We went around and asked what holds a tradie back in running their business and more often than not their answer will be paperwork.
Paperwork is a time-killer, taking all that time trying to sit at your dinner table and completing your Business Activity Statement, BAS for each quarter.
Add on top of doing your BAS as a tradesperson, issuing and chasing invoices, analyzing your income reports, reconciling your bank statements and more.
After all, you can really handle it on your own. However, demand grows and your business “will” grow, you might start considering outsourcing some of these tasks to a reliable Bookkeeper.
Since standard Bookkeeper Hourly Rate is averagely lower than those of tradies, doesn’t it make a very good business sense to hire someone to facilitate your BAS and check on your books?
In our survey, most of the tradies choose not to hire a bookkeeper, yet they complain about the paperwork it entails to run their trade.
Should a Tradie Hire a Bookkeeper?
So that you can make the best decisions, let us look at the advantages and disadvantages of hiring a Bookkeeper.
First, by doing it yourself:
- Costs Nothing other than your Time
- If you make a mistake, your mistake is your Own
- You must be ready to use up your time to make sure you have checked on everything.
Second, Outsource to a Bookkeeper:
- Costs less than your rate on average
- Hiring a good Bookkeeper will make less mistakes
- You can earn more by using the time you use to do paperwork for actual paying work.
It depends really on your preference, maybe you like to do hands-on work in managing your books and seeing and getting a general picture of how your money moves around.
However, a good bookkeeper will also help you understand better how your money is working for you, rather than working for your money.
Are Bookkeepers Expensive?
It will always hold true that you get what you pay for. However, there are Bookkeepers who already have an established bookkeeping team and have learned to be competitive and keep their costs down to make sure they do not add any burden to their clients.
Bear in mind that different bookkeepers will be providing a slightly different level of service. It will depend on their experience, but most importantly find a bookkeeper that communicates very well.
Some bookkeepers for example include in their service chasing up invoices or completing bank reconciliations, but some others do not.
On average, you will discover that a Bookkeeper will pay for itself in the long run, and you don’t need to drown in paperwork before you start looking for one.
So You’re Looking for a Bookkeeper, Online or Offline?
Due COVID-19 and the Corona Virus, Bookkeepers are now doing work both online and offline. Tradesmen and Tradeswomen always tend to choose a bookkeeper from their local area so that they can drop a box full of receipts and invoices to their bookkeeper every month.
But many have adjusted to the new ways of doing business and with the very careful guidance of a bookkeeper; you can now fully rely on the internet to do the work. You can always give your bookkeeper a call, an email, a chat or even a visit when you can to get your books in order.
Most bookkeepers will guide you in taking scans and photos of your paperwork and move you to the cloud where you will have copies of everything and you can easily go back to them anytime. Scanning and emailing allows you to save gas and keeps you safe.
There are also a lot of automated systems available where your accountant and bookkeeper can discuss with you to keep you up with the times. Just a little more extra that a good bookkeeping service can help you with.