- A good bookkeeping company has a professional foundation of experience and established trust.
- Basic bookkeeping is about accuracy and simplicity
- Better bookkeeping is about good communication and usefulness
- Bookkeepers shouldn’t handle your taxes, but they can make them easier for everyone.
- SyncLedgers provides all of this, plus flexibility that helps clients grow!
What should you be looking for when choosing a bookkeeping company to handle your accounting needs? Is it just about who builds the best-looking dashboards? Let’s take a look at the essential services any bookkeeping provider should offer you, as well as the extra benefits that push the best ones over the top.
Foundations
The first order of business is professionalism.
It’s surprisingly easy to start up a bookkeeping business. It’s not even necessary for someone to have prior bookkeeping experience to do so. As long as they know basic accounting and business principles and are familiar with Excel, they can do it.
Should they, though? And should anyone trust them if they do?
Everyone’s got to start somewhere, and we strongly admire the tenacity of those who start any business from scratch. When it comes to your own business’s finances, though, you’ll almost certainly feel more comfortable working with someone who has a proven track record.
That means someone who at least previously worked in accounting or bookkeeping for another firm before striking off on their own. They should be able to provide references in such a case.
What’s safer is to work with an established firm that specializes in bookkeeping and accounting, and which has a variety of talented professionals on staff.
Bookkeeping Company Basics
Once you’ve established that you might be willing to work with an individual or an organization, see what they offer.
At an absolute bare minimum, a good bookkeeping company will be able to record and organize your transactions with very little help required from you or your on-site staff.
You may need to have someone scan in some paper documents, but other than that, everything should be well-integrated.
Most professional bookkeeping companies can tie in directly to your bank accounts and existing ledger software.
With those connections, they can reconcile all of your accounts.
The Extra Mile
What makes a bookkeeping company go from good to great, though, is the presentation.
We asked in the beginning if it’s just about who makes the best-looking dashboards. While that’s clearly not all there is to it, it’s actually a pretty big factor.
What use is a financial report if it’s difficult or impossible to understand?
Of course, reading financial documents requires some basic training to understand the terms and what they mean. But if you’re already running a business, that really isn’t the issue.
The issue is how much time it takes for you to find the information you need on the reports your bookkeeper generates.
A well-designed report will be tailored to your specific needs. It’ll be easy for you to locate the figures and indicators that are most meaningful to your business in the moment you need them.
For that to happen, your bookkeeper needs to be a great communicator, including listening carefully.
Tax Time!
Not all bookkeeping companies can or should take care of your taxes.
If one does, that’s great, but you can expect to pay a premium for the service, and you’ll need to verify their qualifications.
Business taxes always should be handled by a CPA, but it’s not necessary for a bookkeeper to have that level of training. Their main role is essentially data entry.
A good bookkeeper, though, will help you prepare for quarterly filing deadlines. That way, you only need to pay for the CPA’s services four times a year, to make sure the forms are accurate and that you maximize your deductions.
Part of it is just a matter of keeping everything organized on a day-to-day basis. But it’s also about those who prepare a convenient packet of data and reports especially meant for easy tax filing.
Choosing the Right Bookkeeping Company for You
Look for a bookkeeping company that goes the distance!
Depending on your budget and the complexity of your business finances, you may not need or want all of the services listed here.
With that in mind, the best choice will be one that offers flexible or customized plans that scale with your growth.
That’s how we at SyncLedgers organize our relationships with our clients. Contact us today to learn more about how we help small businesses grow accurately!
