Outside of month-to-month bookkeeping, your bookkeeper may handle other tasks, including: When you deliver this package to an accountant, they can use it to file your taxes. Easy tax filingĪt the end of the financial year, your bookkeeper should be able to provide you with an info package summarizing all your business’s financial activities for the year. But their ability to help is affected by a number of factors-like the time of year (tax season is busy for bookkeepers), how many clients they have, or whether they need to take vacation or sick leave. If you have questions about your finances, any bookkeeper worth their salt should be able to answer them.
A bookkeeper will hold on to and organize all essential paperwork. Recordkeepingīusiness records are important down the line for various reasons-from protecting yourself in case of an audit, to preparing to sell your business. Your bookkeeper will also reconcile your bank statements on a regular basis, so you can be sure that the amount of money reported on the books is the amount you have in the bank. Once they’ve categorized your transactions, your bookkeeper will use them to generate financial statements that tell you how money is moving in and out of your business. The longer you work with a bookkeeper, the more adapted they’ll be to your business, and the less often they’ll need your input.
When you first start working with a bookkeeper, they’ll consult with you about your expenses to get a better idea of how to categorize them. Since every business is different, any qualified bookkeeper should be willing to adjust to your unique setup.
That could mean emailing them your bank and credit card records every month, sharing access to accounting software that tracks your transactions, or driving to their office on a regular basis to hand off your records. There’s a number of ways to get all your financial info to your bookkeeper. A traditional bookkeeper handles all of your bookkeeping for you.