Many small business owners view outsourcing as an unnecessary expense. You have probably spent years managing your roofing company's bookkeeping and may have a good handle on how to keep your books in order.
However, most businesses don't realize that outsourcing can actually save you a significant amount of both time and money. It can free you up for more critical tasks like marketing to gain new customers and taking on emergency calls after a big storm.
At Enkel, we know a thing or two about outsourcing. Here are our top five reasons that you should consider outsourcing your bookkeeping for your roofing business:
1. Saves you time and money
Bookkeeping is a time-consuming task that can take up a lot of your time, especially if you don't have a dedicated resource working on it. Outsourcing your bookkeeping can help save you a significant amount of time.
When you work with an outsourced bookkeeping team, you’ll have a team of professional bookkeepers taking care of your books. This allows you to focus on revenue-generating tasks like obtaining new clients or working on key projects. Plus, you don't have to worry about training and managing your own bookkeeping staff.
Outsourcing your bookkeeping can result in cost efficiency as well because an outsourced team usually costs less than an in-house bookkeeper. You never have to worry about training costs, vacation pay, benefits, and other payroll deductions.
2. Access to tech-savvy bookkeepers
When you outsource your bookkeeping, there’s a good chance your bookkeeper is based in a remote location instead of your office. As a result, many outsourced bookkeeping firms utilize cloud accounting software and applications to collaborate with their clients.
Working with an outsourced bookkeeping firm will give you access to tech-savvy bookkeepers that know how to use cloud accounting software to manage your books. They can help your roofing business migrate to cloud-based accounting software like QuickBooks Online and Xero. Plus, they tend to know which accounting software and tools work best for your business and can help you implement these applications and migrate your data, all while managing your books.
3. Accurate, timely bookkeeping
Working with an outsourced bookkeeping firm means having a dedicated resource to do your bookkeeping every month.
They’ll record and code your transactions accurately, reconcile your bank and credit card accounts and track your sales tax payable. At month-end, your outsourced bookkeeper will generate your financial statement package, which includes your cash flow statements, balance sheets, and income statements so that you have complete visibility on your business's financial health.
Your outsourced bookkeeping team will also help you set up your chart of accounts in a meaningful way so you can draw helpful insights from your financial reports.
Consistent and accurate bookkeeping will help you understand how your business is performing throughout the year, giving you insight into profit margins and helping you with job costing. When your books are up to date every month, you will be better able to:
- Track your expenses to know where your cash is going and to identify areas where you might be overspending.
- Keep track of invoices and follow up on those that are outstanding.
- Track your profitability as it relates to each particular job or project.
Some outsourced bookkeeping firms can also help you manage your payroll and accounts receivables functions. Taking care of these tasks means you don't have to worry about hiring more staff to cover these additional yet important tasks.
4. Stress-free tax season
If you want to maximize the tax deductions for your roofing business, your accounting records should be organized appropriately so that your accountant can quickly identify the deductions.
When you have an outsourced bookkeeper managing your books throughout the year, your finances will be in prime condition when tax season arrives, and you will be able to stay stress-free. Plus, you won't have to spend additional funds to have your year-end accountant clean up your books. They can simply review the statements generated by your bookkeeper and help you work on your taxes.
5. Financial visibility
Outsourcing your bookkeeping can take away many of your business's problems, such as taking care of your day-to-day accounting and financial reporting.
This will allow you to understand how each project is performing compared to what you have budgeted and will enable you to view your true profitability. You also get visibility on your cash flow, which can help you spot potential problems before they happen. An outsourced bookkeeping team gives you a more proactive approach to your finances.
Some outsourced bookkeeping firms can also provide you with controllership services and can help you create budgets, perform cash flow forecasting and develop pricing strategies.
If you are looking for an easy way to save yourself and your business a significant amount of time, money, and hassle, outsourcing your bookkeeping may be the answer that you need.
At Enkel, we have experience working with businesses just like your own, and we have the skills required to manage your bookkeeping. For more information on how we can help your roofing business, contact us today.
How We Select and Evaluate Our Software Recommendations
We thoroughly research and test the apps we include in our regular workflow for Client bookkeeping services. After deciding on criteria for evaluating the software and then researching the app itself, we tested the app, noting its strengths and weaknesses. We then work with the app for at least a few weeks before deciding whether to recommend it to our readers. We use the software as it was designed for its intended tasks. For a detailed walk-through of how we select and evaluate software, please see the details of our process.
