Now you have a bookkeeper … Now what??

April 27, 2019

  Congratulations! You have added a valued advisor to your business team! Now what??

   A relationship with a bookkeeper can be anywhere from a casual, regular meetup for coffee type relationship to an intense, live in, family member relationship to something somewhere in between.

   No matter the extent of arrangement between you and your bookkeeper, there will be ground rules laid out for you to work with. These are designed to give you, the client, the best value & result for your business.

   Unlike your engagement with your Tax Accountant which is usually for a short period each year, you will be collaborating with your bookkeeper more often, & more in-depth, throughout the year.

   For clients who only require 4 quarterly BASes to be reviewed & lodged each year (client doing the weekly bookkeeping) – as a bare minimum you will need to provide bank & credit card statements covering the quarter. The sooner you can feed these to your bookkeeper, the sooner they can verify bank reconciliations, review & forward queries to you. Once queries are answered your quarterly BAS can be sent to you for signing, then lodged.

   As the scope of service increases (monthly?, weekly?) the flow of information between client and bookkeeper also increases and the communication between you will intensify.

   Your bookkeeper will outline to you what, how and when they require information and documents from you. This may include:

• Daily bank feeds into your bookkeeping software
• Document storage such as Dropbox, Google Drive or Box
• Invoice management software such as Hubdoc or Receiptbank
• Queries portal
• Emails
• Access to POS reports

   It is very important that clients keep to the schedule & routine set by their bookkeeper. Bookkeepers have worked hard to develop efficient client/bookie workflows with the aim of achieving timely reporting & lodgements. Delays in provision of documents, information or answers to queries have a knock on effect that then delays reporting & lodgements.

   Your bookkeeper is a part of your business team! They bring their skills & experience to help you keep up to date with reporting obligations, have ready access to current business metrics, and help you to look forward & grow your business. They need you to play their game for you get to get the best out of your game!!