What are the things to keep in mind before hiring a person for bookkeeping?

When your business needs maintaining of the financial statements and accounts on a regular basis, you would want to hire a bookkeeper who could do this task for you. A bookkeeper is a person who would maintain all your finance statements, pay-outs, receipts, taxes etc. He is also a person who could keep the entire financial record of your business. It is important that you hire the right bookkeeper for your business to ensure that all your financial data is secure and up-to-date.

However, before you could hire somebody to trust your finances and do the job, here are a few things that you need to know?

1. Single entry and double entry bookkeeping: These are the types of bookkeeping that your bookkeeper would do for your business. Single entry bookkeeping is for small businesses which need to take care of only receipts, transactions and petty cash flows. This is applicable for only simple, easy transactions. On the other hand, double entry bookkeeping is for more complex businesses where it involves complex cash transactions – credits, debits and more financial information.
2. Manual and computerized bookkeeping: These are two types of bookkeeping based on how you would want to maintain your financial statements. Manual bookkeeping is still followed by some small businesses while most of the businesses are moving towards the more easy and flexible option – which is the automatic computerized bookkeeping.
3. Round the clock or part time bookkeeping: Based on the amount of financial data that your business produces on a daily basis, you could decide to have a full time bookkeeper or a person who could handle this on a part time basis. If your business has too many transactions, then you would require a bookkeeper who would work on this full time. However, if your business has minimal transactions, then you could hire a bookkeeper only on need basis. Based on this, your charges for bookkeeping would also differ.

Now that you are aware that there are so many options available, you would want to hire a bookkeeper who would aptly suit your business needs. Here are a few other important points that you need to remember before you hire somebody:

a. Experience: Some bookkeepers would have experience only in managing the corporate finances; while some would be good at only manual bookkeeping. Make sure you understand your business and what kind of bookkeeper you would need to maintain your financial statements. Based on this, you could hire the right bookkeeper.

b. Tech: If your business needs to maintain the finances in a computerized fashion, you would want your bookkeeper to be a tech savvy and to understand the various software’s available in the market. He should also be up-to-date on the latest technologies available in the financial market.

c. Credentials: Be double sure about the background check of the bookkeeper you are planning to hire. Obviously, you would not want your finances to end up in the wrong hands. Make sure you check the personality and do a detailed background verification of the same. If you are hiring form an external agency, most agencies would do this on your behalf.

Actaeon Consulting based in Alpharetta, GA offers accounting services including outsourced accounting & bookkeeping, financial analysis, back office support, and tech consulting to businesses in Atlanta, Norcross, Roswell and neighboring areas. For more details, visit ActaeonConsulting/Services.

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