4 Tips to Help You Onboard a Bookkeeper for Your Small Business
Finding the right Bookkeeper often seems like the hard part – but once you’ve found a great bookkeeper, the next phase usually starts off strong and fizzles fast.
I’m talking about onboarding.
It seems like onboarding would be a simple process, but there are so many details to plan out in order to make your new hire’s journey a smooth one. Often, it ends up becoming a bumpier process than you would hope.
Actually, this isn’t unique just to onboarding bookkeepers – many business owners name it as one of the main things in their business that doesn’t actually get the follow through it deserves!!
Onboarding Your Bookkeeper
Your Bookkeeper’s onboarding process can be broken down into three sections: the things you need to do before they arrive, the onboarding on the first day or week, and then the onboarding in the first month or two.
Many people have great techniques and suggestions, but it honestly all breaks down to just having a good checklist and making sure you hit each of those items in a way that everyone understands. Communication is a vital component to working with your Bookkeeper – and in those first few weeks, you’ll have a perfect chance to iron out any wrinkles, create clarity, and set expectations for the future.
As a Business Coach, I have helped hundreds of businesses find and onboard new Bookkeepers and help them work through various nuances of misalignment. Unfortunately, when the owner thinks one thing is supposed to happen, and the Bookkeeper thinks another will happen, it leaves a lot of room for confusion and frustration.
Tips to Help You Work with Your Bookkeeper
Bookkeeper Biz Nugget #1: Reach an agreement with your Bookkeeper on when you will connect each week.
This will depend greatly on the size of your business and the number of transactions that need to be managed or handled. As the company grows, there will be additional individuals who will be involved in the financial department and the owner may need less time directly with the Bookkeeper. Regardless of who is meeting with the Bookkeeper, have a set day and time to review and connect on a regular basis.
Bookkeeper Biz Nugget #2: Get clear on what the Bookkeeper will do daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, and quarterly.
This sets the expectations not only during the onboarding process, but also as you move forward each week. We’ve helped business owners break down exactly what these items would be – and while it changes for every business, there are many elements that are the same, especially on the quarterly needs.
Bookkeeper Biz Nugget #3: Automate your workflow where possible and batch your reports.
Your Bookkeeper should be a superstar at quickly reconciling, gathering, and analyzing information for you, but regular weekly and monthly reports should be set for automation wherever possible. This saves your Bookkeeper ‘s time and energy to focus on analyzing other elements that will give you greater insight into your business.
Bookkeeper Biz Nugget #4: Tax preparation happens all year long.
The sooner you and your Bookkeeper come to an agreement on what needs to be gathered on a regular basis and throughout the year, the easier and more streamlined process you’ll have when it comes to tax time. Take the time early on to plan and let us know if we can help you with an easy checklist.
As with onboarding any new employee or contractor, taking the time to plan out what you want and how you will get it goes a long way toward having a great relationship. In my experience, successful business owners know that it’s easier to use someone else’s templates or a framework to shorten the amount of build time so they can get more done in less time and move on to things they enjoy.
Cheers to onboarding your next great Bookkeeper!