Why Should You Hire a Bookkeeper for Your Church?

Hiring a small business accountant yields significant benefits. Here are some advantages to hiring an accountant over a bookkeeper. Awarded by the CFA Institute, the CFA certification is one of the most respected designations in accounting. In this program, accountants learn about portfolio management, ethical financial practices, investment analysis and global markets. To complete the program, accountants must have four years of relevant work experience.

People get sick, go on holiday, or need to take time off for other reasons. That’s understandable, but as a company, you’ll want to ensure that your accountant has a continuance plan in place. In some firms – and especially if the company you’re talking to is working with outsourced accountants – you may end up with details getting lost in translation. In particular, it’s good practice to ensure that everybody is working in the same tools, instead of exporting and importing between different parts of the workflow. Generally, accounting firms care about their reputation and will not get into activities that can bring it down. Nevertheless, it’s good to ensure that twice and get it in writing.

Do bookkeepers do tax returns?

You may make more money long-term if you leave the accounting to the experts and focus on your growth prospects. For example, some small business owners do their own bookkeeping on software their accountant recommends or uses, providing it to the accountant on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis for action. Other small businesses hire a bookkeeper or employ a small accounting department with data entry clerks reporting to the bookkeeper. You should hire me because I already have two ideas how to save you significant amount of money.

You’ll end up paying a premium to have an accountant clean everything up at tax time. They are responsible for consolidating accounts’ books, following up on past-due payments and billing reminders, processing payments for suppliers, and even processing payroll. For basic financial tasks, it’s usually better to use a bookkeeper than an accountant, since the former charges a cheaper hourly rate. You can even appoint the bookkeeping services according to your requirements.

Creating a Strong Annual Budget for Your Business

The correct answer to this question is “yes”, followed up with a brief explanation of your knowledge on accounting standards. And be prepared to answer a follow up question such as “Can you list the latest changes to the IAS?. The most successful bookkeepers can understand complex numbers and financial equations and then simplify them and explain the ideas in a simple way that clients can understand.

However, as a startup business, you may not feel like you are at the level where bookkeeping is required. Either that or you may not have the collateral to hire a professional bookkeeping staff to track your finances. Not many founders have backgrounds in finance or even a working knowledge of accounts payable, accounts receivable and taxes.

Starting Your Business

What employers want to know is that you’re genuinely interested in their accounting and bookkeeping services, as well as the best candidate for the position. So how do you answer this question if you’re right out college without any real world experience? Be honest, but show the interviewer that you’re knowledge, competent, and capable.