Putting yourself in control of your finances means employing greater, more meticulous organisation of the books that is proceeded by interpretation and presentation. This entails the hiring of a bookkeeper or an accountant, but owners of start-up businesses must be aware that these two positions carry different job descriptions. Both are not interchangeable in the strict sense, so here are some information about each and how both can contribute to the success of the business:
The bookkeeper
This expert is like a carpenter who does the actual labour in building a house. The role of a bookkeeper is to mechanically or manually input data on the books or ledgers in order to keep them up-to-date. For small companies, managing the accounts receivable, accounts payable, and payroll can be handled by one bookkeeper; in large corporations, each of these bookkeeping departments is taken by an individual bookkeeper. Start-up businesses that are still getting things stabilised may consider hiring a bookkeeper once a month for the bookkeeping task.
The accountant
If the bookkeeper is the carpenter, then the accountant is the architect. This person is tasked to look at the bigger picture of the company’s finances in order to identify trends that will help in creating better decisions. The main job order of an accountant is to file taxes—based on the records gathered by the bookkeeper on the ledgers—and to ensure that the business is operating within local and state laws. Businesses, whether small or large, will benefit in hiring an accounting to encompass things that a bookkeeper can perform. Because an accountant has a higher education, this person can technically perform all aspects of the bookkeeping and accounting.
The hybrid strategy
The prevalent manner of doing business online has also brought forth the idea of outsourcing bookkeeping and accounting procedures. This is cost-effective than hiring a regular bookkeeper or accountant. A company employing this method may hire a bookkeeper at least once a month in order to keep records clean, so to speak. Then once records have been updated, all the remaining procedures will be outsourced to an online accounting company.
The online method of accounting
Outsource accounting saves time and money for the business owner. Because service providers operate on cloud accounting software, they have the company’s data available every time; this allows employees with access to such data ability to update the records anytime, anywhere. Also, free accounting software usually comes with the service, so the company owner can perform easy tasks himself in order to save more time. This modern system allows the business owner to widen his focus on other essential parts of the business, making managing more encompassing. This, in turn, can lead to faster growth for the business.
So, the answer to the question of which to hire—a bookkeeper or an accountant—depends on how the business operates. An online-operating business can switch to outsource bookkeepers and accountants whenever it sees fit because of the convenience it provides. As long as the books are managed well and the legal obligations are met, a business owner should choose efficiency in terms of time and resources above all matters.
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