How to Start a Successful Bookkeeping Business: 15 Steps

Plus, if you’re a small business owner like Colleen Cruze Bhatti of Cruze Farm, you may find bookkeeping tedious and worry about whether you’re managing it correctly. The truth is a lot of that valuable time could be going to in-house bookkeeping. That means the cost of bookkeeping kept in-house could be a lot greater than you once thought. You’ll need something that tracks your tasks, deadlines and provides for one central place to communicate on work.

Hence, ensure that you put in your best whenever you have the opportunity to handle every of your clients accounts. They may meet clients in their home office or at a local coffee shop but you are advised to rent a small office as soon as possible. Because clients trust you with their money, having an ultra-professional working environment may be important to some of your clients.

Step 3: Register & Organize Your Bookkeeping Business

For instance, both the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers and the National Association of Certified Public Bookkeepers offer certification programs. As a one-person operation, you may find it hard to get back to clients right away, especially during tax season. Sending prospective customers to voicemail when they need your services can cost you business. Go Answer is a bilingual answering service that connects your customers to live customer service agents via phone, text, web chat, or email 24/7. It’s important to keep up with the technology trends and to be knowledgeable in the bookkeeping field. Bookkeepers aren’t required to have any outside certifications or credits, but it is helpful to always be growing yourself in your field. Maybe you decide to take one class per year at $300, which would break down to $25 a month.

If you can structure a deal that keeps clients onboard for a few months, they’ll really begin to see the ROI. No, a separate office isn’t necessary how to start a bookkeeping business for a bookkeeping business. As your business grows and you hire employees, you can consider whether to rent office space or keep working remotely.

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Following the above steps will help get your bookkeeping business off to a good start, but don’t rest on your laurels. Keep up with changes in the industry and continue to evolve your skills. Once you’ve established yourself as a bookkeeper, consider getting training and/or certification in accounting, which will allow you to offer more services at a higher price point. Businesses of all kinds will always need bookkeeping services. If you’re considering becoming a bookkeeper, read our guide to learn how to start a bookkeeping business in 2022. We’ll cover everything from the legal side of registering a new business to pricing, marketing and more. In general, the startup costs for a bookkeeping business can be low if you work out of a home office as opposed to leasing office space, which we will discuss in the next section.

• All content on this page is for general informational purposes only and does not apply to any specific case, is not legal, tax or insurance advice and should not be relied upon.
• Perform a Google search of bookkeeping services in your town or metro area.
• Now that you understand the fundamental startup costs, let’s look at the steps you’ll need to take to launch your new bookkeeping business.
• This bookkeeper has eight clients that are a variety of sizes.

Typically, you only need experience in accounting to find entry-level work. Many employers are also willing to hire inexperienced bookkeepers provided they have the basic math and software skills. Luckily, starting a small bookkeeping business is not a very expensive endeavor, especially when compared to some other small businesses. Business insurance is necessary to protect you from liabilities, and other possible claims. Liabilities for a bookkeeping business include things like making mistakes on a company’s financial books. The exact process of registering your business will vary, depending on how you choose to structure your business.

Bookkeeper Jobs

Whatever your reason is to take the step to setting up your own bookkeeping business, the planning stage for any start-up is super important. If you love numbers, organization, and some financial grunt work, bookkeeping is the perfect business for you. Start small, care about your clients, do a fantastic job, and soon enough, you’ll be your own boss if that is your goal. But when you specialize in a particular industry or service, you are much more in control of your time, since you already know the ropes. It allows you to focus on being the best in your niche and provide high-quality services efficiently and profitably. It’s perfectly acceptable to change your services as you grow. You should be known for delivering excellent and efficient book keeping services at all times.

Errors and Omissions insurance protects you and your assets if that happens. You might deliver an awesome service at a great price, but what if no one knows? Your business plan is vital to reality checking all those ideas you have. You need to nail down what services you’ll offer, who to, and how. You’ll need some training and certification to become a professional bookkeeper. Technology can smooth away a lot of the data double-handling that traditionally made bookkeeping labor-intensive and expensive.

The example of Canada also applies to a global stage since 90% of the businesses in the world today are small businesses. Go to the SCORE website to see if there’s a local chapter near you. For added protection for your personal assets, you should look into business insurance based on your incorporation decisions. You should also protect personal finances with separate accounts for your business. Balancing accounts requires that you understand credits and debits, and the transactions required to have the accurate beginning and ending balances for each account. Another important factor for bookkeepers is to understand invoicing and accounts receivables and payables as bookkeepers help create and collect on accounts.

You’ll need office equipment, including filing cabinets, computers, and printers. You may have some of this equipment already, but you might want to consider getting separate equipment for your business needs. Will you have a sole proprietorship, a corporation, or something in-between? These decisions will help you make the other necessary administrative decisions. Once you have a business name you should also set up a business address, phone number, and email separate from your personal contact info.