How To Be A Bookkeeper’s Favorite Client

Trust Us... We know how tedious and boring bookkeeping can be for your business. You'd rather be making the sales. Or forging new business relationships. Doing things that you WANT to be doing in your business. Lucky for you, we can take this time-consuming and confusing task off your hands.

Now that THAT is settled, it's time to make sure you are on track to build the best possible relationship with your bookkeeper. This will ultimately set your business up for success.

Learn How To Be a Bookkeeper's Favorite Client with these helpful tips:

1. Make Bookkeeping a Priority

To make things easy on yourself come tax time, when you apply for a loan, or if you're (not to jinx it) being audited, make the effort to do the front-end bookkeeping work your business requires. It will also ensure you're not missing out on any much-needed tax deductions or other ways you could be saving money that you could have (potentially) missed. Trust us... your bookkeeper will thank you!

2. Keep Amazing Records

This goes hand-in-hand with the above tip. By keeping your business organized and making sure you have accurate records of business transactions, you are quickly going to become best friends with your bookkeeper! Not sure what that might entail? Consider these things:

• Make sure you have a secure location for storing your digital and physical records.
• Make sure you have a solid backup system for ALL your information. Storing and backing up your information can be done safely through a cloud-based storage system, but it can be the least secure, so make sure you have your ducks in a row and you're using a strong password to protect files.
• Make sure your organization system is clear. That means that anyone handling the records in your business could go in and understand where to find things, fairly quickly, and easily.
• Keep things clearly separated between personal and business expenses. We know it can be easy to blur the two at times, so ensure you have separate bank accounts, checkbooks, and credit cards. It will be worth it come tax time and when you want to look at your business' financial position.
• Track due dates for all bills and invoices. Missing payments on your own bills and letting clients get behind on paying theirs can set you up for financial failure quickly.
• Maintain a filing system for expense records. Ideally, you should aim to keep all receipts for your business for at least three years. Even if this means they are living in an accordion folder, make sure it's something you can stick with easily.

3. Embrace the Digital Age

We know it can be hard to change the way you've done things for years. Especially if it's what you are used to. But trust us when we say... technology is your friend!

Work on automating things in your business as much as possible to free up time for more important things. There are tons of bookkeeping platforms out there that can help for different goals you may be working towards, and we can definitely help you figure out what may work best for you. Just think how great it would be to send invoices or late payment reminders electronically and collect payments online to make it easier for your customers and clients?! You can even work towards tracking and categorizing expenses through a platform that will ultimately allow you to pull financial reports any time you may want to. Now that is working smarter... not harder!

4. Good Communication

It can be challenging if the communication between you and your bookkeeper is subpar, at best. It is imperative that you work hard to be a strong communicator and work on getting the information to the person who needs it to get things properly accounted for and recorded.

Many bookkeepers spend a lot of time also being a part-time detective and problem-solver. They may need answers on where different bills are, why different expenses were found and where things should be applied to. But if these questions go unanswered by the business owner, it can create an unnecessary bottleneck that could cause problems down the road.

Make sure you both communicate with each other on how best to handle the different questions that may come up and how you envision this working relationship. Is there a key person to take on these items? It’s always best to make sure everyone is on the same page!

While many of these things may seem overwhelming to business owners and just the thought of changing things up is causing you some anxiety, that may be the perfect time to let an experienced bookkeeper help. Contact us today if you'd like to set up a consultation. Let us help provide you with the necessary accountability you're looking for to stick with your more organized set-up. Just think of the time and money you could save in the long run!