Over the years, accounting has evolved significantly – from traditional paper-based methods to spreadsheets, and now to the modern era of cloud-based accounting solutions. Adverts for these are everywhere, and discussions about them are more widespread than ever – to the point where I even discuss Xero with my hairdresser! Cloud-based software really has become a mainstream tool for business owners to feel in control and stay on top of their bookkeeping.

Although there are several options such as Quickbooks and Sage, the program we always recommend is Xero. In particular, Xero seems to really gel with our clients as intuitive and easy to use. Even those who think of themselves as technophobes manage to get on well with it.

Why is bookkeeping so important?

Keeping on top of your bookkeeping can be compared to keeping on top of brushing and flossing your teeth. If you do it regularly, it hopefully leads to fewer problems further down the line.

When kept up to date, Xero, and other cloud-based accounting software, has the ability to give you real time data which in turn helps us do our job as accountants. Sometimes you may need urgent information about how your company is performing, for example, for a mortgage or lending reference. We can retrieve this information much quicker if your information is up to date, which has the knock on effect of you receiving what you need from us in a more timely fashion.

Should bookkeeping be outsourced or be kept in-house?

We often see a number of practices that are either:

• Over-complicating the bookkeeping process or
• Still using last decade’s mentality and outsourcing it all-together (probably still paying well over the odds for the service too)

Both of the above scenarios can result in the real-time information that Xero is designed to provide being largely out of date by the time it is processed and given back to the practice owner.

Clearly, the best solution to avoid the above is to bring the bookkeeping process back in-house. This does not necessarily mean that you have to be responsible for it personally, however. You could choose to task this to a staff member – we often see practice managers responsible for this. With the automation that comes with using cloud software, it really is not as much of an uphill battle as it used to be. In fact, many times we have had practice owners comment to us that it was not as difficult as previously feared.

Some other benefits are:

• Improved communication – having the bookkeeping kept in-house ensures that queries that inevitably arise can be dealt with quickly and easily.
• Familiarity with the way the practice operates – in-house bookkeeping likely means that whoever is tasked with it is familiar with the day to day runnings of the practice which helps improve the accuracy of the recording of financial data.

What can Hive offer if I decide to move my bookkeeping in-house?

The team here at Hive are all experts in Xero, and we love to share our knowledge with our clients. If you do decide that you would like to give doing your own bookkeeping a try we are more than happy to offer you a Xero training session, as well as ongoing help and assistance through our Support function. Here you will get prompt responses from the team about any Xero queries you may have.

If you would like to discuss how to take back control of your bookkeeping, get in touch.