If entrepreneurs do not put enough value into the role of an Edmonton bookkeeping company, they might not put enough care into hiring the right bookkeeper for their business. Not only are bookkeepers extremely important to a business, they can help an entrepreneur have the right information at hand to not only avoid making bad financial decisions but also use the information to help them proactively grow their business. A great bookkeeper will also ensure that an entrepreneur has organized finances, and are paying the minimum amount of taxes possible. The importance of a bookkeeper cannot be overstated, and that an entrepreneur needs to have a great bookkeeper as well as an accountant working for them in their business, to ensure that they are not only making the best financial decisions but they’re growing their business and the best way possible.
In order to hire the best Edmonton bookkeeping company possible, an entrepreneur should be asking them questions about how much tax knowledge they have. Taxes can be extremely confusing, and one of the reasons why an entrepreneur would hire a bookkeeper in their business in the first place is to navigate some of the things that they are unable to do. There are so many different tax amounts that entrepreneurs need to navigate as well as remittance dates. To hire a bookkeeper without important tax knowledge would be a huge mistake. For example, there are several different payroll taxes that need to be calculated at different amounts, and even one that an entrepreneur needs to pay themselves. Not only is it important to know what amounts for which payroll taxes they need to withhold from their employee’s checks, but they also need to know when to remit them.
It is not just important that an Edmonton bookkeeping needs to understand payroll taxes, but they also need to understand GST. What products or services need to get GST charged to them? What is the remittance date for GST? It is not just important that everything needs to have 5% to be sent off to the federal government for GST, but knowing specifically what and when to have that paid to the government by. GST is another one of those taxes that if a business owner pays incorrectly or late, will have a serious penalty attached to it.
There is also federal and provincial taxes that need to be calculated as well. Edmonton bookkeeping companies should understand that if they are in Alberta, provincial taxes get paid differently than in other provinces. In other provinces, the federal and provincial taxes get calculated and sent directly off to the Canada revenue agency. However, in Alberta, this is not the case. Business owners need to have their bookkeeper’s remit payment for federal taxes to CRA, but for provincial governments, they need to remit them to the provincial government separately.
When an entrepreneur can be satisfied that the Edmonton bookkeeping company that they are going to hire is knowledgeable enough, then they can be certain enough to hire them in their business.
Business owners may not place enough importance on hiring the best Edmonton bookkeeping company for their business, but they should. Not only do great bookkeepers help entrepreneurs stay organized, pay the right amount of taxes and on time, and come up with great and organized financial statements that can help business owners make informed financial decisions in their business. But also, the wrong bookkeeper can create massive problems for businesses, creating incorrect or poorly done bank reconciliations and interim financial statements that cause a business owner to make poor financial decisions that can negatively impact their business and even cause them to run out of money. But also, a poor bookkeeper will create so many errors that an entrepreneur will have to pay their accountant a large sum of money to fix before they can do their corporate year-end. If it takes their accountant a long time to do, this could cause them to file their taxes late, and be hit with even more penalties. The risk of hiring a poor bookkeeper outweigh any reward. Business owners need to understand that the cost of hiring an inexpensive bookkeeper is far greater than just the money.
In order for an Edmonton bookkeeping company to be hired, the business owner should be satisfied that they have some basic knowledge about bookkeeping and that they have enough experience. Since anyone can call themselves a bookkeeper, because there is no professional designation that is required, business owners should be especially careful who they hire in their business. They should be asking not only how much experience they have, but what the nature of that experience is. They should be checking to see if their Edmonton bookkeeping company has any accounting education if they have worked with an accountant in the past, or experience working in a public accounting firm. These are all great ways to determine how knowledgeable and experienced the Edmonton bookkeeping company has. The more experience they have with an accountant, the better prepared they would be to work with an entrepreneur.
It is also important that entrepreneurs be satisfied that the Edmonton bookkeeping company that they hire is organized and can not only enter the financial information that they need, but organize their expenses, receipts as well as invoices by date, and filed away properly. This is extremely important if entrepreneurs get audited by the Canada revenue agency. In fact, if they hire in Edmonton bookkeeping company that says they have experience in getting audited, then a business owner can be reasonably certain that they know how to keep their books organized in such a way to make it easy to find information in case they have to go through another audit within other business. By understanding all the information that is most important for their bookkeeper to have, business owners can ask the questions and to determine if their bookkeeper is the right company for the job.