Do I need bookkeeping services?

In short…Yes.

If you own your own business, treat it like the successful business you want it to be.  This, in our humble opinion, includes hiring financial professionals and doing proper bookkeeping.

Why can’t I just use excel to track my income and expenses?

Tracking your income and expenses is not bookkeeping.  Proper bookkeeping involves categorizing your business transactions so that the final product is a Profit & Loss statement (Income Statement) AND a Balance Sheet, an Accounts Receivable summary, an Accounts Payable summary, even a statement of cash flows.  See our post on the difference between a P&L and a Balance Sheet here.

But I’ve always just tracked income and expenses in the past.  Why do I need a balance sheet now?

If you’ve come to us, it’s likely because you’ve decided it’s time to take your business to the next level and know that enlisting professionals to help you navigate the complexities of tax compliance and financial performance is key to that endeavor.  Also, the key to that endeavor is properly prepared financial statements, and here’s why:

Ability to Scale

Often times, scaling a business involves securing financing from a small business lender or presenting financial performance reviews to a board of directors, a potential new partner, or an investor.  Sophisticated lenders, partners, and investors expect financials not an excel schedule of income and expenses.  

Insight

An overview of your company’s assets, liabilities, and equity give you and those you need to help you scale your business much better insight into your company’s overall financial performance and long-term viability than a summary of income and expenses.  Insight is key in making the savvy financial decisions you will need to make to take your business to the next level.

Tax Compliance

As a small business or sole proprietor, you may not have been required to report your balance sheet on your tax returns in the past.  But as your business grows, and it will, a balance sheet will be required to be reported. And since a balance sheet is a running accumulation of balances that carries over from year to year, they are much more difficult to create after years of operation.  Do yourself a favor and start now, because you and I both know that your business is headed for success.

So can I do my bookkeeping myself?

Can you?  Yes.

Should you? Unless you have more than a basic understanding of accounting concepts and double-entry accounting, probably not.

Trust us, we’ve worked with a number of small business owners over the years that have tried to do their own accounting.  In the end, the money they end up paying to have us clean up mistakes or coach them through how to properly record this or that, and the time they’ve spent on bookkeeping that could have been spent on running their business and bringing in revenue just isn’t worth it.   

Savvy business owners know what their time is worth and where it’s best spent, and in most cases, that time is not best spent on bookkeeping.