Running a business requires managing a lot of information. But out of everything you need to manage, your finances are one of the things you can’t get wrong.
The benefits of keeping proper books can’t be understated. It will help you make decisions that will help you grow your business in the future. The problem is, keeping your books isn’t as simple as you think.
If you want to hire a bookkeeper and don’t know where to start, this post will help. Follow the eight tips below to find a bookkeeper that will help you keep your business finances in order.
1. Get the Right Pricing
If you’re starting in business, you may not want to pay a high price for an excellent bookkeeper. But that doesn’t mean you’re out of options. Most bookkeepers offer several pricing options to fit whatever your needs are.
If you only need someone to look over your work to check for mistakes, you may only need to hire a bookkeeper for an hour at a time. In cases like this, hiring someone hourly will be your best option.
If you want someone to handle all your bookkeeping work, you have the option to work with a bookkeeper on a retainer or fixed fee. Going this route will give you a predictable expense that you can budget for.
2. Find Someone to Work on Your Schedule
You have the option of working with a freelancer or a company when hiring a bookkeeper. The thing you need to figure out is how often you expect your work to be done.
If you hire a freelancer, then you have to work around their schedule at some point. They will want to take time off occasionally. Will they be able to handle your work on that schedule?
On the other hand, you can rely on a business to have a bookkeeper available throughout the month. They will work with you on the schedule that works best for you.
3. Find a Certified Bookkeeper
Anyone can decide to become a bookkeeper one day and decide to start looking for new business. But that doesn’t mean you know how to do the job. If you want to hire someone that has done the legwork, find a bookkeeper that is certified.
There are two bookkeeping certifications you can go for. They are from the NACPB and AIPB. Anyone with these certifications has done the work to learn everything a bookkeeper needs to know.
On top of that, you need to re-apply for certifications every few years. A certified bookkeeper is going to be up to date on the new information in the bookkeeping world.
4. Find a Specialized Bookkeeper
The bookkeeping process isn’t going to be the same for every industry. Your business will likely have unique rules and regulations you need to follow. If you work with a general bookkeeper, they may not know all the ins and outs of your business.
In situations like this, it pays to work with bookkeeping services that specialize in your industry. They can provide you the tips necessary to keep better books. Hiring a specialist may even save you more money than it costs to hire them.
5. Ask About Communication Times
The last thing you want is to need an answer to a question and get radio silence from your bookkeeper. You need to find someone that will give you the service you need.
Ask about the preferred form of communication of anyone you work with. Does the bookkeeper work by email, text messages, or phone calls?
You should also ask the standard turnaround time to get return emails and calls. This information will help you gauge whether or not someone can meet your communication standards.
6. Determine Who You’ll Be Working With
Things have changed in the bookkeeping world. There are now online services that provide bookkeeping services to businesses. These services don’t work the same way as typical bookkeepers.
Instead of working with a person, you provide all your financials online to your service, and you get your results back when a member of their team finishes your work. You may not talk with a person at all.
If you want to work with a real person, then ask a business who will be working on your books. If you’re working with someone regularly, you want to be able to get along with them.
7. Make Sure Your Provider Is Secure
Your financials are one of the most sensitive parts of your business. You don’t want to work with a company that doesn’t do the work to protect their customer’s data.
Ask about the security practices of any business before you start working with them. You want to make sure that they have the proper security measures in place on their business network. They should also provide training to their employees, so they know how to avoid threats on the internet.
8. Ask for Referrals
It isn’t hard to say you’re good at doing a job. This makes it a lot harder for you to weed through the noise when you’re trying to find someone to do your books.
Any business that does good work should have several customers that are willing to put in a good word. Before committing to work with someone, ask if they can provide you with referrals from past and current customers.
Talking with customers will also give you more insight into how a business operates. Even if a company is good at what they do, they still may not operate in a way that works well with your business.
Do Your Due Diligence When You Hire a Bookkeeper
It takes work to hire a bookkeeper that will do an excellent job for your business. Your bookkeeper will be the person who keeps your finances in working order, so don’t make a mistake. Use the tips above to find the right person for the job.
Once you have a better handle on your cash flow, you can start investing in customer acquisition. Head back to our blog to learn our latest marketing tactics.
| 
Fetching the Best Small