Every company needs to have its accounting sorted out at some point. This is an important element for any business as it helps you to understand the financial position of the company and helps to assess how the profit margin can be improved. This is why companies should seriously considering the use of professional bookkeeping services. In fact, companies are now outsourcing their bookkeeping functions to professional companies who are making sure that all transactions are recorded and the book of accounts match for every week, month, and year.
It becomes the bookkeeper’s responsibility to make sure that all the transactions of the company are collated together and recorded properly so that the performance can be assessed after a quarter.
Common bookkeeping services
Bookkeeping, in itself, is a huge segment where several services are included. Some of the most common bookkeeping services that you can expect from established companies are as follows:
• Day-to-day bookkeeping entries of your company.
• Preparing final accounts for the year.
• Reconciliations.
• Invoicing and statements.
• Annual company reviews.
• Monthly business performance reports.
• Preparation and monitoring of budgets.
• GST returns and management reporting.
• Setting up the software used to make a budget.
If you are looking for a company that offers comprehensive bookkeeping, then the above services should be provided. Also, the company should look to use cloud-based solutions so that all the data and records can be saved on the cloud so that the chances of losing anything if the system crashes is basically zero.
Important reasons to choose bookkeeping services
There is no doubt that every company needs to prepare their book of accounts from time to time in order to keep track of the profits and losses that are incurred in the business. Previously, companies appointed accountants to do this job and they would be hired permanently to note down all the transactions that take place throughout the day. However, dishonest employees and additional work for the accountant made it hard to prepare the book of accounts accurately. That is why bookkeeping services became so popular, and now there are hundreds of companies in Melbourne that offer this service at competitive prices.
Here are some of the reasons why you need to hire a reputable company that provides a detailed bookkeeping service:
• Opting for a bookkeeping service is a way to save a lot of money. Since bookkeepers will go through the daily transactions of your business, they will be able to spot inaccuracies or costly errors.
• This service helps you to understand the financial position of your company for the entire year. When you have all the details of the transactions and the final accounts, it will help you make timely decisions to improve your company’s position.
• Bookkeeping services are very convenient. Your finance team will not have to worry about each and every transaction instead of preparing more important things like the profit and loss statement.
• When you hire a professional bookkeeping service, you are eliminating the stress from the minds of the accountants. This will allow them to work more freely on the accounting records that have to be presented at important meetings and other high-level tasks.
• The accountants that work for bookkeeping companies are experts in this field. They have the experience of working only on bookkeeping entries and records. Therefore, they will be well equipped and more knowledgeable to handle this work than other accountants. It is their expertise that will help to make the work easier.
• There is a guarantee that the book of accounts will be accurate. You will be hiring experts in the business and they will have no reason to “fudge the numbers” or provide inaccurate reports.
• Bookkeeping companies assign the job to a certain team so that each and every detail is checked and recorded in the system. That means the book of accounts for your company will be handled by a team and not by a single person.
Outsourced bookkeeping
Outsourced bookkeeping has become enormously popular in the last decade, especially with so many companies competing at the top. Everyone is fighting tooth and nail to make sure that their daily entries are recorded and appropriately submitted so that the management experts can come up with new ideas that will take the company forward. When you outsource the bookkeeping function of your company, you are actually getting a second opinion about how the company is doing financially.
As soon as you hire a professional bookkeeping company the team assigned will start going through the accounting entries and start preparing the book of accounts. Once they are up to date with everything, they will maintain the books on a daily basis.
One of the reasons why outsourced bookkeeping has become so popular is that it offers full privacy to both parties. No information is shared until the date of submission. There will be no other employees within your business who will know about the financial status of the company.
Most of the companies that start out small and do not have a lot of money to employ full-time accountants can opt for outsourced bookkeeping services. When the company starts to grow bigger, it can hire the bookkeeping company for a year instead of hiring a team of accountants. Even if your firm has a full-time accountant, you can maximise its resources by appointing them to work on different financial strategies that can improve the company’s financial position in the market compared to its competitors.
Small business bookkeeping
As mentioned earlier, most companies start with limited resources, and they do not have a huge amount of money to have a separate accounting team. That is why hiring the services of a bookkeeping company becomes essential. They will provide an unbiased opinion on the financial condition of the company so that you can concentrate on the important things and create a successful business. They do not have any emotional attachment to the company, and that allows them to offer a candid and honest view of the financial status.
Most importantly, the cost involved in opting for a bookkeeping service is quite low. This is appropriate for small businesses that do not have the money or the resources to hire a full-time accountant. It automatically saves a lot of money for the business. Moreover, you will not have to worry about other additional costs like paid leave, payroll taxes, and other employee benefits.
Bookkeeping services for small businesses also allow the business to focus on more important things like how to serve the customer better and what the company should do to improve the products or services that are offered. As a small business, the entrepreneur will be busy with implementing techniques to increase the sales volume. These things are more important than to find an accountant and focus on the daily transactions that have taken place. The entrepreneur can assess the company’s position after a quarter or after six months to understand if the measures taken to improve have had any impact on the financial position or not.
Bookkeeping packages
Bookkeeping services are divided into different packages according to the services that are required by certain businesses. If you compare the bookkeeping requirements of a startup company to that of a veteran company, there will be some differences. That is why bookkeeping companies have different packages that have different prices and durations so that clients can choose the most suitable package for their company.
A basic package is often suitable for startup companies that cannot afford to hire the services of a permanent accountant. This package often includes the preparation of monthly financial records, cloud-based accounting, reconciliation of transactions and other basic services. The intermediate package involves all the services offered in the basic package and in addition to that also has the filing of excise taxes, quarterly and annual tax returns, and so on. Lastly, the advanced or the premier package includes several other services such as numerous strategy sessions with the CPA twice a month, classifying all the financial transactions and much more.
Different companies have more than three bookkeeping packages but if you are looking to work with a company that offers a comprehensive package, then make sure you go through their website before hiring. You will get the details of all the packages along with the features of that package.
Bookkeeping benefits
The services of a bookkeeping company are priceless. Can you imagine the number of transactions that can take place in a business in a single day? It is the job of the bookkeeping company to keep a note of all the transactions that have taken place from the time they have been appointed. All these of these transactions will be added together and will help to prepare the final books that are used to calculate the profit and loss and make the final accounts for the accounting year. Given below are some more benefits of bookkeeping services that you should know about:
• When you outsource the bookkeeping job to a different company, you are reducing the risk if you happen to lose some of your accounting staff suddenly. There might be times when an employee is no longer satisfied with the company and wants to resign immediately. If this happens, you may end up with a number of problems until you find a replacement. This will not happen if you outsource the bookkeeping work completely. So, even someone wants to leave, it will not have a huge impact on your company.
• It improves the efficiency and quality of work of the accountants in your company. Bookkeeping is a strenuous job because you have to check, tally, and record all the transactions in detail. It can easily affect the concentration of the accountants because they have to do other accounting jobs for the company too. And, there is no way that you can afford to have mistakes in the bookkeeping section. So, when you hand over this responsibility to a professional team, they will do the job better because they are trained that way. This will allow the in-house accountants to work freely and focus on more important manners.
• A second opinion is always important to understand the financial position of a company and a bookkeeping service will help you with that. When a different company prepares your book of accounts, they are doing so without any bias. This will help you get a clear picture of the financial status.
FAQs on bookkeeping services
Many companies have still not opted for a bookkeeping service because they are not sure if the companies will provide accurate results. Well, here are some of the most frequently asked questions related to bookkeeping services:
1. If there is full privacy?
Yes, bookkeeping companies will make you sign a contract that assures full privacy of the accounting statements that are prepared. Everything will be done behind closed doors, and not a soul will know what’s going on except the accountants.
2. Can you hire a company for a short period of time like three months?
Yes, you may want to see if the services of the company are genuine before hiring them full-time. Most of the companies offer quarterly, semi-annual, or annual services.
3. Will get the details of the accounting books whenever you want?
Of course! That’s what you are paying to get done. Since the companies use cloud-based accounting services, you will be able to check the accounting books whenever you want. It can be after a day or after a week, or any time you want.
With so many benefits, it can be safely said that bookkeeping services are essential for big and small companies.
If you are looking for a reliable bookkeeping company in Melbourne, you can get in touch with Numbers Pro Accounting & Tax at 03 9510 2120 or 04 2327 4777.
They are just a call away from providing easy bookkeeping solutions for your company.
