Benefits of Outsourcing Bookkeeping

As a bookkeeper I understand how important financials are to a business. As I learned, and was constantly reminded in school, accounting equals the language of business, or assets = liability + owner’s equity; both were drilled into my brain, and both are equally as important. At times, I can see why someone would be hesitant in outsourcing their financials. Owners tend to want full control of their books but what they fail to understand is that even when outsourcing the owner still retains complete control of their financials. Now, let’s get into some of the benefits of outsourcing bookkeeping;

Save time - there is only so much time available to an entrepreneur and bookkeeping is a full time job. One task at times can consume your entire day, and as an owner you don’t have the privilege of losing your entire day. Hence, outsourcing will free up a lot of time that is being consumed by keeping up with payroll, payroll taxes, and just the general maintenance of the books. Trust me from experience, when your books are off by a couple of cents it can take an entire day, a lot of coffee, and minor hair loss when trying to figure out what wrong.

Save money - A bookkeepers pay ranges from the mid-thirties to the mid-forties. By outsourcing you can save at times up to half of what a business would pay a full time employee. Also, there would be no payroll taxes, or having to offer medical or retirement plans when outsourcing your books. Saving is always good!

Efficiency - When you have a full time employee you have to deal with employees not being productive or just taking too many breaks. When you outsource your books, the company taking the job has to make sure that your books are done. Therefore, there is a limited amount of time to sit around and talk. The accountant working on your bookkeeping has to stay focused due to having also other clients to attend to.

Expertise - The level of expertise when outsourcing your books, at least for my company, you are a hiring a renaissance man. Okay maybe not a renaissance man but you are hiring an individual who can tackle other aspects of a company other than just bookkeeping. The is due to the fact that you are not only getting a bookkeeper but you are getting an entrepreneur, a computer technician, excel wiz “moderate” can’t say you are an expert due to someone always knowing something that you don’t on excel), marketer, great social skills, somewhat dances, games, great with kids, doesn’t say no to free lunch or coffee, enjoys the occasional drink or two, someone fluent in more than one language, and a person who cares about making your business prosper.

Now that I have gone through some of the advantages of outsourcing bookkeeping, and of course I am pretty sure I left out many, it should be easier to see how outsourcing your companies bookkeeping can be an advantage over having an internal accountant. However, a small disclaimer this blog might be a little biased, due to my company offering the service of outsourcing bookkeeping, but it doesn’t stop me from writing.