How to Hire the Right Bookkeeper for Your Small Business

hiring a bookkeeper

Having your accountant file your taxes should feel like a quick hand-off, not a prolonged arm wrestling match. What’s more, if your books aren’t up to date, you’ll have a ton of catch up bookkeeping to do during tax season, making a typically stressful time of year even more difficult. If you’re suffering from any of the following symptoms, it’s probably time to hire a bookkeeper. You might need only some or all of these services that can be part of the job of a bookkeeper.

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Compensation information is often listed, too, helping you weigh your options. If hired, you’ll perform many typical bookkeeping tasks for their small business clients. If you work with nonprofit clients, you’ll also track grants, programs, donations, restricted funds and perform comprehensive board reporting. Supporting Strategies offers part-time employment to candidates with fairly flexible hours. Reconciled is a cloud accounting firm offering several accounting and finance services, such as bookkeeping, outsourced CFO, payroll, tax and advisory.

hiring a bookkeeper

How can a bookkeeper help save me time and money?

Most bookkeepers should have at least some experience with Microsoft Excel. To save time, use our free bookkeeper job description template, which you can tweak according to your business needs. And, continue reading for other considerations when you are looking for a bookkeeper. Accountants also go through formal training to obtain a degree or certification, whereas bookkeepers do not. This makes hiring an accountant more expensive than https://www.personal-accounting.org/amortization-accountingtools/.

hiring a bookkeeper

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They also frequently use Quickbooks Online to perform these services for clients. Bookkeepers at Pilot work remotely and are generally hired as employees. Bookminders accountants can work a flexible schedule, but must make themselves available from 9 a.m. Additionally, you must attend orientation and occasional in-office training. According to the firm, about two-thirds of your work is done from home.

  1. In other words, the relevance of a candidate’s experience is often more important than the duration of experience.
  2. Real-time information is also vital if you want to make sound business decisions.
  3. Their expertise ensures accuracy, preventing potential issues that may arise from errors in financial documentation.
  4. Hiring a bookkeeper will allow you to become more organized with your cash flow statements to get a better view of your financial situation.

Verify Bookkeeping Certifications

Acuity employees have the opportunity to attend Acuity’s yearly paid retreat, AcuityCon, to meet and network with team members and further their relevant skills and abilities. Scheduling is relatively flexible — you pick your hours as long as they fall within normal business hours. You must attend one team meeting per week, but you get to choose which one.

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It’s kind of like a crystal ball that shows you the future of your bank account. Part of a bookkeeper’s job is to take every business expense https://www.quickbooks-payroll.org/ you incur and categorize it properly. In the process of doing so, they’re able to spot obvious deductible expenses such as mileage.

hiring a bookkeeper

Some bookkeepers provide additional services like financial analysis, budgeting, or payroll processing. Knowing their capabilities helps tailor their support to your specific business needs. A skilled bookkeeper can provide valuable insights into your business’s financial health.

Most jobs are full-time employee roles, although occasionally, the firm may hire on a contract basis. As a Two Roads bookkeeper, you’ll help small businesses with bookkeeper tasks like financial statement reviews, journal entries, reconciliations, sales taxes and more. Founded in 1987, Bookkeeper.com provides a range of accounting, financial planning and tax services to individuals and small businesses. AIS generally hires full-time bookkeepers, but they are flexible if you need to take time off. The two most common open roles are junior and senior bookkeepers. The former is more suited to newer bookkeepers with a bit of experience, while the latter seeks a much more experienced candidate.

Understanding the bookkeeper job description can help businesses ensure they are hiring the right candidate for the role. Virtual bookkeepers often serve as the primary point of contact for clients. A customer service-oriented approach is crucial for building positive relationships. Understanding and addressing client needs fosters trust and satisfaction, key elements in the success of virtual bookkeeping services. Managing financial records requires excellent organizational skills.

According to BLS data, bookkeeper salaries range from as low as about $30,000 to over $65,000. Although these are fairly wide ranges, they can be narrowed down based on your industry, the experience of the bookkeeper, the nuances of your business, and your company location. We offer a full guide on how to write a job description, but there are a few points we want to call out here specifically for bookkeeping.

Some positions may require you to live in one of the Texas cities they serve so that you can drive to client locations if necessary. (Travel time is paid.) However, they sometimes have openings that allow you to work from anywhere. Bookkeepers at Pilot generally stay in the bookkeeping arena, but accounting paper depending on your skills and experience, you may be able to branch into CFO or tax services. Ledger Gurus hires all its bookkeepers remotely and as employees, with some scheduling flexibility permitted. Bookkeepers will likely stay within the accounting function when it comes to daily tasks.

Additionally, they use Quickbooks, Bill.com and other tools to perform several core bookkeeping tasks. Bookkeepers are expected to work most of their hours between 9 a.m. To respond to client requests, though some flexibility may be available. Good bookkeepers know as much about technology as they do about accounting principles. Look for someone with a broad technical background, as well as extensive experience with your specific accounting solution. Having vendor-specific credentials does a lot to demonstrate a candidate’s expertise.

hiring a bookkeeper

If you’d prefer to take some of the stress out of the hiring process, consider partnering with Bench. They ensure their team is fully trained and has the skills necessary to be your in-house virtual bookkeeper. Many companies have a background check policy to run a criminal background check on all new hires. After you’ve figured out what type of bookkeeper you need, determine what bookkeeping process best suits your company. Paper-based bookkeeping means gathering your physical papers and records and reviewing them in person. Digital bookkeeping is usually a cloud-based process of tracking records, and is the preferred method for most small businesses today.

Your company may be growing, and you’re having trouble keeping track of your finances. Or you may be thinking about selling your business down the line, and know you need immaculate books to do so. As for work arrangements, full-time and part-time roles are the most common. However, you can find freelance roles as well, or you may be able to negotiate with individual companies for freelance arrangements.