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The average rating for Bark Bookkeepers is 4.9, based on 10,341 reviews
5/5
based on 10,341 reviews
Whether your business is small, large or anything in between, bookkeeping is just one of those things that has to get done. It helps to keep your finances in order, to keep track of whether or not you’re making a profit, and keeps everything above board in the ways of taxes and regulations.
You can either choose to get your head around the basics of bookkeeping and try and track your finances yourself… or you can hire a professional bookkeeper to do it for you. You might ask yourself - what does a bookkeeper actually do? Your bookkeeper takes responsibility for the business's accounts and will have an overview of all the daily financial activities of your business.
If you’re optimistic that you can handle this yourself, here’s a rundown of the basics you’ll need to know. This will help you gain a little more insight into what a bookkeeper does for your business.
Choosing the right account goes a long way to making sure your business’ finances are in check. If you hire a professional bookkeeper, they’ll know exactly what type of account you need for your business.
Let’s take a look at these accounts and how they differ.
This is basic bookkeeping at its most simple as all transactions will pass through the cash account. Ensure you keep all of your cash receipts and cash disbursements to help your bookkeeper do an efficient job.
If you’re a business that sells goods or services before payment, you must keep track of these transactions in an account - this will help you to send invoices at the right time.
Similar to accounts receivable, accounts payable tracks all of the money going out of your business, things like business rents and stock. We know, it’s never a pretty sight to see how much you spend, but it’s definitely a necessity for good bookkeeping.
Even with the smallest of business, the payroll expenses account (the one that pays your staff) is often the one that costs your business the most. Bookkeeping basics tell us that keeping this update will make meeting tax and other government requirements and deadlines so much easier.
A retained earnings account is there to track any company profits that are then reinvested back into the business. It isn’t the most complicated or most-used account but it will help future investors track how the business has been performing over time.
You don’t necessarily need to have a bookkeeping degree to perform the role well. However, you do need to understand the difference between assets, liabilities, equity, and how these all relate to balancing the books.
In its most basic form, assets are what is owned by a company or business, and can include inventory, land and plant equipment.
Liabilities are the opposite of assets - they are things the company owes. This can be what you owe to suppliers, banks or any other loans you may have taken out.
Equity is the investment an owner or board of investors has in a company. The equity accounts must track any claims the owners have against the company.
You don’t need any flashy bookkeeping software to understand that balancing the books is basically: assets equal liabilities, plus equity. This means everything a business owns is balanced against claims against the business, in other words, the liabilities and equity.
Did that confuse you? It had us scratching our heads, too. Understanding the basics of bookkeeping isn’t always so straightforward, which is why we’d probably recommend hiring a bookkeeper to keep your finances in check, no matter how small, or large, your business may be.
The average rating for Bark Bookkeepers is 4.9, based on 10,341 reviews
5/5
based on 10,341 reviews
Although bookkeeping is important to businesses, it can be painfully boring and tedious. Find out just how much it’ll cost to outsource your bookkeeping to professional accountants, so you don’t have to worry about it!
