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The benefits of outsourcing your bookkeeping



Bookkeeping...... a word that fills many business owners with dread. Unfortunately, it is an essential part of running your business so, love it or hate it, we all have to do it. 



Bookkeeping is one of those parts of running your business that is essential but doesn't add to your bottom line. It's an admin task you have to do and it can be time-consuming. Some businesses employ a bookkeeper to help but here are some of the top reasons why you might want to consider outsourcing your bookkeeping instead. 



Save time


This has to be one of the top reasons to outsource your bookkeeping. If you are a small business, you might not have sufficient bookkeeping requirements to justify employing a bookkeeper. This often results in evenings or weekends catching up on the paperwork. An outsourced bookkeeper can take this job off your list, leaving you with more time to focus on running and growing your business or to relax in an evening. 



Save money


We all like to cut costs don't we?! If you don't want to do the bookkeeping yourself you might consider employing a bookkeeper. The problem with employing someone, whether full time or part time, is that wages and benefits add up. You are paying for a set amount of hours for the salary. If you outsource, you only pay for the specific service and it is much easier to increase or decrease your bookkeeping hours to meet the demands of your business. This is why outsourcing can often be a more cost effective way to manage your bookkeeping requirements. 



Improve quality


Outsourcing your bookkeeping, particularly to an accountancy practice, means that you are hiring experts with the latest knowledge and skills. This means your bookkeeping will be done to a high standard. It can also provide you with advice and insights into your business rather than someone who just inputs the data. There is a lot of emphasis at the moment on bookkeeping packages that do it all for you so you can prepare your accounts yourselves. That only works if you get the bookkeeping right in the first place! Just because you can keep your records with a click of a button it doesn't mean the bookkeeping is right.



A recent example we had of this was a business that had been paying dividends on the basis that they had made significant profits because the software told them they had - turns out the wages hadn't been posted correctly and the £150k profit was actually only £25k. Not only was this disappointing for the business owners but it also left them with a tax bill as they had 'overdrawn' their director's loan account. We frequently see this sort of error so the quality of your bookkeeping is an important consideration. 



Makes year end and tax returns easy


The quality of bookkeeping directly determines the amount of time it takes to prepare your year end accounts and tax returns. We regularly receive records from clients where mistakes have been made. It can take a long time to work through and unpick errors. Accountants provide a service and your bill reflects the amount of time they have had to spend - the messier your records the higher your bill will be.



Can we help you?


At Marshall Smalley we have a full time bookkeeping department that provide bookkeeping services for many businesses near and far. If your bookkeeping is giving you a headache then please get in touch for a free, no obligation chat about how we can help your business.  

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