Bookkeeping for Your Business

As the owner of a new business, you’re likely to be looking for a fast and efficient way to handle your company’s bookkeeping needs. Accurate accounting is a must-have for any business, and there are three basic ways that new business owners handle this need:

1. Do it yourself with QuickBooks
2. Outsource to a bookkeeping service
3. Hire an in-house bookkeeper

We’re going to cover benefits and drawbacks of each one below.

Using QuickBooks

In the very beginning, this is probably the best way to handle your company’s accounting and bookkeeping because of the simple fact that it’s the least expensive option. You can take courses for QuickBooks training and quickly become knowledgeable enough to handle the basics of a newly established business.

However, as your business expands, it will soon grow out of what DIY bookkeeping with QuickBooks can offer. Be aware of the following tell-tale signs:

• You don’t have time – Are you struggling to find time to work on your books? Are you delaying your business accountancy needs because you’re too busy working on other parts of your business? This could mean it’s time to move on.
• You’re not sure you’re doing it correctly – QuickBooks training can only get you so far. As the financial structure of your business grows in complexity, you might reach a point where you’re not sure if you’re bookkeeping correctly or efficiently.
• You’re racking up late fees – If the timely of paying bills is something you’ve been struggling with, a bookkeeper can definitely help.

Once you notice any of these three things happening, you will want to look at one of the next two steps: outsourcing or hiring.

Outsourcing to a Maryland Bookkeeping Service

When your business begins generating transactions and expenditures, having a bookkeeper keep tabs on these can be an important asset. A professional Maryland bookkeeping service can address the complexity of your finances while only working for a few hours a week.

This is an ideal situation for business owners who aren’t yet drawing in a large enough revenue to warrant hiring a full-time bookkeeper. Having a bookkeeping service organize your bank statements once a week gives you the knowledge you need to make educated financial decisions concerning your business.

Hiring a Bookkeeper

As a general rule of thumb, business owners hesitate to hire their own in-house bookkeepers until they reach $1 million in revenue or have more than 30 employees, according to Entrepreneur.com. At that point, you need more than just a few days of work per week to strategize your business finances effectively. If you’ve hit that mark, it’s time to carve out an office space and start the hiring process, because you need to have someone on-board for the long haul.

The CFO Source is a Maryland business consulting firm and CFO service specializing in accounting and bookkeeping services. We help small businesses achieve success. For more information on The CFO Source and our bookkeeping solutions for your business’s particular needs give us a call at 410-242-0526 or fill out the form on our website, today.