The costs a small business or nonprofit incurs for bookkeeping will depend upon many variables. Company size as well as lifecycle, number of monthly transactions, number of employees as well as how payroll is processed, number of expense accounts, credit cards, invoices to send out, bills to pay, number of balances sheets to reconcile, etc. In addition to these basic bookkeeping activities, your costs will be impacted by how your accounting systems, policies as well as procedures, as well as reporting needs are set up as well as administer.
Part-Time Bookkeeping for Small to Medium Businesses
If you can manage your job as well as some of the accounting each month but need a little extra help, a part-time bookkeeper might be a good fit for your business. They can do work such as inputting receipts as well as tracking employee timesheets, accounts receivable as well as accounts payable. When hiring a part-time bookkeeper, management still needs to have someone reviewing the work of the bookkeeper.
Often businesses try to train an office manager or other employee with the capacity to become a part-time bookkeeper. While this can work as well as is often the least expensive option on paper, there are risks associated if the part-time employee’s or office manager’s output does not measure up to standards. And the cost of oversight, usually in the business owner’s time, can be significant.
Full-Time Bookkeeping for Small to Medium Businesses
A full-time bookkeeper handles the day-to-day accounting functions for your office. Keeping your books in order as well as up-to-date is the foundation of the financial strength of your business. Hiring a full-time bookkeeper in this situation could be the right answer for you.
You can expect a full charge bookkeeper to run operations associated with paying bills, billing clients, managing time sheets as well as payroll, as well as processing financial statements at month end. As a business owner, you will still need to look over the results to guarantee accuracy.
Outsourcing Bookkeeping for Small to Medium Businesses
A key benefit of Outsourcing is it gives you the ability to customize the services you receive to your bookkeeping needs.
In addition, you can outsource more advanced management accounting as well as controller functions to receive a complete “virtual accounting department”, which will certainly add to your monthly fees but could be what you need at this stage in your growth cycle. If your business is moving into a growth stage, you need to consider graduating to full accrual-based accounting, with financial as well as management reports that help you scale. Typically you will need this level of financial management not only for yourself but for your key stakeholders including banks, investors as well as advisors.
Outsourcing also offers many benefits that you can’t get with an in-house bookkeeper. Today there are many different kinds of back office outsourcing companies, ranging from project-only outsourcing, hourly rates, flat recurring monthly service fees, as well as a la carte packages to fit each business’s unique needs. If you’re growing, the outsourced bookkeeping service should be able to help you scale by adding full-service accounting when you are ready for it.
To sum it up
There are major differences between the three types of bookkeepers as well as what each can offer your business. Figure out which works for your business as well as start tackling the problems, or potential problems, with your books.
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