What risks are associated with hiring friends or family to do your bookkeeping

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One of the great benefits of owning a small business is the opportunity to give jobs to your friends and family - the people you love and trust the most. However, there is one role that we recommend you leave to the professionals. Bookkeeping can be complicated, and improperly managed finances can be detrimental to the success of your business. While you may be tempted to turn over your books to a friend or family member who seems to be good good with numbers, consider hiring a professional bookkeeping service to avoid these common risks.

Simple mistakes

Any well-meaning employee without the proper training, experience, and support is bound to make some simple mistakes. But, in business those mistakes can end up becoming quite costly. A misplaced comma or an extra zero can lead you to believe that you have more money coming in than you actually do, and misclassification of your expenses can leave you with a big headache come tax season. Hiring a monthly bookkeeping service provides a second set of eyes on all of your books ensuring that the data you’re working with is clean and accurate.

Tax preparation

While your in house bookkeeper may be extremely trustworthy and great at keeping neat and orderly records, he or she is not necessarily a tax expert. By hiring a monthly bookkeeping service you can be confident that your accounting is being managed in a way that will prepare your business for the next tax season. Taking care of small issues when they arise will save you time and money, and help you avoid having to deal with an auditor next year.

Accountability

No one wants to think that one of their employees would steal from them, and many employees would like to believe they would never find themselves in that position either. When setting up your small business it’s all too easy to pass off your bookkeeping to a friend or family without creating reasonable systems of accountability. And by allowing one person on your staff to have full control over the books, you’ve introduced an unnecessary temptation. Hiring an off-site, professional bookkeeping service provides an added level of accountability to protect your company’s assets.

Whether you own a small business or a large corporation, keeping your books up to date and orderly is key to protecting your company’s well-being. Consider hiring a monthly bookkeeping service instead of or in addition to the bookkeeper on your staff. Hiring an outside service will help your company avoid costly mistakes and give you peace of mind. At Fix-It Accounting we pride ourselves in providing accurate, clear, and timely bookkeeping for your business. Contact us today for a free consultation.

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