Home Based Business Tips – How to find the best bookkeeper for
your business
If you’re a home based business owner, you are
faced with many challenges. One main challenge is being able to
trust someone to keep track of your company’s finances.
The best person to keep track of your finances
(in a program such as QuickBooks) is a book keeper. So, how do we
find someone to handle our businesses finances?
The first place you should look is your peers.
Meaning, there are probably many people close to you that do what
you do (or know someone that is an entrepreneur). You should be able
to openly ask your peers who they use to handle the book keeping
tasks for their business. The more open the conversation the more
information you acquire.
There are many small business owners that are
in the same situation that you’re in and most are more than willing
to offer advisement. This is the best way to get over the “trust”
factor. Once you are able to put trust in some one you’ll be able to
focus on how the bookkeeper will help your business.
The best way to ask your peers is to get a list
of the contacts you respect the most and call them. Try not to email
the contact if you can avoid it. A phone call is best in this
situation. This way you can have a well informed discussion on
possible candidates. You’ll be able to use that opportunity to get
information that will make your comfortable in your search for the
right bookkeeper.
Secondly you want to have a discussion with
each bookkeeping candidate. While getting recommendations are great.
You still need to perform the leg work and do your due diligence.
The best way to do that is to call and meet the book keeper.
If for some reason you cannot get any
recommendations from your peers, look for local businesses
(preferably home based business owners) that perform this type of
work. You could always call your local chamber of commerce for a
recommendation.
Basically, you want to find out the services
the bookkeeper provided. Then you want to find out what they can do
to specifically help your business. Most of all you want to find out
the software they use is the same or compatible to the application
you use (this is so reporting is easier). Specifically, you want to
find out if the book keeper uses QuickBooks or Peachtree.
Also, you want to see what’s expected of you
when it comes time to submit your deposits and receipts. For
example, the book keeper may expect you to keep receipts and
deposits separately or file them on a month by month basis. Finding
out these things can be a time saver for you, especially if you
submit these items at the last minute. After all you have to do some
work to empower the bookkeeper.
Also, you want to make sure how the book keeper
can report a financial snap shot of your business on a moments
notice. For example, QuickBooks has a portable file format that can
be easily emailed.
Finally, you want to discuss the cost of the
book keeper services. You want to make sure of the expected cost for
services rendered and you want to note the hourly rate for
additional services (such as estimated quarterly tax payments).
You also want to discuss and solidify when
payment is expected. For example, some want a deposit when you
submit your receipts while others want payment when services are
rendered. Most invoice you for the work.
Remember not to outsource anything you can not
afford. So instead of worrying about where to find the perfect book
keeper for your business you can now focus on how to find the
bookkeeper for your home based business.
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