Like it or not, bookkeeping is an essential part of running a successful business; big, or small.

Many small business owners start out by doing their bookkeeping themselves and then perhaps progress to employing a part-time bookkeeper as their business grows. Quite often, as businesses continue to grow, a bookkeeper might even become a full-time member of the payroll. At the risk of upsetting all you bookkeepers out there (sorry), now is the time, if you’re a small or growing business, to ask whether business bookkeeping necessarily warrants either burning the midnight oil or adding another employee to your payroll?

Many start up business owners make a point of doing all their own bookkeeping in order to keep their costs down.

While this might appear to make complete financial sense, if it means that you’re missing business opportunities because of having your head buried in the books, it mightn’t be making the best business sense. Taking the burden of all your own bookkeeping can weigh heavily, particularly at a time when you need to be nimble footed to seek out every business opportunity you can. Add to this, the single view you get when you’re the only person looking at your accounts on a month-to-month, or quarter-to-quarter basis and the need for a bit of outside support starts to become clear.

So, if you’re at the stage where your small business bookkeeping is encroaching on time you should be spent doing other things, what are the options? Clearly, the traditional route would be to ask a bookkeeper to come into your office once a week, once a month or however often is required to carry out your bookkeeping duties. In return for this, they’d reasonably expect a desk, access to your accounts, maybe even a computer and certainly some form of payment for their effort. Depending on your business arrangements, this might work well, but for more and more people, who work from home, for example, or who simply don’t have the space or desire to accommodate another person in their workplace, the answer is to outsource.

Or how about a local bookkeeper?

One step removed from employing a bookkeeper is to find a local bookkeeper that will carry out your required bookkeeping duties remotely at their own premises. In this arrangement, you’ll typically agree a number of hours per week or per month and the logistics of passing the required documentation over to them. This type of arrangement can be both cost effective and can work really well for people who have limited space and maybe don’t have the time or the inclination to have someone else come into their place of work. Today though, there is a real workable alternative to this and it’s online bookkeeping.

Online bookkeeping is the perfect solution

Certainly if you want to free yourself from the hassle of bookkeeping whilst giving yourself access to your accounts on a 24/7 basis.

Online bookkeeping is a truly cost effective solution to having an expert on board just when you need them, without breaking the bank. The way it normally works, is that you scan your documents and email them to the person or company you’ve chosen, meaning that no matter where they’re located you can work together. Thereafter, once you’ve agreed the precise modus operandi for what you need and what you want, they will provide all of the accounting and management reports you require. Online small business bookkeeping has truly revolutionised bookkeeping for many small businesses, giving them access to experts at a fraction of the cost of similar face-to-face relationships.

If you fancy exploring the pros and cons of online small business bookkeeping, why not contact us now so we can chat?