FAQ

Like a lot of things, it depends. You should ask yourself a few questions to make the decision.

Do you know how to do it yourself?

Some people might have a bit of an accounting background or want to learn it themselves. Do you have a friend or know another business owner who can help you learn enough bookkeeping. If so, it could work out well for you.

QuickBooks and other software companies try to make it easy for anyone to use. But they aren't always intuitive. It isn't always obvious what type of transaction to use, for example. Some situations can be more complicated. If you make a mistake or several mistakes or the same mistake over and over again, you can make a real mess of you books. That can give you the wrong idea of how your business is doing. And you may end up paying the wrong amount of taxes, or worse, go out of business.

Do you like to do it? Is it worth your time to do it yourself?

Maybe you understand how to maintain the bookkeeping, but you just don't like doing it. You would rather spend that time doing the work of your business that you enjoy doing, or maybe not working at all. Maybe you're so busy keeping the business going that you just don't have time to keep the books up to date.

Can you afford to pay someone to do it?

When you’re starting out, paying a bookkeeper just may not be in the budget. When starting my firm, I tried to spend as little money as possible, even designing my logo myself. So I get not wanting to spend more money, especially when just starting. Ironically, a good bookkeeper or advisor can help you decide whether you have the cash flow to afford it. Do you have a friend or know another business owner who can help you learn

In the end, my biased answer is you should pay for a bookkeeper. But you need to decide what works best for you and your business based on your know-how, your time and your money. Many small business owners do their own bookkeeping just fine. Many do it on their own and think it's fine but it's really not. Be honest with yourself.

What are you even getting when you pay for a bookkeeper? What do they do for you?

A bookkeeper will manage the daily business transactions, making sure they are added correctly to your accounting application such as QuickBooks Online and that they are categorized correctly. They will also prepare financial reports on a monthly or quarterly basis. There are several other services a bookkeeper could handle, depending on your needs. These could be paying bills, sending out invoices, payroll, sales tax, filing 1099s.