Bookkeeping probably sounds like something out of another business era. It conjures up images of a business owner or accountant in a back room somewhere trying to organise their receipts and invoices, surrounded by mountains of paperwork and pulling their hair out.
Nowadays accounting software can do a lot of that for you. Going even further, cloud-based accounting software such as QuickBooks and Xero allow you to manage your books from anywhere in the world and from all sorts of devices, including laptops, tablets, and even your mobile phone. While there is no doubt that this is a huge leap in making bookkeeping easy – even accountants can’t argue with that – the need for a specialist looking at and managing your books has not changed, and here is why:
Time and cost of administrative work
You have a business to run and need to focus your time and efforts on that. While software can go a long way towards helping you keep track of your receipts and invoices, it still takes time to do that. Time that can be better spent on looking after your customers and staff, increasing your sales, or focusing on promoting and expanding your business. When push comes to shove, if you have to choose one thing to do it will be building up and running your business and before you know it you are drowning in a mountain of paperwork. Do you really want to face sorting through it and getting to the bottom of it? Once it gets to this point, you are even more likely to avoid it and just get on with the day job. Before you know it it’s time to file your tax return and you don’t know where the bottom of the paperwork pile is anymore.
Keeping the books accurately
No matter how good you may think you are at keeping your books in order, if you don’t have the right training and keep up to date with the latest rules and regulations there is only so much you can do. By employing a trained bookkeeper or certified accountant you can be confident that transactions are logged and classified accurately and in a way that will help with pre-tax planning, so there is less to do when it comes to filing your tax return.
Keeping your business relationships strong
Money is the one thing that even families can fall out over. So if you are in business with one or more partners keep the money matters separate by using a third party to manage your paperwork. That way you can all remain neutral and manage it together should something go wrong; there is also no risk of one blaming the other should a mistake happen along the way (or worse, should one partner mismanage the books).
There’s only so much that software can do
While software can be great at logging transactions, it can’t manage your cash flow and tax liabilities in a timely way – you will still have to spend time sorting out the details for your tax return at the end of it. So rather than spend time doing part of a job which your accountant will have to pick up anyway, why not use that time to focus on your business instead and let your bookkeeper do what they do best – manage the books.
Call in the experts
For accurate bookkeeping services, as well as professional advice, Bells Hamilton Stewart is here to help keep your business on the right track. Talk to us for advice and assistance by giving us a call on 020 8763 1711 or dropping us a line on .
