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Why Doing Your Own Bookkeeping is Hurting Your Business (and how to fix it)

One of the most critical decisions you will make as an entrepreneur or small business owner is the need to suddenly be an expert at everything.  But let’s get real right away, doing your own bookkeeping stresses you out!  It’s not something you have the time for, or so you think!  It’s not something you want to do, and the thought of looking at your numbers is overwhelming and exhausting.

The reality is, you can’t be an expert at everything, and wearing all the hats is the quickest way to burnout.  Of all the backend business operations you should off-load as early as possible, managing your money and balancing your books should be first.  This will give you the biggest return on investment.

Let me convince you.

Keep your focus on your core business needs.

A business needs the attention of its founder, including the attention and time to growing ideas into viable products or services.  Your time should be devoted to strategy, marketing, funding, and other key areas.  This time requirement is going to be much more demanding than you expect, especially with a startup.

Your money information is data, that needs consistent analyzing.

This data – organized and in order – will show you exactly how you are doing each month, where the funds are going, how your efforts are paying off and highlight areas you might need improvement on.

Maintain cash flow.

A bookkeeper will not give you more money, but they will keep you in tune with incoming and outgoing payments.  Because you are busy, you may not realize there are outstanding payments from clients, or that your insurance bill is due…yes again.

Investment, that pays big.

You may think that you’re saving money by doing your own books – and maybe you are – but often, a professional bookkeeper saves you more.  Your time is money that you should be using towards getting new business, increasing revenue, and moving your business to the next level.  Taking this tedious task off your hands, allows you the time and creative freedom to take it off your task list.

You won’t have to rush at tax time.

Ok, if I haven’t convinced you yet, I’m about to.  Tax time is stressful, and it’s not something you want to rush through!  Hiring a professional bookkeeper will keep your financial documents in order and up to date.  At year end, this makes for a quick and smooth transition to prepare the packet for your CPA.  The money you spend monthly, will save you money with your CPA by providing them a complete and comprehensive tax preparation.

Ensure correct tax filings.

The last thing you want is to get audited – especially if it’s because you simply forgot a filing.  Depending on the type of business, you could have weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual tax filings.  That’s a lot to keep up with!  Your professional bookkeeper will keep up with these dates for you and handle the filings on your behalf.

Squash conflict with business partners.

Money has a funny way of bringing out the best of emotions in people.  Issues can easily arise between partners over money, how to access it and how to spend it.  Your bookkeeper is your financial custodian, creating processes that keep everyone accountable.

Reduce stress over money.

There are not many entrepreneurs who don’t have a background in finance – or a working knowledge of Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable or Taxes.  Unless you want to go back to school, it’s just easier on you to hire someone to handle that for you.

Gain perspective over your business.

As an entrepreneur, you have a product or service idea that you are emotionally tied to. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have started this business to begin with.  Money management and bookkeeping is not rocket science.  But if you aren’t paying attention to the numbers on a regular basis you are putting yourself in a bad place.

How do you know if you’re making money?  Hint, it’s not by how much cash you have in the bank.

How do you know if that new idea is as profitable as you think?

How much are we spending on office supplies each month? (<< you would be surprised!)

Take the guesswork out of it.  A healthy financial review with us on a regular basis will answer all these questions, and more, allowing you the data to back up your perspective and decisions. Your business is one big experiment finding what works. To find what works, you also must do analysis on a regular basis.

All these reasons – and more – is why you should consider hiring Peak Services Group to help your business.

Have I convinced you?  Good.  Let’s talk about what happens next.

Peak Services Group is going to request access to all your financial documents for your business. 

Bookkeeping cannot be done without access to all the financial information in your business.  You will need to provide data (or read only access) to your bank account(s), plus anything else you may use to spend and receive money in your business (credit cards, PayPal, Stripe, etc.).

Trust is going to be a big thing that comes up here because you are giving someone else access to your money.  You must trust this person you are giving access to.  Peak Services Group will provide a clause in their contract about the ethics of having access to your money, as well as verbally letting you know the same.  This relationship is nothing without trust.

Remember, your money information is data.  Data for Peak Services Group to organize and put it into a readable format to diagnose the health of your company.

The point of hiring a bookkeeper is to make the financial aspects of your business easier for you.  When you take the stressful situations off your plate and take the time to analyze your business finances, you will also find ways to continue to grow your business and make even more money.

It is undeniable that one of the best investments you make in your business is hiring Peak Services Group.  We will pay for ourselves and a lot more in savings, stress reduction and time, in addition to providing accurate financial reporting, timely tax filings – which will aid you in making better financial decisions to propel your business forward.

The last few years has taught us how incredible working remotely can be, and this is no different for Peak Services Group.  Leveraging our real time, cloud-based, data management system allows us to manage team members and client accounts across the country, ensuring consistency and compliance at every level.

If you are looking for a business partner you can trust, let’s find time to discuss your business and goals, and see if we are a good fit for each other.