The Importance Of Bookkeeping For Small Businesses
Running a successful business is like taking care of a well-oiled machine. Every little cog, crank, pulley, belt, bolt, and screw needs to be maintained and monitored. Every little detail of your business should be cataloged and updated, there should be no exceptions for the financial books, either. If you file for taxes and think that every year it has to be a massive slog that always ends up setting you back, it absolutely shouldn’t be that way. Here’s why you previously thought you couldn’t afford to hire a professional bookkeeper, but in all actuality, you can’t afford not to hire one.
Yearly Tax Savings/Earnings
This is usually the only time businesses hire someone to do their books: right at the time, their taxes are due. For small businesses, one might feel compelled to save a buck by doing their own taxes, but that’s assuming you know just as much as a professional bookkeeper or tax prepared. You don’t, and you might end up losing out on cost-cutting exemptions that flip the script from where you started out owing the CRA or REVENUE QUÉBEC to the CRA or REVENUE QUÉBEC owing you.
Never Fear an Audit
A random CRA or REVENUE QUÉBEC audit that comes without warning could cause a small business a whole load of stress. You know you haven’t done anything illegal or violated any rules, but that doesn’t mean the process of digging up specific records isn’t stressful. If the CRA or REVENUE QUÉBEC deems your bookkeeping unsatisfactory, you could be placed under even more unwarranted stress. Hiring an affordable accounting firm to organize your business lets you worry about running your business, not jumping through hoops and juggling duties.
Generating Analytics
A bookkeeper isn’t just a glorified office clerk that can organize your filing cabinet and migrate data into MS Excel, Quickbooks, simply accounting/Sage 50, they can become an important tool in the ongoing success of your business. Without knowing precise data points for all of the sales, fees, taxes, overhead costs, and net profits, how will you be able to decide when you should invest in a timely upgrade?
Don’t let your business become another statistic like those restaurants you see on Kitchen Nightmares or the failed investment pitches as seen on Shark Tank. Without intimate knowledge about your business, you will never be able to know whether or not your profitability is really sustainable or if you can expand it. It’s hard enough to see past one’s own optimism for their own business; it’s nearly impossible to make the best decisions without a bookkeeper who can give you the raw, unadulterated facts about the performance of your business.
Limit Loss/Vulnerabilities
Without a professional bookkeeper there to make sure your records are complete and accurate, you are leaving yourself open for professional conmen or small-time criminals to take a swipe at you and getting away before you ever notice anything amiss. It doesn’t have to come in the form of physical theft or the sale of bad products, it can be in the form of a deceptive business service that promises you long-term success, while in reality only providing a virtual placebo effect. You won’t know that you bought into some fancy marketing strategy that is designed to sell overpriced and ineffective products or services until you have gone back and looked at your spreadsheets, but then it’s usually too late. A bookkeeper would be able to tell you right off the bat that it’s a raw deal, and you should save your money.