Taking care of a business is not just all about managing the operations well. Crucial to any business success is good financial management to ensure a healthy inflow and outflow of revenue and costs.
For new business owners, having to juggle all of these things at the same time can become truly overwhelming. There will come a point when something will have to give, and whichever between operations and finances does will surely hurt the company. It’s clear that you’ll need professional help to manage your business finances. Given this, which one should you hire: a bookkeeper or an accountant?
Which is Which?
First things first: know the difference between the two. Essentially, they are the same insofar as helping you manage your finances go. In terms of tasks, however, they do have some differences that you should take note of.
A bookkeeper basically is the one that you regularly get to work with, as they keep a detailed documentation of each and every transaction that the business enters into. Whether it be a disbursement for employee’s paychecks, payment due for the supplier, or even reimbursables by staff out on an errand, your bookkeeper must take everything down and note it for accuracy and transparency.
Bookkeeping is actually a critical part of accounting, because this is the very foundation of the accounting process. The numbers that the accountant will be crunching in computation later on will be coming from the records prepared by the bookkeeper.
While the bookkeeper, therefore, proves the numbers to be computed later, it’s the accountant that makes use of these numbers and tries to make sense out of it by analyzing where the money is coming from and where it needs to go.
One or the Other
To determine which professional to hire will actually depend on your needs. If you need someone to take care of the weekly or monthly documentation of receipts before turning it over for accounting, then you might as well hire a bookkeeper just to ensure that everything is done right.
However, if you think that you’ve got the bookkeeping part down pat, then you can just hire an accountant to process your financial documents every month or so. Some also prefer to get accountants because their training already allows them to take on bookkeeping tasks.
Frankly though, especially if you’re just starting the business, it would be better to leave these tasks in the hands of the pros so that you can focus your energy and attention to the operations instead. Hire a bookkeeper or accountant such as those from Perfect Accounting Service to stay on top of your finances.
Sources
Similarities & Differences Between Accounting & Bookkeeping, Chron.com
Accountant vs. Bookkeeper: What Do They Do for a Business?, BusinessNewsDaily.com
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