Should You Outsource Your Bookkeeping?

Getting Help with Your Bookkeeping

Congratulations! You have finally decided to get help with your books. That is a big step towards advancing your company and will allow you to take on the high level tasks your business requires of you. Whether you have been struggling to manage all the transactional data or you have just decided that your time is better spent bringing in new business you now have to choose whether to outsource your bookkeeping or keep it in-house. So, without beating around the bush, let's dive in and see how the options compare.

Keep the Bookkeeping In-House

If you want to keep the books in-house you can either hire a new employee, preferably someone already trained in bookkeeping, or train one of your existing employees to manage the task. The pros of keeping the bookkeeping in house are that you have day to day instant access to your employee, you can set other tasks besides bookkeeping for them, and if you are a fortune 500 company it may be more cost effective.

According to Salary.com an average salary for an in-house bookkeeper is $45,867 and that does not include benefits, employer taxes, or other HR related expenses. Is your business ready to take on that kind of cost? If not perhaps you will try to train the office manager to manage the books. While this could save you a few bucks in the short term in the long term it will cost you time to train the employee, correct their mistakes, and make up for the work they were doing previously. It may make more sense to outsource your bookkeeping.

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Outsource the Bookkeeping

If you don’t like the idea of sacrificing your profits or your workforce to get the bookkeeping done accurately and on-time then perhaps outsourced bookkeeping is right for you. Outsourced bookkeeping offers expert level service and professional reporting that can provide value beyond the cost to become a client. However, there are some cons to be aware of. The first is accessibility. An in-house bookkeeper gives you instant access while any outsourced service may have varying response times. Another potential con is the predictability of costs. If your bookkeeping service charges all or in-part by the hour then some busy months may lead to unexpectedly higher bills. Lastly, remote bookkeeping requires that sensitive data be transferred and stored electronically which can lead to cyber security issues. So, when you are evaluating potential bookkeeping services make sure to account for these cons.

There are requirements you can create that will eliminate these potential issues. To account for response time expect your service to include a dedicated and written response time in the proposal. The fee structure should be a set monthly cost with no hourly services giving you peace of mind that your bill will remain the same month to month. Require data security to be taken seriously with anti-virus, data encryption, and password management standard.

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​Bookkeep & Prosper

Here at Bookkeep & Prosper we specialize in outsourced remote bookkeeping with services starting at $400 per month. Response time is guaranteed with 36 hours or the next month of service is free. We take cyber security seriously using military grade systems for anti-virus, data encryption, and password management. Each month after closing out your books we will review the financial statements including the Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Statement of Cash Flows so that you have a clear view of how your business is performing. If you do not yet have budget and budget review as a standard part of your business then we can work to create a budget during the course of the first year of service.

If you are reading this article then you want to get serious about your books. Why not start today by scheduling an introductory phone call with me, Conner Schryver, and see if Bookkeep & Prosper is a good fit for your company.

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