As the economy weakens, we’ve noticed an increasing number of potential clients that are phoning around “getting prices” for their bookkeeping.
When times get tough, and cash-flow slows right down, looking for a cheap bookkeeper may not be the easiest task. Where do you go, and how do you find a cheap bookkeeper?
Over a cup of coffee recently we started looking at the benefits of a small business owner engaging a cheap bookkeeper to look after their bookeeping.
So, we came up with ten possible benefits of a cheap bookkeeper. We must stress that occasionally you’ll come across a very experienced bookkeeper who is charging out their services far too cheaply, in which case the following points will most likely not be applicable:
1) The first benefit of a cheap bookkeeper is that you’ll save money on bookkeeping fees
2) You’ll have a warm, fuzzy feeling, and the satisfaction of knowing that you’ll most likely be sponsoring a bookkeeper to learn how to do bookkeeping
3) You’ll enjoy the company of your bookkeeper for longer as s/he chats all day instead of getting the work done
4) You’ll have someone to answer the phones and do some admin work for you, as your bookkeeper hasn’t got (m)any other clients to rush to
5) You’ll not be surprised when your phone starts ringing with suppliers complaining that they haven’t been paid, or customers complaining that they’ve been billed twice
6) You may get some friendly phone calls from your accountant who’s generated a long list questions relating to your P & L and / or balance sheets
7) Many months down the track you’ll discover that what appear to be a perfect set of books have many hidden entries because the bookkeeper couldn’t make the figures balance without some creative bookkeeping
8 ) When the Australian Taxation Office decide to undertake an audit, your bookkeeper will pass out because suddenly s/he will have been caught out
9) You can sit back satisfied that you’ve got yourself a bookkeeper at half the rate, so you’ve more money to pay your accountant or another bookkeeper to come in and fix up the mess made by the first bookkeeper
10) In a few more months you’ll have a new challenge of letting your bookkeeper go as you repeat the whole process of seeking a reputable bookkeeper
Ask yourself this question: Are you willing to reduce the value of your good / services to pick up new business? The idea that undercutting your competitors to increase the market share can work short term, but is it sustainable over a medium or longer term? You know too well, that if you buy cheap, you expect to receive cheap. Consider how much your business is worth for you to know where you are financially week by week and month by month.
