Not being able to cover your business expenses at the end of the month is a terrible feeling. Despite the busy month you had, your books say something different.
Without consistent and accurate bookkeeping services, your business could be losing more money than it’s making. When you come across this problem, it’s time to consider outsourced bookkeeping services.
Keep reading to learn nine other signs it’s time to seek professional help.
1. Your Books Are Always Outdated
A backlog of financial paperwork you haven’t reconciled can cause stress and money problems that lead to more stress. Tackling your receipts and payments can be daunting, but it’s worse when you let things pile up.
Your books could be outdated because you are behind, or you could have an ineffective system for bookkeeping. Manual tracking, for example, can cause data entry errors that will set your business back.
Outdated books will never give you an accurate grasp of your finances. Tracking and managing business cash flow becomes almost impossible.
Outsourced bookkeeping services can rectify the situation by recording daily transactions, so you’ll be able to understand the financial health of your business.
2. You Don’t Have Time for Bookkeeping
As a business owner, you have a lot of responsibilities. You won’t be able to handle all business aspects yourself no matter how hard you try. There’s no shame in asking for help, especially from an outsourced professional.
The to-do list increases as your business grows. If you don’t have time in the day to get everything done, focus your efforts on other aspects of your business while bookkeepers handle your finances.
Outsourcing these tasks alone can free up a lot of time you can then spend on other aspects of your business.
3. You Only Update Your Books Before Tax Season
Business bookkeeping is a year-round responsibility. If you only update your books when tax season rolls around, you’ll be scrambling to ensure accurate records.
If you’ve been utilizing this strategy, you’ll run into several problems. First, you’ll never have up-to-date books to help you guide important business decisions.
You’ll end up paying more for bookkeeping services because professionals will have to help you make necessary adjustments. They’ll spend a lot of time cleaning up the mess you left them with.
Lastly, only updating your books once a year causes unnecessary stress. Automate this task to make things easier with bookkeeping software.
4. You Miss Out on Tax Deductions
A lot of business expenses are tax-deductible. If you aren’t tracking your expenses throughout the year, you are going to miss out on cost-saving subtractions.
Chances are high that you’ve missed tax deductions over the years because you don’t track your business expenses. When you scramble to update your books at the last minute, you’ll miss even the most obvious tax write-ups.
Bookkeepers record all transactions and assign the right expenses to their correlating categories. When you outsource bookkeeping, you can reduce your total tax bill when the time comes.
5. You Need a Break From Bookkeeping
You probably didn’t start a business to spend your time and effort on bookkeeping. This is understandable. Bookkeeping can easily drain passion and creativity.
If you feel overworked and tired, especially when it comes to business accounting, take a break from the grind. Outsourced bookkeeping services free up your time and headspace so you can reconnect with your business.
With your free time, you can focus on a business passion project or work to improve your skills in other areas of business.
6. You Aren’t Confident in Bookkeeping
Bookkeeping errors can affect the financial health of your business. If you don’t feel confident in your bookkeeping skills, don’t put your business at risk.
Bookkeepers have several skills that make them successful. Most commonly, they have computer literacy skills, strong math skills, and data entry skills. They require a strong attention to detail and accuracy. An outsourced bookkeeper can provide you with the peace of mind you need regarding business accounting.
7. Your Cash Flow Is Unpredictable
Unpredictable cash flow can occur for many reasons. You might have insufficient client work, late payments, or unforeseen circumstances for one month. These cash flow problems lead to uncovered expenses.
Bookkeepers will track accounts payable and accounts receivable in addition to following up on overdue invoices. This helps businesses stay on top of cash flows even in unforeseen circumstances.
Bookkeeping software can automate cash flow statements. With this data, you’ll know how much money is going in and out of the business within the month.
8. You Spend Too Much Time Bookkeeping
Business owners without bookkeeping experience tend to spend longer on financial tasks than professionals would. These responsibilities could be keeping you from tasks that will help your business grow.
Instead of focusing on client work and marketing, you have to get your books in order. If you’ve only ever managed your books yourself, you might not even realize how much time you are spending away from other business essentials.
Think about the business areas you could allocate more time to when you hire outsourced bookkeeping services.
9. You’re Overpaying an Accountant
Hiring an in-house accountant is not a cost-effective business solution. Outsourced bookkeepers are a cheaper alternative to internal HR departments that typically handle administrative tasks, including bookkeeping and payroll.
A dedicated outsourced bookkeeping team can:
- Manage an automatic transaction report
- Track income and expenses
- Prepare and manage professional bookkeeping report
- Bank and credit card reconciliation
Outsourced services may offer different tiers so any business can afford the benefits. For instance, Cloud Bookkeeping offers basic bookkeeping and advisory services.
Outsourced Bookkeeping: An Elite Quickbooks Certified ProAdvisor
With outsourced bookkeeping, you can focus your efforts elsewhere without having to worry about your business finances. Save time and money with a professional Quickbooks Certified ProAdvisor.
Our Elite Members at Cloud Bookkeeping have been trained and certified by Quickbooks to leverage the software for businesses like yours. We can help you solve bookkeeping problems with ease.
If you experience any of these signs, it’s time to hand over your bookkeeping to the pros. Request an estimate from our one-stop shop for bookkeeping services now.
