I hear so many entrepreneurs say they wish they hired a bookkeeper sooner than they did. I'm curious to know what exactly a bookkeeper does and whether I should hire one or continue to manage my books myself. Basically, my DIY system for the past few years is this: every 1st of the month, I tally up all of my revenue and expenses, record them in a spreadsheet. I use this to figure out my profit and amount to pay in quarterly estimated taxes. I have my accountant handle filing my (my family's) annual tax return. As my business is beginning to grow and become more complicated (growing team, more revenue streams, etc) I'm starting to think its time to hire a bookkeeper. My business consists of a mix of consulting, a SaaS product, and some one-off digital products. The questions I have are: 1. What are the tasks that a bookkeeper performs, and how often? 2. What are the benefits of having a bookkeeper vs managing it yourself? 3. How does one get started working with a bookkeeper? 4. Is a bookkeeper and CPA the same thing? Should I have one bookkeeper for my business (LLC) and separately an accountant who handles my family's annual tax return? What's a typical approach here? 5. What are the going rates for a US-based bookkeeper for a small LLC?
The two answers above are great. The only thing I would like to add is that even if you decide to NOT hire a bookkeeper I would recommend you outsource your payroll and purchase a low cost accounting program (Quickbooks or Peachtree). These are both very inexpensive purchases that will help you a great deal and keep you on the right track. One other thing that comes to mind is that if you do hire a bookkeeper make sure that you still have control and an understanding of your books and records. Many small businesses will just send the bookkeeper information and get the financial statements back without understanding what they mean or they will have an outside bookkeeper make entries and not have their internal records updated.
Answered 10 years ago
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