Should I Hire a Bookkeeper?

Starting my own business was an exciting experience, but involved so many decisions, from small to large.  If I had that many decisions to make for my virtual bookkeeping business, I can’t imagine the number of decisions a veterinarian has to make when starting and running their own practice.  One of those important decisions is whether to hire a bookkeeper or have someone in-house take care of the books.  If you yourself are in the process of making this decision, the following list of pros and cons could help you figure out what the best decision is for your practice. 

• Someone that actually enjoys bookkeeping will actually be taking care of your books and making sure everything is in order.
• You can refocus your time and energy on taking care of your clients and running your practice, knowing that someone dedicated to your books is keeping your finances in order.
• Your bookkeeper specializes in this field, so there will be less of a chance that your books will have errors.
• Since you have someone dedicated solely to bookkeeping, you will know that your books are kept current, instead of having to backtrack the bookkeeping yourself whenever you might have a spare moment from running your practice.

• When you hire a bookkeeper to take care of tracking your finances, you become a little less familiar with the financial state of your practice since you are not taking care of the details yourself.  HOWEVER, this can easily be resolved if you hire a GREAT bookkeeper that maintains thorough and continuous communication with you keeping you up to date on the financial details of your practice.
• When hiring a bookkeeper, you are trusting someone else other than yourself to make sure that honest and consistent financial records are being kept for your practice.  You have to really trust the uprightness and expertise of the person you are hiring to be your bookkeeper.  That’s why it’s important to really do your research when hiring a bookkeeper.

Bookkeeping, when it’s not something you enjoy, is a tedious and time consuming task.  However, it is crucial to the success and growth of your business.  If your practice has over 50 employees, it’s generally recommended that you hire a bookkeeper to be an in-house employee.  If your practice has less than 50 employees, it makes the most financial sense to hire a bookkeeper that is not a full-time employee.  Either way, the process of hiring a bookkeeper should involve a lot of research to make sure you are hiring someone trustworthy and competent.  Take your time, ask a lot of questions and make sure that they are a good fit for your team.  If you have any questions or are ready to hire a great bookkeeper for your practice, send me an email at rbailey@veterinarybookkeepingsolutions.com.