Is your bookkeeper any good or are you afraid to find out?

You can put in a system for bookkeeping that will work perfectly, but if the staff working the system don't perform, no matter how good your system is, it will collapse without your supervision.

What do I mean?
Just because you receptionist did a one year course in administration, that may have included 5 days of bookkeeping, this does not mean she is suitable to perform the bookkeeping tasks unsupervised. Depending on how many other tasks she must perform in her position, bookkeeping may not be high on her agenda. Answering the phone and typing your letters may be of a higher priority beacuse you need those things done now, so the bookkeeping can wait.

I have seen it many times where the boss says that bookkeeping is vital but in a toss up between any other task it loses as it is not seen as urgent or must be done now.

If you don't do your bookkeeping reuglarly, the pile of paper will build and the knowledge of how to perform a task will dwindle and when it comes to be done it will be done slowly and possibly incorrectly.

The person doing your bookkeeping must understand the importance of what they are doing. They may not fully understand the end result of a profit and loss account, but you must instill a need in them to do it 100% other wise you records will be wrong. e.g. You must record all cheques written, their amounts and who they were written to.

Most people do not like doing accounts or bookkeeping and will tend to put it on the long finger. If you do not check that your accounst are being done regularly then they wont be done regularly. I have seen so many companies who are three months behind in their records. How can you do your VAT or know how much you have to pay out or what is due in. You cannot run a company in this manner. Your company will fail!

Anyone can write up the books if they follow some simple steps, but supervsising your staff to ensure that the work is done is your responsibility.

Set target dates for completion of tasks
Examples:
A purchase invoice must be passed and processd in 5 days,
Cheque payments must be posted to the computer system within one day
Customer statements must be sent on the 1st of every month
Sales invoices must be posted out to customers every week.

You may not understand the bookkeeping itself, but understand this, if it is not kept up to date it will affect your company and may lead to its downfall. You as the owner can not delegate the bookkeeping to someone and then say you don't have to worry about that now. You must think about how the books are being kept at least once a week. You must know where your cash is tied up and where it has to be spent.

The person entrusted with the bookkeeping duty is important to your company. Your company needs up to date and correct figures to see how it is performing. Get the right person to do the job and ensure they do the job right.

for more help see www.help4accounts.com and www.nilssondenver.com
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