Fremantle Bookkeeping Services

When hiring a good bookkeeper, many small business owners will ask around for a referral. Others will surf the internet looking for a mobile bookkeeping service in the local area. Where do you find a local bookkeeper, and how do you know that you are hiring the best bookkeeper for your business? Contact Us for more information

With increasing data cross checking by the ATO, and the financial obligations of business owners, its vital to keep track of your bookwork. You need to have someone in charge of your bookkeeping who not only has the training, but also the experience to get the work done efficiently and accurately. It can be a challenge to find the right bookkeeper, so here’s a few tips to look for:

Why Hire a Bookkeeper?
Bookkeepers are not the same as accountants, though you may find your accountant will offer to do your bookkeeping. When they do that, you’ll find that your accountant is hiring and / or outsourcing a bookkeeper, and making a nice profit for this additional service.

The accountant is there to provide financial advice and recommendations, to help you with any issues relating to taxation. The accountant will be working from the bookkeeper’s figures. The bookkeeper records income and expenses, reconciles the bank accounts, and administers payroll.

Your bookkeeper can be hired in a full-time, part-time or contract position depending on your needs. Prior to hiring your bookkeeper, you need to ascertain the level of qualification and experience that your bookkeeper has. Contact Us for more information

Bookkeeping – Training and Education
In Australia, there is no formal qualification for bookkeeping. Educational Institutions and Bookkeeping Organizations offer training and certificates, but as at July 2008, there is no legislated formal qualification required for a bookkeeper to operate. They may have a Certificate IV in Finance – which is a stepping stone towards an accountancy qualification, they may have a degree in accounting.

Many experienced bookkeepers have no formal qualifications and can be far more valuable than a freshly qualified bookkeeper straight out of TAFE or university

Bookkeeping – Experience
Nothing beats the School of Hard Knocks qualifications. Hiring a bookkeeper that has a couple of certificates and no experience can lead to disaster. Many bookkeepers start out by working in the accounts department of a large company, and move on to work in a more senior role in smaller companies, before embarking as a freelance, or contract bookkeeper.

Ask your potential bookkeeper for references from any accountants that they have worked for / with. You’ll find that bookkeepers will deal with a number of accountants, as each client tends to have their own accountant. Contact Us for more information

Bookkeepers are a rare Breed
To be able to deal with number crunching all day, and find it interesting, takes a certain kind of personality. Attention to detail is a key factor with good bookkeepers. If they are disorganised or vague at the interview, then they may not be the person you are looking for.

Computer Literacy
With the advent of computerised accounting software packages, it is essential for a bookkeeper to be computer literate. The days of writing in ledgers and double entry bookkeeping are long gone. Having said that, you should ask your bookkeeper if they could perform the task without computer software. If they cannot, then you need to find another bookkeeper.

The old adage “Garbage In – Garbage Out” is certainly applicable to bookkeeping. If your bookkeeper does not have an understanding of basic bookkeeping principals and has to rely on the computer software, it’s a recipe for disaster

How Much Do You Pay A Bookkeeper?
How much you pay your bookkeeper is upto you. How much do you value your business? Do you see Bookkeeping as an expense or an investment in your business? The importance of keeping accurate financial records can not be stressed enough, and is often the reason that many businesses fail.

If you want to make a short-term saving by employing a cheap bookkeeper, then, chances are that your bookkeeper is not the best. Many times a cheap bookkeeper has cost a small business financially through lack of experience or poor record keeping. The fees that the bookkeeper charges will be an indication of their level of confidence and experience. You can expect to pay a bookkeeper anywhere between $20 – $70 per hour. Contact Us for more information

In the last two days we’ve had calls from small business owners who understand that they cannot do everything that needs to be done to keep their business going.

The cost of hiring a bookkeeper may seem expensive until you consider the cost of trying to do the bookkeeping yourself. Contact us now for a free quote

One client had their brother-in-law set up the chart of accounts and show our client how to do the bookwork. That can work well sometimes, and can be a total disaster for others. Costly mistakes can occur by not setting up your bookkeeping system correctly, through giving an incorrect reflection of your business profit and loss, or incorrect calculations of the GST that is owed

As we fast approach the deadline for the September 2008 Quarter BAS returns due October 28 2008, business owners begin to panic and search for quick solutions to their bookkeeping, and getting upto date with their Business Activity Statements

If you’ve been doing your own books and are not sure about how to complete the BAS, you can Contact us now.

We have clients that email us their MYOB / Quickbooks files and we can sort them out and submit the BAS electronically. If you are not sure whether you’ve done the data entry correctly, Contact us now and we’ll have a look over your data files.

Not only can we save you in accounting fees, we may also save you in your GST liabilities – after all, you can probably put the money to better use than the Australian Taxation Office, can’t you?

He regarded the bookkeeping to be an unnecessary expense

Many small business owners struggle with keeping their bookwork up to date. Yet good record keeping is an essential part of any successful small business.

How can you make an informed decision about your business if you don’t know where you are at financially with your business?

You may have an excellent understanding of your business, and can say that you have all the information in your head.

We recently had a client who knew his business so well, that he boasted one client accounted for more than two – thirds of his business turnover.

When we presented the figures, he was shocked to learn that the client actually accounted for less than a third in terms of income, and was actually taking up about 80% of his time.

The business owner had no idea of where his business was, he hadn’t looked at sales figures, had a vague idea about his pending orders, and was heading for collapse.

Yet he took no notice of our warnings, because he regarded the bookkeeping to be an unnecessary expense, and only wanted the minimum of bookkeeping services.

Six months later he closed the doors on his business, before the creditors declared him a bankrupt. So he lost his whole business for the sake of a few hundred dollars in bookkeeping fees that he regarded as an expense.

Good record keeping should be the life-blood of your business, so ensure that you have a good bookkeeping system in place. Contact us for details