Why Hire a Professional Bookkeeper?

As a small business owner, you need accurate and up-to-date financial information so you can make the best decisions for your business.

As your business grows and you hire employees, or take on more customers, keeping track of your business expenses and ensuring your books are accurate becomes more complex and time-consuming.

It’s a lot to keep track of while also running your business – sales, expenses, salary payments, and any other money that goes in and out of your business.

You know how important it is to keep good records, not only for CRA compliance and protecting yourself in case of an audit, but also if you want to sell your business down the line.

And frankly, you’re sick of staring at spreadsheets or teaching yourself how to use accounting software. You find yourself falling behind and losing track of receipts, and you’re afraid of missing out on important deductions or overdue invoices that cost you money. You...

Bookkeeper, Controller, CFO. Are you uncertain about what each role emcompasses? Or when you should outsource the role vs. hiring someone in-house? We hope this will help! 

Should I hire a bookkeeper?

I get this question a lot. The truth is that a business of any size needs a person to handle their books. When first starting out, outsourcing a bookkeeper is the best option as it reduces your costs since you only pay for the time you need. And by having a bookkeeper throughout the year, you will save money on your accountant at the end of the year, since there’s less for them to do.

A big mistake that small business owners make is thinking they can do the books on their own. Once the season gets busy, the last thing owners want to do is the books at the end of the day. The result of leaving the books until the off season is a nightmare that ends up costing you more money and more headaches.

So, what does a bookkeeper do? The bookkeeper will enter all the payables, record...

NOTE: The original article can be found here.

As a small business owner, you need accurate and up-to-date financial information so you can make the best decisions for your business.

As your business grows and you hire employees, or take on more customers, keeping track of your business expenses and ensuring your books are accurate becomes more complex and time-consuming.

It’s a lot to keep track of while also running your business – sales, expenses, salary payments, and any other money that goes in and out of your business.

You know how important it is to keep good records, not only for CRA compliance and protecting yourself in case of an audit, but also if you want to sell your business down the line.

And frankly, you’re sick of staring at spreadsheets or teaching yourself how to use accounting software. You find yourself falling behind and losing track of receipts, and you’re afraid of missing out on important deductions or overdue invoices that cost you...

Want to eliminate a lot of stress? Invoice and review A/R & A/P reports on a weekly basis with your team. Too often I speak with owners who have completed a lot of work but haven’t invoiced or collected on those projects and find themselves in a cash flow crunch.

If you review the following items weekly you will always have a clear understanding of where you sit financially. Waiting too long to invoice, or to follow-up on outstanding invoices can often result in the final payment never being collected, since many owners feel awkward trying to collect on a job that’s been completed for a long time. 

Weekly Accounts Payable/ Receivable Checklist:

• Create invoices for work completed in the last 7 days
• Create files for work to completed next week 
• Track incoming receipts per job 
• Follow up on outstanding invoices from the last couple of weeks
• Review incoming payables
• What needs to be paid this week
• What gets paid at the end of the month

Do you avoid...