
This may seem like a bold claim (or even biased since it’s coming from me), but it’s true, and here’s why…
The reason you need a bookkeeper is twofold:
Tax Compliance: Without a good bookkeeper, you’re almost certain to either underpay in taxes – which will put you in legal trouble and ultimately cost you more down the road – or overpay in taxes.
This is true even if you have a really good CPA preparing your taxes each year. If your books are incorrect or messy, even the best CPA is prone to get your return wrong, or you’ll end up overpaying your CPA to sort through the mess and get to the right answers.
Neither is an ideal outcome, and it’s especially not something you want to spend time and energy worrying about or addressing. Your time and mental capacity as a business owner or founder is entirely too valuable to be overburdened with tax worries. So the first reason you need a bookkeeper is that you get peace of mind that your books will be clean when it comes time to file and pay your taxes.
Managing your business: No one wants to incur tax issues or overpay the IRS (or their CPA), but that’s the least of your worries when it comes to non-existent or inadequate bookkeeping. The biggest reason you need a bookkeeper is that you can’t make critical business decisions without one.
A good bookkeeper doesn’t just ensure that your books are clean for tax purposes; a good bookkeeper also provides you with accurate financial numbers on a timely basis each month, which is mission critical for you to run your business to the best of your ability.
This may seem like another bold claim – especially if you’ve managed your business successfully for a period of time – but the truth is that if you’re not looking at timely and accurate financial data for your business and making decisions accordingly, then you’re likely leaving money on the table.
Are there certain products or services that are more profitable than others? Should you double down on one and eliminate another? What about your customers – are certain customers contributing less to your bottom line but requiring more resources to support than others? And what about your expenses – are you overpaying for products or services that you don’t need?
You can’t answer any of these questions without accurate, up-to-date financial data, and yet the answers to these questions could be the difference between your business growing or declining.
This is just scratching the surface on the benefits of hiring a good bookkeeper (or the repercussions of not hiring one), but you get the point. When you hire a good bookkeeper, you’re not just spending money on a low value compliance function. Instead, you’re investing money in a service that provides you with both peace of mind, as well as highly valuable information that you can use to manage and grow your business.
If you want to learn more or you’re ready to hire a bookkeeper, don’t hesitate to reach out to us here at Margin for a no-hassle conversation. We’d love to learn more about you and your business, and tell you more about our services and how we can help you manage and grow your business. to learn more about how we can help you start, manage, and grow your business.