You recently decided to finally hand over your bookkeeping to a professional so you could spend more time on your business. Good for you!
You’ve done the hard work in finding your bookkeeper either through networking or through a referral from a friend. You’ve met with prospective bookkeepers, spoken to them about what they can do for your, how it will be done, what the end result will be and how much it will cost and now comes the hard part… handing over.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “I’ve just got to catch everything up before I hand it over to you”. If I had a dollar for every time I heard that phrase, I could probably semi-retire!
The whole reason why you’ve decided to hand over your bookkeeping is because it’s taking up too much of your time to get it done or because your really really bad at it.
If you attempt to catch up your bookkeeping before you hand it over, odds are that you are creating more work for the bookkeeper which is going to cost you more money.
Typical issues I see with new client bookkeeping:
- Bank account doesn’t reconcile so therefore you ‘fudge’ the bank fees;
- You entered a cheque but can’t find it so you enter it again;
- Your customers have paid you too much so you’ve ‘fudged’ the payment
- Insert your own mistakes here.
If I can educate business owners on one thing it would be to NOT catch up their bookkeeping before handing it over. Doing a little bit of repair work or forensic bookkeeping is ok but if a client’s books are that bad I’ll often say no. I can’t do it for you because it will cost you too much money to fix.
Most business owners don’t realise just how important keeping their bookkeeping up to date and correct actually is. They’re too busy in the day to day aspect of their business that they underestimate the importance of bookkeeping.
So please, on behalf of all the bookkeepers in the world, DON’T catch up your bookkeeping, just hand it over! Your cheque book will thank you!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
How true! All too often I find exactly that problem myself. And when i saw this comment I looked over my shoulder at the whiteboard listing all my new clients and could list 4 that are in the same position!
It always amazes me and I think part of the reason why they do it because they’re embarassed at being caught at not being good at bookkeeping. There’s a reason why the new legislation came in and it’s because not just anyone can do bookkeeping. You have to be trained. There’s no shame in handing it over!