Benefits of Outsourcing Your Bookkeeper

Thinking about outsourcing your business’s bookkeeping? We have plenty of reasons why doing so is a smart decision. 

Running a business is no easy job. Your day as a business owner can go in numerous different directions, from managing employees to paying bills, analyzing costs, and handling some customer problems. There’s simply not enough time in the day for you to handle everything related to your business. Yet, if your goal is to grow your business, this lack of time can be the obstacle that stops you.

Well, if this sounds familiar to you, maybe you should start thinking about outsourcing your bookkeeping.

Bookkeeping is a key function for the growth and development of any business. Despite being a tedious and monotonous task, it is essential to get it done. Or to hire somebody else to handle it for you.

Now, you may be thinking about hiring an in-house employee to do it for you. However, outsourcing this task can be a lot more advantageous even when compared with hiring an employee for it or doing it yourself.

Keep reading below to find out all the benefits of outsourcing your bookkeeper!

Bookkeeping explained

You likely know what bookkeeping is. But just to be sure we’re on the same page, we’ll try to give it a simple definition for novice business owners.

Bookkeeping is basically the activity of recording all day-to-day business transactions. So, a bookkeeper records, classifies, and then organizes every financial transaction made by a business.

Save a lot of money

First things first, let’s talk about money!

As a business owner, you’re likely constantly looking for ways to decrease your spending and cut costs in business areas that allow it. Well, outsourcing your bookkeeper can help you save a lot of money.

Think about it: when you hire an in-house bookkeeper, you need to pay that person an hourly wage or an annual salary. But, besides that, you also need to spend some money on other costs of hiring an in-house employee such as insurance, benefits, training, recruiting, and facility costs.

In contrast, when you outsource your bookkeeping, you only spend time on the bookkeeping services that person or agency provides you with.

Save time

Logging, analyzing, and reconciling payments or other financial records for your business can take a lot of time and nerves. For this reason, another great benefit of outsourcing your bookkeeping is the fact that you no longer have to deal with this time-consuming task, and you can focus on more essential business decisions and activities.

You and your employees will have more free time to focus on things that help your business grow, such as improving customer service, evaluate your current processes, and overall improve anything that needs improvement.

And, at the end of the day, all bookkeeping activities related to these improvements you’re making won’t make you waste time on piles of physical paperwork. You’ll have an online bookkeeping service taking care of all of it.

Reduce errors

When you hire an in-house bookkeeper, you need to assume that there will be a training gap and even some errors that are going to occur, especially at the beginning of that employee’s activity. Well, by outsourcing your bookkeeping, you can avoid these two obstacles.

Sure, you could hire an experienced bookkeeper, thinking that the training won’t take too long since that person already has experience in the field. However, keep in mind that all businesses are different, and there will still be a need for a period of accommodation for the in-house bookkeeper to get used to how your business works and how they should do their activity. Unsurprisingly, some errors occur in the beginning before the employee learns how to do bookkeeping specifically for your company.

On the flip side, when you outsource this task, you don’t have to worry about the training gap or the errors. Bookkeeper services that allow you to outsource this task have the experience of working with plenty of different companies. They know that each business has its specific needs and way of doing business. So, you get an expert team on your side that has the experience to handle everything bookkeeping-related and not mess it up.

Get detailed financial reports

Another great benefit of outsourcing your bookkeeping is the fact that your business will get detailed financial reports that can help with growth. And, the best part of it all is that you don’t have to pay for an in-house accountant for that.

When you outsource bookkeeping to a professional service, you’ll be provided with more than data entry services. You’ll also be provided with a lot of financial information that can be really helpful for your business’s growth.

Virtual bookkeepers use an automated system that records and tracks your business’s finances, including cash flow history. So, you’ll be granted access to all financial reports, which you can see by simply clicking one button on your computer. You’ll be able to see detailed reports about your cash flow history, profits, losses, and even a balance sheet.

So, outsourcing your bookkeeping makes accessing and viewing all your business’s financial information really easy. Plus, you can always download this information and share it with your employees, business partners, other key parties in your business, or even financial advisors who can analyze it and advise on improving your money management.

Get access to top systems

Think about it: when you hire an in-house bookkeeper, it’s your job to provide them with the right tools that will allow them to complete their tasks. This means that you need to invest in bookkeeping software and tools.

Such tools can be pretty expensive. And, if you’re a small business, you may not afford it or settle for a cheaper and less performant one. But, as you may imagine, this isn’t the smartest decision to make for your business.

In contrast, when you outsource your bookkeeping, you can be sure that the virtual bookkeeping team you’ll collaborate with utilizes top systems that have the best features, which, ultimately, benefit your business. For example, you’d be sure that your financial information is backed up every day and kept safely for years.