It’s easy to let the end of the month slip by unnoticed and not take the time to update your accounting records. Instead of focusing on your monthly financials, you may choose to prioritize new business opportunities, work on operational projects, focus on hiring or seek out new ways to remain competitive in your industry. As a business leader, your willingness to focus on the big picture is what will drive your company forward on the path to success. While you work toward your big-picture goals, your financial records continue to demand attention; there’s no way around it. If you find yourself torn between the financials and other key areas of your business, it may be time to hire a professional to help with your record keeping.
Why Timely Records Are Important
Maintaining clean and accurate financials is important, but keeping those records up-to-date is crucial. By keeping your financials current, you will:
- Know where your business stands
There’s nothing more frustrating than being heads down in your business and having that nagging feeling that you don’t have a clear financial picture. - Be able to make quick strategic decisions.
When you can look at your books and feel confident in their accuracy – when you know that your working capital, financial ratios, and cash position are what they say they are – you can make better strategic decisions. - Create confidence in your creditors and investors.
When creditors and investors find you credible, they will give you better interest rates, more advantageous debt covenants, and leeway to make mistakes.
Two Possible Solutions
When you find yourself feeling stressed and overwhelmed with months of unkempt books, you will be looking for solutions. Trusting somebody to take ownership of your financials may not be an easy thing to do, but it can free you from the stress and worry that keep you up at night as your numbers lag months behind your operations. Two solutions you have at the ready are:
- Hire internally.
An internal team member will be intimately focused on your business. They can step in, take ownership, and get you back up to speed. A truly great worker may even be able to suggest process improvements that can save your business time and money. Unfortunately, hiring internally can pose new problems. Your board will demand more oversight of an employee in such an influential position. When your worker makes a mistake, it may go unnoticed unless additional checks and balances are put into place. We recommend sending an internal hire for appropriate accounting training to make sure they can get the job done and have a system in place to check their work regularly. - Bring in an outsourced expert.
Hiring externally can give you access to a team of experts for less than the cost of a full-time employee. Even though an external firm may not have the same knowledge of your business as an internal worker may have, they will be able to gain much of that information over time. Firms that offer outsourced bookkeeping services are well-equipped to identify errors, offer suggestions, and find you the help you need when a problem does arise.
Contact Us
The optimal solution will be determined by your circumstances and how you choose to operate. The main goal of hiring a bookkeeper or a bookkeeping service should be to give you more time back in your day. No longer should you stay late to make sure your debits and credits are balanced. You can take that stress off your shoulders and focus on your big-picture goals. Our firm offers remote, outsourced accounting and bookkeeping services through Keep Financials. We pride ourselves on simplifying your month- and year-end reporting process, while offering simple yet reliable solutions to keep your business humming and running smoothly along the way. If you would like to learn more about these services, contact us today. We keep your books; you keep your time.
We look forward to speaking with you soon.
