Business owners should consider that hiring an Edmonton bookkeeping company is one of the most important tasks that they can take on in their business. The reason for this is because what a bookkeeper does for a business, is so important. Not only to bookkeepers help entrepreneurs have up-to-date financial statements so that they can understand how much money they have in their business in order to make financial decisions, but they also help their finances stay organized so that they can properly attribute their shareholder loans, pay taxes properly, and stay organized through an audit. Because of the importance of these things, entrepreneurs need to understand what they need to look for in a bookkeeper so that they can hire the best one possible.
If entrepreneurs do not hire the right Edmonton bookkeeping company for their business, they could end up with a disaster on their hand. These financial statements can be a mess, transactions not being recorded properly, and the finances not organized or filed properly. This causes them to make poor financial decisions that negatively impact their business. And at the end of the year, their accountant has to end up spending a significant amount of time to fix, charging them their hourly accounting rates for all of the time they spent, and also the additional time meant that they had to file their corporate taxes late, triggering errors. Red Adair, has specialized in extinguishing and capping oil well fires has said “if you think it is expensive to hire professionals to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” By not hiring the right Edmonton bookkeeping company, and hiring the less expensive option, entrepreneurs can end up with a mess that is far more expensive to fix than it would have been to hire a great professional from the start.
One of the first things that entrepreneurs need to keep in mind when they are hiring in Edmonton bookkeeping company, is that anybody can call themselves a bookkeeper. Since there is no professional designation, people who call themselves a bookkeeper do not even have to have gone to school in order to call themselves a bookkeeper. Therefore, business owners need to be very aware of who they are hiring, and how much experience they actually have. Even though bookkeepers do not need to have a certain type of education, asking them what education they have can be very powerful. Many accounting students who need to finish getting their designation by articling often work as bookkeepers. If a business owner is able to hire a bookkeeper for their business who has completed the chartered professional accounting program, they will have a significant amount of knowledge and be able to greatly help business owners. Other questions that they can ask about the experience of their potential bookkeeper is how many years of experience they have, and what the nature of that experience is. Entrepreneurs should be looking for bookkeepers with experience working with accountants, or in accounting offices.
Because of the importance of the job that Edmonton bookkeeping companies do for entrepreneurs, they need to ensure that they are hiring the best one for their business. By familiarizing themselves with the different tasks a bookkeeper will do for their business, it can help entrepreneurs hire the right professional who is knowledgeable in those areas.
One of the first things that business owners need to know that there Edmonton bookkeeping company has knowledge in is taxes. Not only are there many taxes that business owners have to pay but how much tax to pay and when to remit it is extremely important as well. For example, not all transactions need to have GST taken from them. Entrepreneurs need to know what items they have to remit GST on, and when to remit that amount. When it comes to payroll taxes, bookkeepers need to know not only what taxes to withhold from their employee’s checks, but also how much and when those taxes need to be remitted to Canada revenue agency. Bookkeepers also need to understand that if they’re working in Alberta, they need to, remit provincial tax separately from federal tax. Because unlike other provinces, Alberta businesses have to remit their provincial taxes separately.
Business owners should also ensure that there Edmonton bookkeeping company has been through an audit before. Knowing what the Canada revenue agency is looking for when they send an audit letter, and how they like to receive information back can be invaluable. Bookkeepers who been to the audit process before can ensure that they are staying organized from the very beginning of working with the business, to ensure that if the company does get an audit request from CRA, they can help them respond within thirty days.
Business owners should also be ensuring that their bookkeeper has knowledge about shareholder loan accounts as well. This can be extremely important because when bookkeepers attribute various transactions to shareholder loan accounts, it can help business owners avoid paying significant amounts of taxes. For example, for every dollar that a business owner takes out of their business for personal use, they have to pay personal taxes on which tops out at 48% in Alberta. However, business transactions only pay 11% in taxes, therefore a business owner can ensure that there avoiding paying up to 37% in taxes when transactions are attributed properly in the shareholder loan account. If they hire Edmonton bookkeeping company that is familiar with shareholder loan accounts, business owners can be certain that they are going to avoid paying higher taxes incorrectly coded transactions.
By knowing the information that and Edmonton bookkeeping company no for the business, can help business owners hire the best bookkeeper for their company, not only to help provide them with the best interim financial statements that they can use to make financial decisions on, but stay organized, they taxes properly and on time, and avoid paying more taxes than they should. Extremely important that business owners are ensuring that they have the best bookkeeper they can for their business.