The Ultimate Outsourcing Guide for Your Accounting Needs

 

Bookkeeping tracks all your day-to-day transactions—money entering & leaving your business. It also categorizes those transactions, so you can see how you’re spending money, and how you’re making it.

Accounting takes info from your bookkeeping, crunches the numbers, and shows you the big picture. Financial reports like income statements & balance sheets show you how much money you’re earning, and how much you have to work with.

Small businesses often hire some kind of outside help to manage their accounting tasks. There are a few reasons why.

Accounting eats up time

There’s no way around it. Even if your spreadsheets are true works of art, DIY accounting will cut into time you could otherwise spend helping your business grow.

Accounting is high stakes

Make a mistake on your tax return, and you could get fined by the IRS—or even trigger an audit. Miscalculate your income for the month, and you could find yourself coming up short on cash when it’s time to pay vendors. Accounting is high stakes, and small errors can have big consequences.

Good accounting takes expertise

Even if you spend sleepless nights poring over textbooks, you won’t have the expertise of a professional bookkeeper, accountant, or tax planner. That’s because they have experience—they’ve worked with many businesses, and understand first-hand the mistakes to avoid. When your accounting is outsourced, you have experts fighting on your side.

Hiring a local bookkeeper

Cost: $20 to $50 per hour, usually with a $100–150 monthly minimum.

Best for: Small to mid sized business owners who want to meet their bookkeeper face to face, or who work with a lot of paper records like receipts.

How it works:

When you hire a local bookkeeper or a firm.

A firm is a company that employs many bookkeepers. A large firm will serve any business, regardless of industry.

One of the best ways to find a local bookkeeper that serves your needs is to ask other business owners in your area. This is especially true if you’re looking for a firm specializing in your industry.