When I worked at a public accounting firm, one of things I liked but didn’t like was going to clients. I wanted to work from close to home and not have to deal with traffic every day. While DC, MD & VA are a hop skip and a jump from each other, when you add traffic to the mix, a 20 minute commute can easily turn into an hour.
So I found a firm that was 20 minutes away, 30 in traffic. And even though 90% of our clients were within a 15 minute radius, somehow I ended up at clients that were 100 miles roundtrip.
Now sure we got reimbursed for mileage but I still didn’t want to drive the distance and it was wear and tear on my truck. And let’s be frank, I never saved that money to fix my truck when it needed repairs, but I did use it for gas – so not a total loss.
Fast forward to 4 years ago when I decided I would provide bookkeeping services to businesses as long as I didn’t have to travel. See there are many benefits to hiring a virtual bookkeeper. And many resources as well to make the process a smooth and seamless one.
1. No overhead. This is a big reason because as a business owner one of the things you are always trying to cut is your overhead. Increased overhead means reduced profit and no business owner wants reduced profit. You will save money on insurance, payroll taxes and benefits because these are all expenses that an outsourced bookkeeper will have to cover themselves. You also save money on poor productivity that comes with hiring a full-time employee.
2. More office space. An outsourced bookkeeper works primarily out of their own office and not yours. This means that you have more office space to use for your operations staff. Or if you are a virtual based business yourself, you don’t have to try and find space for this person to work at.
3. Save money on technology. We all know how expensive it can be to onboard a new person. You may need to buy a new computer and increased licensing on some of the software’s they will use. With an outsourced bookkeeper, again these are costs that the bookkeeper will have to pay for themselves as a business owner. Plus they will have the knowledge and resources using the best applications out there to be able to help make your back office run smoothly.
4. Save time. As a business owner, you tend to do one of two things – spend all your time trying to do the bookkeeping yourself or having your office manager double as the bookkeeper, receptionist and personal assistant. Sound familiar? If you are doing it yourself, you need to stop. While you need to know and understand the financials in your business, you need to focusing you attention on generating sales and working in your core business. If you have an office manager doing the bookkeeping, you are losing money because that person isn’t able to focus on being the best she can be as an office manager because she is dividing herself to perform the other duties. Either way, your office is not performing at top capacity.
5. Expertise. By outsourcing your accounting and bookkeeping, you are receiving knowledge and expertise at a reduced rate. Whether they work alone or with a team of complimenting experts, they will be able to implements processes that will help your firm operate efficiently and effectively.
What benefits have you experienced from using and outsourced bookkeeper? If you don’t outsourced these services, how much time do you spend away from clients because you are managing your own business finances?
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I like that you said that by outsourcing a bookkeeper, you will have the time to focus on generating sales for your business. My husband and I are interested in owning a small business. We want to sell baked goodies since we want to share our love for baking while earning. To be honest, we don’t have any idea about bookkeeping. We don’t want our time to be spent on understanding finances, so we’ll do all your tips.
Hi Sharon
Glad these tips are helpful and good luck on your new business.
It’s interesting how you talked about how hiring a bookkeeper doesn’t only free up time but also space. I work for a company where my boss does all the bookkeeping but she wants to start focusing more on the growth and less on the money so she wants to hire a bookkeeper to help her do that. Thank you for talking about the benefits of hiring someone to do those things for you, I’ll make sure I tell my boss about them.
Hi Liv
Glad these tips helped.
It caught my attention when you said that you can expect to receive knowledge and expertise without spending a lot when you outsource your bookkeeping team. With that in mind, I’ll make sure to hire a bookkeeper that can help me. My plan is to own a restaurant in the future since I love to cook and bake. To be honest, I don’t want to mess up my business’ finances because I don’t want to end up experiencing bankruptcy. This is why I will follow all your tips.
I like that you pointed out that by outsourcing bookkeeping, you won’t need to spend a lot of time in understanding the financials in your business. My husband and I want to own a small business in the future because we want to have extra incomes. We want to focus on marketing our business. We also have to acknowledge that we don’t know anything about bookkeeping. Thanks!
Hi Bethany
To clarify, you do need to spend time learning and understanding the financial for your business but you don’t need to spend time doing the bookkeeping and making adjustments. Those are two different functions. Also, you should get training on how to read your financials so that you can understand the complete story they tell you.
Thanx for reading and commenting.