From Transactions to Taxes: How to Hire a Bookkeeper Who Can Streamline Your Finances

Are you a business owner who’s struggling to keep your financial records accurate and organized? If so, it might be time to hire a bookkeeper. Hiring a bookkeeper can save you time, energy, and reduce the risk of errors in your financial documents.

In this post, we’ll discuss why it’s essential to hire a bookkeeper, the responsibilities and must-have qualities of a bookkeeper, online platforms for hiring them, and offer helpful hints on how to choose the best candidate for your business. So if you’re looking to hire a bookkeeper and streamline your finances, keep reading!

Of course, you could always try hiring a bear – they have great accounting skills, as long as you don’t mind a few claw marks in the ledger!

What is a bookkeeper?

A bookkeeper is a professional who is responsible for maintaining accurate and up-to-date financial records for a business. Bookkeepers are typically responsible for recording financial transactions, reconciling accounts, generating financial reports, and helping to ensure that a business’s financial records are in compliance with accounting standards and regulations.

Bookkeepers are often considered the backbone of a business’s financial operations, as they help to ensure that financial transactions are properly recorded and that financial reports are accurate and reliable. While bookkeepers may not be responsible for making financial decisions or providing financial advice, they play an important role in helping businesses to manage their finances and make informed decisions about their financial operations.

Bookkeepers help with a variety of financial decisions, including categorizing transactions, reconciling bank accounts, preparing financial statements, and handling bills and invoices.

Is a bookkeeper an accountant?

While bookkeepers and accountants share some similarities in their work, they are not the same thing. A bookkeeper is responsible for recording daily financial transactions, maintaining financial records, and organizing financial data. They typically handle tasks such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, bank reconciliations, and payroll. Bookkeepers also generate reports that show a company’s financial performance, such as balance sheets and income statements.

An accountant, on the other hand, is responsible for interpreting, analyzing, and summarizing financial data. Accountants typically handle more complex tasks such as preparing financial statements, performing audits, analyzing financial performance, and providing financial advice to business owners. Accountants often have more advanced education and certification, such as a bachelor’s or master’s degree in accounting or a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) designation.

 Accountants are like financial detectives, using their knowledge and expertise to uncover the truth behind a company’s financial picture.

Why You Need a Bookkeeper

#1. Organizing and Generating Accurate Records

A bookkeeper assists a business in keeping precise and organized records of financial transactions, such as sales, expenses, accounts payable, and more.

To sustain the financial wellbeing of your business, it is paramount to maintain organized records. This includes tracking where funds are coming from and being allocated— enabling you to strategize for future payments, fundraising opportunities, or employee decisions. Yet having well-ordered documents isn’t enough; hiring a bookkeeper allows you to generate accurate monetary reports that include balance sheets, profit/loss accounts and cash flow statements!

Every decision you make for your business will have a financial angle, and inaccurate financial records can lead to decisions that can potentially bankrupt your business.

#2. Saves You Time and Energy

Are bookkeeping tasks weighing you down? Don’t worry; a bookkeeper can take the stress off your shoulders and handle all of that tedious work. After all, keeping accurate records is not everyone’s area of expertise – especially if numbers are not your strong suit!

In such cases, hiring a bookkeeper who can save you time, energy, and money is a wise decision.

#3. Can Provide Crucial Insights

With a professional bookkeeper by your side, you can rest assured knowing that they will review and regularly assess the financial status of your business. In addition to discovering any discrepancies or irregularities, they can provide valuable insights which help in making smart decisions for future growth. Plus with their systematic approach towards streamlining bookkeeping tasks, tax season won’t bring upon unexpected surprises!

Responsibilities of a Bookkeeper

• Records transactions: Records daily business transactions such as sales, inventory, expenses, etc.
• Maintains accurate records: Maintains accurate transactional records and generates your balance sheet, profit and loss statement, and cash flow statement monthly.
• Reconciles accounts: Reconciles bank account and credit card statements to ensure the accuracy of your books.
• Helps with taxes: Educates you about sales and other kinds of taxes involved in your business and works in tandem with you and your tax accountant during tax season.
• Tracks performance: Assists in budget preparation, tracks business’s performance against the budget, and comes up with ideas to cut business expenses wherever possible.

Qualities to Look for In a Bookkeeper

#1. Detail-Oriented and Organized

A small mistake in a decimal point or miscounting zeros could have severe consequences for your business. It is crucial to find a bookkeeper who is detail-oriented, focused, organized, and able to correct any errors they may detect quickly.

Pro Tip: Look for a bookkeeper who is familiar with working with your type of business so that they can detect patterns in the financial records and prevent mistakes.

#2. Proficient in Using Accounting Software

Accounting software helps bookkeepers make all financial processes efficient by eliminating errors and automating repetition. 

By utilizing accounting software, a bookkeeper can streamline the process of generating financial statements and eliminate the need for manual data entry in spreadsheets. 

So find a bookkeeper willing to integrate accounting software into their bookkeeping process.

#3. Trustworthy

Without a doubt, trustworthiness is an essential trait to consider when hiring for any position at your business. However, this attribute takes on greater importance with regards to handling your financials: that’s because the bookkeeper you hire will have access to sensitive information about yourself and your business – so it’s paramount that the person you choose can be trusted implicitly.

Places to Look to Hire a Bookkeeper 

#1. Recommendations

Networking is one of the most dependable methods to recruit a bookkeeper. If you’re an avid user of Linkedin, post a query requesting if there are any bookkeepers in your network and get in touch with them. It’s an easy yet successful way to find someone for this job opening!

You can also ask your network to recommend a bookkeeper they might’ve used at some point. If they’ve worked with or know of a good bookkeeper, they’ll likely be willing to pass along that person’s contact information.

#2. Upwork

Upwork is one of the most popular freelance hiring platforms. It’s trusted by the likes of Microsoft, Airbnb, Bissell, and many more. 

There are two ways to hire a bookkeeper from Upwork:

• You can either post a job on the platform and wait for candidates to fill out the application
• Or you can search for bookkeepers, review their profiles, and send offers to them

The bookkeepers on Upwork charge hourly rates and the hiring costs range from $10 to $125 per hour. 

#3. QuickBooks Bookkeeper

Quickbooks offers its own certified bookkeepers who will update, take care of your current financials, and create a budget for the future. 

You also get personalized reports that help you make informed business decisions. 

Lastly, the bookkeeper you get from QuickBooks helps you categorize transactions so that you’re all set for the tax season.

Note: QuickBooks bookkeepers work remotely and connect with you via video call.

Did you know you can integrate Sales Master Hub right into your Quick books account?  This saves you from having to manually enter data into your CRM every time a contact is created in QuickBooks. Once connected all new contacts will be added to your CRM and automatically be sent a review request upon payment.

How to Decide Who to Hire

So you have a list of potential bookkeepers who can be an excellent fit for your business. Great! But how will you decide who’s the one who will be a perfect fit?

Follow these simple steps:

Step 1: Prepare a List of Questions to Ask During the Interview

Assuming you’ve shortlisted candidates after looking at multiple options to hire a bookkeeper, ask a potential candidate the following questions to assess who can do a better job for your business. 

• What’s your experience in bookkeeping so far?
• How do you stay on top of changes in accounting regulations and standards?
• What’s an example of a time when you had to deal with a difficult situation, like a discrepancy in financial records or a client issue?
• How do you keep everything organized and ensure all bookkeeping tasks are done on time?
• What specific bookkeeping software or systems have you used before? How confident are you in using them?
• How do you keep sensitive financial information, like payroll records and tax information, secure?

Add any other questions that are important to you, and keep notes of the candidate’s answers during your interviews.

Step 2: Evaluate Candidates’ Qualifications and Experience

If you already have the resumes of candidates in hand, start by looking at their qualifications.

Preferably, the candidate has a degree or certification in accounting or bookkeeping and can demonstrate a strong foundation in accounting principles and bookkeeping practices.

For the best results, select a candidate with experience in your industry. For instance, if you are an eatery owner, search for an accountant who has had prior involvement with restaurants. If you own a service-based business, consider someone who’s familiar with bookkeeping services to other providers as well.

Step 3: Check References and Conduct Background Checks

For checking references, you can contact the references provided by the candidate to verify their work history, skills, and personal qualities. You can ask questions about their job responsibilities, performance, strengths and weaknesses, and other aspects of their work. 

Conducting background checks involves verifying the information provided by the candidate, including their employment history, criminal record, and education.

Checklist: Hire a Bookkeeper

Use the following checklist to plan and hire a bookkeeper for your business. Fill in any additional requirements you have and check off each item when completed.

Step 1: Identify Your Bookkeeper’s Responsibilities:

• Record daily business transactions
• Maintain records and generate reports
• Reconcile accounts
• Help with taxes
• Track performance
• Other:

Step 2: Determine Skills and Qualities Needed:

• Detail-oriented and organized
• Experience working with my type of business
• Can integrate preferred accounting software
• Trustworthy – has references or testimonials
• Other:

Step 3: Identify Where to Find Candidates:

• Recommendations
• Upwork
• Quickbooks
• Other:

Step 4: Conduct Your Hiring Decision Process:

• Narrow down candidates to a shortlist
• Prepare a list of interview questions
• Interview candidates and note responses
• Evaluate candidates’ qualifications
• Evaluate candidates’ experience
• Check references 
• Conduct background check 
• Pick your new bookkeeper and agree terms
• Other:

Conclusion

Regardless of the industry you’re in, it’s vital to have a bookkeeper who can manage and improve your finances. You may be able to do this yourself if you’re financially capable—however, even if you are an accounting graduate, entrusting another with these tasks would allow for more time devoted towards strategizing other areas of business operation.

Keep this in mind: Instead of viewing a bookkeeper as an additional business expense, consider it to be a wise investment. A bookkeeper will help you save money, maximize expenses and aid you in making the right choices for expanding your business by bringing order to your finances.