In any professional occupation, the level of quality of services on offer among individual providers can vary greatly. The bookkeeping profession is no different. Here is a checklist to help you ascertain how your bookkeeper rates:
- Does your online bookkeeper listen to your needs?
It doesn’t matter if your bookkeeper knows everything there is to know about every piece of bookkeeping software ever invented, if they don’t listen to what’s important to you and your business then you need to ask yourself if you’ve employed the services of the right bookkeeper. - Does your bookkeeper do what they say they are going to do?
Is your bookkeeper true to their word? For example, if they say they are going to call or email you by a certain date, do they follow through? Or do you feel forgotten about and not important enough to be kept in the loop? - Is your bookkeeper appropriately qualified to be providing the level of service that they are providing to you?
The bookkeeping industry is subject to Australian Taxation Office regulation. Accordingly, if your bookkeeper is providing “BAS Services” on a contracted basis for a fee they should be a Registered BAS Agent. You should also check that your bookkeeper has an appropriate type and level of Professional Indemnity insurance and keeps up-to-date with bookkeeping industry issues. - Is your bookkeeper open to new technologies and better ways of doing things?
Does your bookkeeper keep their “head in the sand” in relation to new technologies such as cloud accounting? With the world changing at an ever-increasing rate, an attitude of adaptability or willingness-to-change is an important trait for a online bookkeeper to possess. This doesn’t mean that your bookkeeper should jump on every “bandwagon” but they should be informed about technologies and processes that might allow them to be able to provide better services to their clients. - Does your bookkeeper provide you with “value for money” service?
“Value for money” service does not necessarily mean the cheapest service. Does your bookkeeper exceed your expectations of their service for the money you are paying them? Or do they merely meet your expectations? If they fail to even meet your expectations, then presumably you are already looking for a new bookkeeper… - Does your bookkeeper communicate well?
Whether it’s through speaking in person or over the phone, or communicating via email, it’s important to employ the services of a bookkeeper that communicates well with you. - Does your online bookkeeper provide you with quality bookkeeping “results”?
Whether it’s timely lodgement of complete and accurate quarterly Business Activity Statements, maintenance of a weekly payroll, or the issuing of management reports for your business, a bookkeeper’s main role is to provide you with the mutually agreed “result” – don’t lose sight of the core bookkeeping agreement.
