When and Why You Should Be Your Own Bookkeeper

For many businesses, hiring a professional to deal with all financial aspects is a no-brainer. However, hiring a bookkeeper might not always be possible. For some small businesses, it might not be economically feasible, or you might prefer to deal with this side of the business yourself.

Fortunately, becoming your own bookkeeper doesn’t need to be difficult. With Hiveage, it’s never been simpler to track your time, manage invoices, and more. As such, whether you’re a small business or freelancer, you can save both time and money by keeping your own books.

In this article, we’ll discuss the benefits and disadvantages of being your own bookkeeper. We’ll also help you figure out which approach is best for you and show you how to get started!

A Brief Introduction to Bookkeeping

First, let’s start by reviewing the basics of bookkeeping. A bookkeeper may be responsible for managing day-to-day financial transactions: sending invoices, reconciling account balances, and taking care of employee payroll.

It’s important to keep books for a number of reasons. For instance, it lets you understand your cash flow by seeing how much money is coming in and going out. Reconciling your accounts also helps to ensure that you’re not missing any unpaid invoices.

One reason bookkeeping is especially important is for your tax records. A bookkeeper differs from an accountant in key ways, including that bookkeepers typically do not prepare taxes. However, bookkeeping can help to create organized records so that when tax time comes, you have neat records you can hand over to your accountant.

Many companies, particularly large ones, will simply hire a bookkeeper. If you have 100 employees, and thousands of invoices to track and pay each month, a bookkeeper can be a huge time-saver. However, it might not always be ideal, or even possible for every business to hire a bookkeeper. For example, freelancers and small business may not have as high a volume of finances to track, and hiring a bookkeeper may be out of their budget.

In cases like these, you might be better off being your own bookkeeper. We’ll look at more reasons why it may be helpful to be your own bookkeeper in the next situations.

When and Why You Should Be Your Own Bookkeeper

As we’ve established, businesses and freelancers must keep financial records and manage invoices. The key is knowing when you should hire a bookkeeper to do the job, or if you should do it yourself. Deciding which is right for your business can be tricky, so let’s take a closer look at the benefits of doing it yourself.

There are several cases where it makes the most sense to keep your own records. For example, if you’re a freelancer, it might be simpler for you to also be your own bookkeeper. Since you’re dealing directly with clients, you would have to organize your records anyway, so doing it yourself might actually save you time.

You also want to consider your profit margin. If your business is relatively new or small, paying a bookkeeper could be an unnecessary expense. Small businesses and freelancers can save time by using online tools to help automate and maintain their records.

In addition, you might just be one of the people who enjoy keeping their own records. If you have a ‘type A’ personality, you may feel better knowing that you’ve handled everything properly. For example, if you’re handling your own books, it’s far easier to stay on top of unpaid invoices.

On the other hand, there are times when it’s necessary or advisable to hire a bookkeeper. If you have a large business with a lot of employees, time spent bookkeeping can add up very quickly. Time-pressed large business owners could benefit from a bookkeeper to take the stress off your shoulders.

If you decide to maintain your own records, bear in mind that you will need some basic skills. For example, you’ll need to be at least decent at math, have strong organization, and access to a record-keeping system.

How to Use Hiveage to Keep Records

With Hiveage, it’s easy to be your own bookkeeper. It lets you handle invoices, recurring billing, expenses tracking, and employee payments. As such, it lets you manage your business’ finances without the expense of hiring a bookkeeper. Pricing starts at $15 a month for up to two staff members.

To get started with Hiveage, you’ll first need to sign up for a plan. Once you’ve done that, you can start creating and sending invoices with itemized expenses by entering the information into the panel. You can even automatically create invoices from your tracked time or estimates. Once you send, it’s easy to track payments right within Hiveage:

Because all of your invoices and payments are tracked by the software, keeping up-to-date records should be simple. You can keep everything in the same place, and easily reference your transfers and invoices at any time.

Conclusion

While keeping your books in order is hugely important, knowing the best approach can be difficult. While hiring a bookkeeper can save time for large companies, small businesses and freelancers might be better off managing their own records. This can end up saving time and money in the long term.

For example, you could use a tool like Hiveage to manage invoices, automatically track expenses, and set up recurring payments such as employee salaries in one easy place. Online bookkeeping software is an excellent choice for keeping up-to-date records while keeping your costs low.

Do you have any questions about getting started with being your own bookkeeper? Let us know in the comments section below!