Outsource your Bookkeeping and Fire your Bookkeeper!
When running any business, you need to make careful decisions around expenses. It is important to watch and know where every dollar is going. You must be like a hawk as expense creep can really suffocate a business. It is always like a few dollars here, oh yeah, an extra subscription that’s on $29/month however they all add up.
There are other expenses that are a little larger than your $29/month subscription that I would like to talk about. This one is kind of strange as the person who should be helping you to watch like a hawk I am going to say to FIRE. That’s right, your hawkeye in the sky you must say a polite goodbye. That was my attempt at rhyming, sorry Grammarly if I have confused you again.
Let’s recap, “FIRE your bookkeeper”.
Now I am not saying walk into your office and tap Jenny on the shoulder and say your services are now no longer required. You will need to plan this one out and before even taking my advice, hear me out on why.
- Bookkeepers charge $70/per hour on average
- Online programs now do a lot of the grunt work
- A bookkeeper is not an accountant, so the role is really redundant
It is a pretty simple reason when you look at it. They are expensive and the work that they do is not overly difficult, however, it is very important. Prior to looking for a replacement, you will need to do some research on what an outsourced accountant or bookkeeper may cost you. You will find that a junior will cost you between $15 and $20/per hour. A senior accountant will cost about $25 to $30per hour. These figures are AUD, so if you are in another country just do your conversions. If you are running a larger business and you need yourself a full-time senior finance officer or accountant, you will need to use a provider like ours. For a full-time accountant with all fees included you would pay about $2500/month. I hope this saves you doing some research and really helps you see the difference in your outlay.
Getting back to what I said before, don’t just walk into the office and say goodbye to Jenny. The reason I say this is that if you are taking your accounts offshore then you really need to consider how you are positioned for the move. Here are some quick bullet points on some tasks you must complete prior to employing an outsourced bookkeeper.
- Make sure you have a cloud accounting program
- Your books must be neat or as close to neat as possible
- Set up a clear process for what goes in what chart of account
- Set some expectations around what reporting you would like completed
- Have everything documented
- Simple one, have a microphone and camera on your PC
If you follow all of these things you will have success with taking your accounts offshore. I have been down this path myself with my Real Estate Business and know what it is like to hand over your accounts. The reason in my list of things to do is I mention do not hand them over in a mess is I did exactly that. When hiring Real Estate Virtual assistants for all areas of my Real Estate business I did everything wrong and that’s why now I consider myself an expert. If you would like to learn more about Offshore staffing, feel free to head over to Offshore Tipping Point and grab my free e-book.
Thanks for taking the time if you got all the way to the bottom. If you like my clear tip on one way you can reduce your overheads, please share with your friends. If your friend is a bookkeeper share it with them not to upset them but to help them. Maybe they can hire some staff with us and get off the tools. Have a great day.
Managing Director – ShoreAgents
With 14 year’s experience in Real Estate, 7 years running businesses, 6 years running offshore teams and importantly the Managing Director of a Real Estate Specific Offshore Staffing Solution for the past 3 years. Stephen Atcheler is an expert in helping businesses implement offshore solutions to help them scale, reduce internal wage costs, create automation and develop an online footprint.
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