By James Chittenden
No business owners can do everything right, and certain business chores are too essential to accomplish without expert help. If your startup is becoming a more formal business and you are hiring, congratulations. You are doing something right. But you still need experts to help with everyday functions that are part of operating your business. The bigger and busier you are, the more functions you need help with. Is is time to get professional bookkeeping help?
One of those is accounting. You may not want or need an accountant or bookkeeper, because you feel you can do it yourself (DIY). But the DYI path wears thin. Nobody enjoys digging through bank statements at 9:30 pm trying to remember what that $12.37 Amazon charge was from three weeks ago.
By all means, be familiar with your numbers and books. Learning bookkeeping and accounting is part of financial literacy. But that doesn’t mean that you need to continue doing all your own bookkeeping chores as you grow the business. It may be time to get professional bookkeeping help.
Is there a revenue level or other metric you should reach before getting bookkeeping help?
In short, no. There is no standard metric; you are on your own here. However, you can recognize the signs.
- Accounting issues are diverting attention from core business issues.
- Accounting complexity is growing along with the business.
- You are paying bills late, even though you have the funds to pay on time.
- Work and life are out of balance because of business details.
- You catch yourself making penny-wise but pound-foolish decisions.
In other words, you’ll know when.
Now…WHY should you get bookkeeping help?
Protect the corporate veil
First of all, if you have not registered as a corporation or LLC, do it! You can use the One Click Advisor corporation or LLC package, or you can use LegalZoom or the provider of your choice, but do it. A good bookkeeper won’t let the accounting tasks fall through the cracks and will help hold you accountable for using business funds properly, maintaining separation between business funds and personal funds.
Get peace of mind
Outsourced bookkeeping is relatively inexpensive. It is also a small price to pay knowing that your books are clean and done correctly. Further, if you need an emergency loan <link>, your most recent financial statements or at your fingertips.
What is Bench and who should use it?
Bench offers online bookkeeping services to small businesses. It is ideal for freelancers and small businesses with annual sales of less than $1,000,000.
A Bench bookkeeper will reconcile your bank accounts, categorize your income and expenses, and prepare your financial statements. See pricing and get started on a free trial today.
And finally…
Welcome to One Click Advisor! We would be remiss if we didn’t give you a brief tour of the site and what it can do for you. Your challenges and opportunities can be sorted into one of three areas.
Marketing, because it brings in the customers. Start or continue that plan here.
Operations, because it keeps your customers. Start or continue that plan here.
Finance, because it is the scoreboard. Change the “score” and explore financing here.
Bookkeeping…leave it to the professionals!