Why Is Bookkeeping so Expensive!?

It’s getting harder to have solid bookkeeping without breaking your books. Time for a better way.

Diligent record keeping is one of the constants of business. You have to know what’s happening within your organization. As your business starts to grow, however, you eventually may not have the time to keep those books yourself.

Enter the bookkeeper. This is just what it sounds like,someone to log the information and keep accurate, up-to-date books. They usually track invoices, inventory, payroll — all the numbers that give you a clear overview of your business.

And that clear overview IS important. Solid bookkeeping is important. So many businesses, however, struggle to find good bookkeeping at a sustainable price which often leads to excess costs to hire a full-time employee to manage the bookkeeping despite it often not being necessary

The Professional Bookkeeping Dilemma

When it comes time to hire a bookkeeper, businesses often feel like they have two options. They can either hire an amateur for a low rate to work as a part time employee at a low rate, or they can hire a professional accounting firm to keep their books at an exorbitant rate.

Neither of these options are ideal.

First, let’s talk about the amateur. So you bring in a random hire — your niece perhaps? Maybe a grad student from the local university? — and pay them to go through your paperwork and update your books every month. That person probably isn’t operating at a professional quality. They’re taking longer to do everything than an experienced bookkeeper would, and that’s coming out of your payroll by the hour. Though there have been changes in the industry, accounting and bookkeeping firms still largely bill by the hour.

They use outdated systems and often don’t know how to notate items clearly using professional standards. This leads to even more headaches when it comes time to hand off to accountants for taxes. We haven’t even talked about accuracy yet… if inexperience causes inaccuracies in your books, some savings per hour for the amateur bookkeeper doesn’t feel like a win anymore. Often an inexperienced bookkeeper simply leads to more hand holding and questions for the business owner that an experienced accountant can figure out themself.

So the pitfalls of the amateur bookkeeper are clear, but what about sending off your books to a CPA firm?

Well, that has some issues too. There are fewer and fewer CPAs every year. New CPAs entering the workforce have decreased by nearly 10% over as many years, and CPAs that exist are getting closer to retirement all the time. They’re overworked and spread thin… and they’re charging like it.

CPAs are specialized in tax issues. Ideally, you hand off completed books to a CPA to process your tax bill. When you have specialized experts doing your books, it’s almost like you’re paying steak prices for hamburgers. They’ll do it, but it’s not what they DO. Yes, an accountant should go over your books and verify their accuracy, but if they’re doing all the tedious tasks to keep your books you’re going to pay for it when the bill comes.

Finding Solutions for Business Bookkeeping

So what can you do? You still need your books maintained, and you still can’t grow your business like it needs while babysitting all those numbers. Yet if you don’t maintain them, should you ever need a loan, plan to sell the business, or pursue funding, the importance of accurate record keeping cannot be overstated.

The answer is to bring your bookkeeping into the modern age. Tools and resources exist now to make bookkeeping easier, cheaper, and faster… just because the industry at large isn’t embracing them doesn’t mean you need to ignore them too!

Technology and Automation

We streamline our tech across nearly every aspect of business anymore. Sales records interact with inventory, customer data gets indexed and analyzed, advertising and marketing gets compiled into easy-to-read dashboards… so why not give bookkeepers that same agility and advantage?

Constant data entry and validation are 90s problems. Bookkeeping’s systems are archaic. A modern, robust record keeping system isn’t a time drain or a liability… but getting there is hard.

So much automation is possible with digital records today, but setting these systems up from scratch is daunting. Automation involves iteration — you identify small tasks you can streamline, and then build gradually into a complete solution. Without the groundwork for these kinds of systems in the bookkeeping industry, this is daunting to say the least. The results, however, are worth it.

Digital Partnership

We’re not living in a time where you need to stuff a bankers box full of manilla envelopes and drive it to your accountant. Having an hourly bookkeeper sit down in your back office with a green visor isn’t necessary. There are companies out there that are comfortable with digital organization and are ready to handle your books.

But that’s not the accountant down the street. How can you be sure that’s the right choice?

Not every professional in the accounting world is happy to be stuck in the past. Some of us are out there trying to build better systems because we understand your pain. Just because you’re choosing to outsource doesn’t mean you have to just pick a random service and hope. The same expertise and credentials you’ve always trusted are waiting at a much lower cost.

A Better Way of Bookkeeping

I’ve spent a decade in straightforward, traditional accounting. I’ve seen how bookkeeping is broken, and how much it’s burying business owners and accounting firms. As I moved into operations and financial controller roles, my fears about the bookkeeping industry only materialized further.

It’s broken… and we’re here to do better.

We started Beyond the Bookkeeping because we want to give a better option to businesses, empowered by all the benefits of modern tools.

We craft personalized systems and automations so we spend less time on the mundane, and more time helping you get more out of your money. We have experienced accountants on staff to verify and validate your numbers, so you aren’t forced to overpay a CPA who is booked solid for years.

We want to build ways for your books to be easier, more affordable, and more accurate. Save money, and get more out of your bookkeeping. We want to help YOU.

If you want to go beyond what you expect of bookkeeping while saving money, schedule a free consultation with us today.