Hire A Small Business Bookkeeper & Avoid These Classic Blunders

Bookkeeping blunders are common among small business owners, particularly those who try to handle their finances without professional help, but most are wholly avoidable. 

Catching bookkeeping blunders before they have a chance to develop into a very real problem, is key to fixing errors and holding on to your money. Most business owners simply aren’t equipped to do this, however, making the case for professional bookkeeping in Fort Lauderdale, an even stronger one. 

Here are some classic bookkeeping blunders you could easily avoid with a bookkeeper to assist you:

Guesswork

For many entrepreneurs, guessing when it comes to bookkeeping isn’t unheard of, despite a lack of knowledge and understanding that could easily (and often does!), lead to big problems.  If you keep guessing at it though, you could end up with an entire library full of books that need fixing when tax season comes around!

Time wasting

Without a professional to help you tailor your bookkeeping system to your business, there’s a strong likelihood that you’ll spend a lot more time than you should doing your books.

Putting it off

Bookkeeping is always best when tackled systematically, and often. Try to get your books up together and organized at least once a month, or more often if you have the time (and inclination!). 

Mixing up your spending

It’s not uncommon for a business owner to accidentally use personal funds to pay for a business expense, but do this too often, and you could face a lot of difficulties when trying to do your books. Ideally, you should try to adopt the habit of never mixing personal and business expenses. 

Not paying attention to financial statements

Providing business owners with a direct window into how their company is performing financially, financial statements can be incredibly useful. Regularly reading your financial statements can give you some fantastic opportunities to avoid a financial crunch and generate revenue. 

Discarding receipts

Receipts get lost or mislaid, it happens and can’t always be avoided. But by taking a picture of all receipts on your phone and storing them securely in a drive, or uploading them to your accounting software, you can ensure that no receipt is ever truly lost. 

Hiring a bookkeeper without the relevant experience

A good bookkeeper is well worth their fee, but by trying to cut costs and hiring a cheap, inexperienced bookkeeper, you’ll likely get what you pay for. Find a bookkeeper with specialist knowledge in your industry, niche or profession and consider it money well spent. 

Neglecting sales tax

The best way to ensure that you always pay the sales tax you owe to the IRS, is to have a bookkeeper explain it all to you before you even start your business. Once you know your sales tax responsibilities, managing them becomes a lot easier. 

Misclassification of employees

Workers who are incorrectly classified, whether it’s an employee or an independent contractor, will make a thorough mess of your books and could even result in painful penalties from the IRS. Hiring bookkeeping services in Coral Springs will ensure that worker misclassification is never an issue.  

Bookkeeping blunders might make you feel silly, but at their worst, they can get you into serious hot water with the IRS, and cost you deeply in penalties or missed tax opportunities. Work with a professional bookkeeper and never make another potentially costly mistake again.