Many small businesses fail within the first five years, and often it’s because they have not been thorough with their paperwork and keeping track of their financials. Bookkeeping is such an important part of your business – don’t put it in the too hard basket. Bookkeeping is essential if you want to achieve success with your business.
- Bookkeeping is an essential part of any business to meet Australian Taxation Office (ATO) requirements. There’s a legal requirement to have your business financials in order. If the taxation department decided one day to undertake an audit on your business, you need everything to be up to date.
- The books have to be done every three months for the Business Activity Statement (BAS). Someone has to do them. Either you do them, someone does them in-house, or you outsource. There's no other option. If they aren't done correctly, it costs time & money to fix. Every time. So get someone with training & experience. It really will be quicker & cheaper in the long run. And it frees you up to concentrate on your business.
- Employing an independent bookkeeper to do the bookkeeping can save time and money for businesses, not all businesses require a fulltime/part time employee to do the bookwork. The business will benefit form a fully trained expert in their field and in quiet times you are not paying for another staff member that you don’t need. By paying hourly, you only pay for what you use, there is no PAYG tax, holiday & leave loading, Superannuation, Work cover, or sick pay.
- Having a bookkeeper makes your records ‘Account Ready’, you save on accountancy fees. Having your bookwork in order means that, if you need to make a quick business decision that could affect you financially, you’ll have all the relevant information at hand to help you make the best decisions.
- With a bookkeeper working regularly on your financials they’ll see patterns emerging and can bring matters to your attention that you may have overlooked. Generally by the time your accountant sees your figures, (which could be months, or even years after the event) your circumstances have changed, & the figures they see would not be a true reflection of your current situation.
- Well managed bookkeeping will provide you with financial statements such as Profit and Loss and a balance sheet. They are also needed if you are applying for credit from vendors or financial institutions.
- Your bookkeeper can quickly provide you with reports so you can track your sales patterns, any peaks and slow times, so you can plan ahead for such events.