Bookkeeping and accounting are vital business functions. However, they are overhead costs that provide absolutely no revenue. Therefore, smart entrepreneurs will do everything they can to keep this cost down. This must be done while maintaining the rigor of having timely and accurate financial information.
This may sound obvious and may even sound easy. But the fact is, the devil is in the details. Over the past few decades, I’ve had a wealth of experience working with scores of bookkeepers. I’m about to tell you some things that you may not want to hear:
1) Most businesses waste tremendous resources in their bookkeeping and accounting functions.
2) Most employee bookkeepers are really clerks. In other words, they are good at recording repetitive transactions. However, the most significant transactions are generally not repetitive.
3) Few employee bookkeepers truly understand the science of accounting and the effects of their mistakes.
4) Most employee bookkeepers waste tremendous amounts of time spinning their wheels or performing functions that have little value.
5) Most bookkeepers resist change. This resistance has put the accounting functions of most companies about five to ten years behind the technology curve.
Over the next several blogs, we will be presenting extensive information on this important subject. We will address typical employee bookkeeper syndromes, as well as tell a few horror stories. Most importantly, we will show you ways to avoid them.