While hiring a bookkeeper can help you get your finances organized, onboarding a new bookkeeper can be challenging. You need to do so many things to get started, and it’s hard to know where to start. When hiring a new bookkeeper, there are a few things you need to make sure you do before you start working with them. These things help make the onboarding process easier and will help them get their job done better. To help make things easier, I have outlined what you need to do to organize your business for your bookkeeper.
Allow us to view your existing bookkeeping file set up
If you were working with another bookkeeper, you need to make sure that your new bookkeeper has the ability to view the existing file set up. You can set it up so that way your bookkeeper has view access. During this time, you can also discuss what you do and don’t like about your current set up so your bookkeeper can identify whether or not software needs to be changed.
Complete a questionnaire to let your bookkeeper get to know you better
With every client we work with, we send a questionnaire for them to complete. This helps us get to know more about their business as well as their bookkeeping needs. During this phase, we talk about goals for the business and where we fit into those goals. This is also a time where we talk about things like communication preferences, hours, etc. If you are hiring your bookkeeper as an employee, this is also the time to talk about salary, etc.
Give us view-only access to relevant financial accounts
We request that our clients give us view-only or guest user access to all relevant financial accounts. This includes checking, savings, credit cards, loans, or any other pertinent data that we need access to. While we do not personally have access to your funds, we do need to see what is going on on these accounts to help do our job. If your bank does not allow view-only access, you can send over statements.
Pass along any important information
It’s essential to do this to develop a good relationship with your bookkeeper and ensure that your bookkeeper has all of the information before they get started! This includes things like persons authorized to discuss your bookkeeping, what type of business you own, and much more. All of this information will help your bookkeeper get more acquainted with your business so they can find out how to best help!
If you are hiring a new bookkeeper, or just trying to better manage your business for your bookkeeper, these tips will be a lifesaver! These are all the things you need to know before you start working with a bookkeeper so you can start on a better foot! Remember that each bookkeeping firm might be different, so talk with your bookkeeper if they don’t offer these things or if they offer anything other than what you see here.