Are You Neglecting Your Bookkeeping?

Recently I carried out a Xero Health Check for a client who had outsourced his bookkeeping for a ridiculously low price. The result was disastrous. He’d paid the wrong amount of VAT, and his Xero account was so messed up it was going to cost 5k to fix because there were two years of bookkeeping to be sorted out.

The old idiom is spot on. Buy cheap and buy twice.

But I don’t blame that client for choosing the cheapest option. People have been led to believe that their bookkeeping woes will be over if they invest in cloud accounting software. It’s been sold to them as a quick fix, and that with just one click, their VAT return will be done.

Who needs an expert when you have cloud accounting software?

Well, I say bookkeeping is easy if you don’t know what you are doing, and complex when you do!

And that’s why you need an expert to manage your books and keep your accounting software in check. If your Xero software is neglected or misused in any way, you are going to find yourself in a bit of a muddle, and no business owner wants that.

Watch out for bad bookkeeping!

Bookkeeping mistakes can be costly, as my client discovered. You may find yourself overclaiming VAT if you’re not sure about the rules, items may be miscategorised, and expenses could be posted to balance sheet codes in error resulting in overstated profits.

Just thinking about it brings me out in a cold sweat!

If you are using incorrect figures to help influence business decisions, you are taking a significant risk. What if the tax man disagrees with you?

What is good bookkeeping?

Think about how frustrating it is when your sat nav takes you to the wrong place. If your bookkeeping isn’t done by someone who knows what they are doing, you could be taking your business to a dead end.

And it could be quite an expensive U-turn.

Businesses have a lot to keep up with when it comes to finances. Taxes are paid throughout the year. Tax returns need to be filed (early if possible). Decisions need to be made about payroll, business structures and VAT registration.

Good bookkeeping makes all this more manageable. Cloud accounting software makes bookkeeping easier if (and I stress the word if) the person using the software understands how to use it correctly.

Do I bother investing in cloud accounting software?

Yes, of course. There is nothing wrong with the software itself. You just need to be able to find someone who knows what they’re doing.

That’s where I can help.

I am a Xero Certified Advisor and can get your business set up with Xero software. However, I won’t just leave you to muddle through. If you do want to do the bookkeeping yourself, I provide bespoke training sessions and power hours to help you understand how to use Xero effectively.

If you already have Xero but feel like you’re not making the most of its features or it’s just not giving you the data you expect, then I provide a full Xero Health Check to test how Xero is working. I will provide my recommendations, and you can then hire me to carry out a Xero Clean Up. The longer you leave Xero making minor errors, the trickier it will be to fix. My client learned this the hard way.

Finally, you can hire me to do your books every month. I’ll keep everything up-to-date and running smoothly, so you aren’t worrying about missing deadlines or using figures that don’t add up.

If you want to know more about how I can help you with Xero, book a free discovery call.

To learn more about Xero, click here.