This concise guide explores what professional bookkeeping services can offer your business operations, and whether they can save you time and money.
We all know that feeling of being overwhelmed by all the details of business — the endless conga line of paperwork, government requirements, invoicing, accounts … the list goes on. And for small businesses, that pressure and stress can suck all the passion out of what you are trying to do. After all, it becomes difficult to be inspired and innovative if you are spending sleepless nights worrying about the accounts.
Whether you are a budding entrepreneur or you already have a fairly established small business that you are keen to see grow, planning for tax season and maintaining your financial records is something that cannot be underestimated. In fact, many businesses that had the potential to be successful have dwindled as a result of their failure to maintain financial records properly.
What can professional bookkeeping services offer?
To highlight the importance of keeping your businesses financial records in order, let’s look at some of the main reasons why professional bookkeeping services can be an essential function for any small business that is looking to succeed in a evermore competitive economy:
It Allows You to Meet Your Tax Obligations
By keeping your financial records in order, you’ll find it much easier to file your annual tax return. Good bookkeeping ensures you have an up-to-date and well organized balance sheet, profit and loss accounts and cash flow statements. If you have all your financial ducks in a row, so to speak, fulfilling your business tax requirements becomes straightforward and much less stressful than scrambling for receipts at the end of the financial year.
You can do this yourself of course, so if you are already highly organized, you need to weigh up whether paying for professional bookkeeping services is a worthwhile cost. For this, you will need to calculate the time you currently spend on the task, and what that time is costing you in real terms. Is it time that would be better spent on developing the business or the client base if you were not buried in the financial records?
It Reduces Stress
If your books are a mess, this disorganization has the potential to cause loads of stress. Having your own business and dealing with the responsibilities associated with it can be stressful enough before adding to it with complicated financial issues. Remember though, that you don’t necessarily need to do the bookkeeping yourself. One option would be to delegate the task to professional bookkeeping services or use a more cost-effective online bookkeeping tool.
It is hard to quantify stress in terms of dollars and cents, but a little thought will allow you to guage whether getting rid of the stress is worth the cost of hiring professional bookkeeping services to take over the tasks.
Easier to Win Over Investors
Attracting investors is important when it comes to ensuring there is a steady stream of money flowing through the business. The importance of bookkeeping can’t be downplayed, as financially-savvy investors will always ask about the financial health of your enterprise. Having your books in order will be of great assistance when it comes to impressing investors, and they are likely to see you as a stronger business if you have professional bookkeeping services rather than doing it yourself.
It’s an Essential Part of Your Business Financial Management
Once you have your bookkeeping in good order, you’ll find it much easier to access invoices and follow up on payments. Being able to manage your invoices better allows you to ensure timely payments to suppliers and also allows you to stay on top of money owed to you from clients.
Bookkeeping Makes Budgeting Easier
If your financial records are in order, you’ll find it much easier to review the resources available to you and your business’ outgoings. Being able to budget allows you to create a roadmap for the future of your business. Without having a realistic budget in place, it can be hard to plan for future growth. Prioritize bookkeeping and ensure the records are accurate, so that budgeting can be accurate rather than being based on guesswork.
Conclusion
As a small business owner, there will be a lot of things you need to juggle on a daily basis. However, it is crucial that you won’t neglect the record-keeping aspect of your enterprise. Understandably, many people find bookkeeping and financial management a somewhat tedious part of running a business; however its importance cannot be underestimated. Doing so will reap long-term rewards as your business goes from strength to strength in the future. Staying on top of it by using professional bookkeeping services may be the answer.
