You’re a business owner; whether it’s small, medium, or Godzilla size, finance is crucial in all forms. It is the one indicator that your business is a success or failing. In recognition of the importance of this, you got the Xero accounting system. That should cover all the bases? You don’t need a bookkeeper too, right? That depends, are you knowledgeable in accounting? Have an endless amount of time to both run your business and finances?
Xero Accounting Software
Since the birth of Xero in 2006, they started out to only service the New Zealand market. But as they evolve in their software development, they also started to become in high demand to over 1.5 million companies seeking to use their time-saving tools to help grow their businesses. As a result, Xero has become an Accounting global giant.
Their claim to fame is the awe-inspiring cloud-based accounting software that became the bridge between you to your bookkeeper and accountant due to the online collaboration. This is because the correct numbers can be connected to the right people anytime on any device anywhere.
As soon as you connect your bank to the cloud ledger, Xero can get the data every morning. This flawless connection means that you are kept abreast with the latest data without any data entry. Although the coding of your transactions is still a manual process.
There are many functions and features Xero accounting system offers you, like:
- Adding a bank account
- Printing a statement for a customer
- Profit and loss report viewing
- Inviting another user into your organisations
- Reviewing aged receivables
- Adding sales invoices
- Emailing yourself invoices
- Reconciling your bank account
- Importing a bank statement
- Exporting a report to PDF, GoogleDocs, and Excel
Their software is in such high demand that they expanded their customer base from New Zealand to Singapore, South Africa, Europe, North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
Bookkeepers Skills
The primary skill a bookkeeper brings to you and your business is making order out of chaos. They take all your transactions in various forms like
- Emails
- Credit card statement
- Receipts
- Bank statements
- Invoices
- Loan documents
And then enter, categorise, review and reconcile the transactions into your business accounting system. Categorising the sales and expense date in the correct categories will give you an in depth view of where you’re making money and bleeding it out.
An added benefit with bookkeepers is that they can offer you additional skills by handling the account payables (billings) and the accounts receivables (invoices). These other skills you can tap into will help you know that you are on top of your business cash flow.
Why Do You Still Need A Bookkeeper
- Although using the Xero accounting system, much of this transactional data is automatically pulled to the platform from credit cards, e-commerce tools, bank accounts, and so on. But there are still many reasons why you still need a bookkeeper.
- Even though a bookkeeper does not need to put in the financial data from scratch, they still need to confirm that the transactions are allocated to the various correct accounts. If not, they move the transactions around manually.
- A bookkeeper will take the accounting stress off your shoulders so that you can use your laser focus on what you’re good at – growing your business. Suppose you are the inventor of your business products. In that case, you have the unhindered freedom to start thinking about the following product to hit the market.
- Unless you have an accounting background or degree, the odds of a human error slipping into your accounting is high (if you are doing it yourself). If you miss a bill, it can affect your business credit significantly. Calling in professional help is just logical because they have the credentials to back it up.
- Punctuality is not just a social etiquette but also a financial etiquette too. Your day, week or even month as a business owner is absorbed between meetings, brokering deals, marketing, etc. Ensuring that all the bills are paid on time can become a headache (especially as your business grows and accumulates more creditors). Bookkeepers are professionally tuned to ensure that your good name as a client stays clean by providing that all payments are made on time. Added bonus, they also make sure all invoices are sent out to your customers too.
- Bookkeepers are jack of all trades as they can handle anything from payroll to taxes.
- You might think that you can save money by doing everything yourself with the help of the Xero accounting system. Still, it might actually cost you more to cut your bookkeeper. Human errors are an extremely costly experience both financially and to your reputation. Professionals are in the business to avoid errors.
