11 Benefits of Hiring a Bookkeeper for Your Business

Business owners tend to do their own bookkeeping when they start out. In the early days of business, there typically isn’t enough budget or need to hire someone for tracking business transactions. But as the business grows, owners need someone to document spending and make sure their accounts reflect the appropriate balance.

If you’re a business owner, it is essential to focus on activities that help your business grow.  Your business might be at the point where transaction management is taking too much time from your schedule. 

It’s time to hire a bookkeeper for your business.  

Here are 11 benefits of hiring a bookkeeper:

1. Accurate Financial Records: Ensures that financial records are up-to-date with accurate data entry.  Say goodbye to the “Oh, yeah I should reconcile my bank statements” and “Ugh, I need to prepare my year-end financial statements for my accountant.”  A bookkeeper can help ease the stress of updating your financial records and prepare your end of year financial statements (such as your balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement). 

2. Tax Compliance: Helps in staying compliant with ever-changing tax laws and regulations.  Don’t wait for your CPA to tell you the updates after your tax return is ready to be filed!  Hiring a bookkeeper who stays up-to-date on the changes for the tax year can help you have a better understanding of your tax liability and ask the right questions of your CPA.  For businesses, this means business meals are returning to the 50% deductibility for the 2023 tax year — no matter where they were purchased. Other updates include:

   1. Increase in the standard mileage rate deduction for the 2023 TY to 65.5 for business miles driven. 

   2. Bonus depreciation drops to 80% for 2023, as compared to 100% for previous years (2017 - 2022) created by the TCJA (Tax Cuts and Jobs Act). Read more about the final regulations on bonus depreciation.

3. Efficient Tax Planning: Hiring a bookkeeper can help you plan and prepare for the tax season by identifying tax deductions (see above), run financial forecast reports to help you plan for the year(s) ahead, and budget for tax payments.

4. Time Saving: Your bookkeeper additionally frees up YOUR time so that you can focus on core business activities such as business development to grow and fuel your business. 

5. Stress Reduction: Business owners have so much on their plate, that often the tasks associated with financial record-keeping and tax preparation get pushed to “tomorrow” or “next week”. That nagging task becomes stressful until it is just bad enough that you can no longer avoid it; which is usually when your CPA has sent the 4th or 5th email reminding you that they need your documents. This is where a bookkeeper can help! They can help keep you on track and help you get your documents to your CPA on time!

6. Improved Financial Management: Do you know your financial position? A bookkeeper can help provide insight into your business’ financial health. The more you know, the more informed you’ll be, and the better decision you'll make for your business growth.

7. Cost Efficiency: Yes, there is a cost-effectiveness your business can realize when hiring a bookkeeper. Handling the job internally, often takes time away from other important business tasks and takes time away from your family/social circles. If you are the owner who also does business development, project management, client deliverables and bookkeeping – which one is last on your list of priorities? Hiring a bookkeeper can save you time and the added intangible expenses from the DIY approach or hiring/training a W2 employee.

8. Expertise on Demand: A bookkeeper is well versed in accounting principles and practices and can help you streamline your financial record-keeping procedures. Plus, they will be highly skilled and/or certified in accounting software which improves efficiency and saves you time.

9. Reduced Risk of Errors: Leveraging financial software, such as QuickBooks Online, coupled with our attention to detail, ensures transactions are recorded accurately and accounts regularly reconciled. Our proactive quality assurance means there are less likely to be errors in your business’ financial records.

10. Assistance with Budgeting and Forecasting: Running a business without a budget is just asking for a migraine. Sooner or later, you’ll need to reign in expenses and forecast for those rainy days and dry spells. A professional bookkeeper can help prepare a budget and create short term and long term forecasts.

11. Enhanced Cash Flow Management: For business owners, it is easy to look at your profit and loss and think, “But why doesn’t my bank account match?”  The answers can be tied back to your cash flow statement and a professional bookkeeper can help you see how cash flows in and out of your business. Reviewing your cash flow statements regularly helps you optimize for the months ahead.

By outsourcing your financial record-keeping to a professional bookkeeping service provider,  you free a significant portion of time to further your small business goals. Your main bookkeeping tasks will be keeping your bookkeeper updated with the raw data to update your ledgers. With a local bookkeeper, you can meet them in person to discuss and review your finances. 

Frequently Asked Questions About Hiring a Bookkeeper

Harness the Benefits of Bookkeeping with Bandwidth Bookkeeping: Tailored Services for Your Business's Unique Needs

When you hire a local bookkeeper, you work with someone who makes it their business to stay updated with the latest bookkeeping practices and technology. We understand the value of financial reports and how they will help your business thrive. We stay up-to-date on financial rules and regulations. Bandwidth Bookkeeping is your team of bookkeepers to help small businesses like yours maintain accurate transactional records, and reduce financial risks. Contact us to schedule a free consultation to learn about our bookkeeping services for small businesses.