Bookkeeping rescue

The Business Bookkeeper to the rescue

If your accounts are not accurate and up to date and…

you’re getting concerned about it because a year end, a VAT return, Self Assessment, or another submission to HMRC is due and you’ve not kept on top of your bookkeeping for months or
you realise you’ve fallen slightly behind and you want to get on top of your paperwork again before it gets too much

… then welcome to our bookkeeping rescue service.

Many business owners face significant challenges keeping their books up to date. For many, the greatest difficulty is time because being your own boss often means being responsible for everything. Paperwork, including bookkeeping, tends to fall down the priority list when there are customers to serve and sales to make. It’s not long before the bookkeeping you keep intending to get to eventually becomes an unmanageable mountain of work.

Bookkeeping is also difficult – the bookkeepers at your accounting firm, just like the team here at The Business Bookkeeper, have been trained to do this. Bookkeeping is technical work requiring dedicated time, an eye for detail, and freedom from distractions. Accuracy is key to good bookkeeping – you need to be accurate to reconcile the records on your online accounting package with your bank statements. If you’re not accurate, deductible expenses aren’t assigned correctly meaning you’ll pay more tax than you need to.

Business owners who trade using a mixture of personal bank accounts and business bank accounts face additional complications with their bookkeeping especially on the use of credit and debit cards and on covering small expenses out of pocket. Whatever reason you feel you need a bookkeeping rescue service, get in touch straight away. We’re used to helping out business owners who have found themselves in this situation and, after clients see the value in keeping their books up to date, they often retain our services for years after.

To speak with our team now about our bookkeeping services, please call us on 020 3137 6565 or send us an email.

How does your rescue bookkeeping service work?

We work with start-up businesses, small businesses, sole traders, partners, limited companies, freelancers, contractors and more. No matter how long you’ve been trading, we’ll make sure that, by the time our work is done, you’ll be on top and in charge of your business bookkeeping again. There are four stages to our rescue bookkeeping service:

1. We understand you and your business

Each business is unique and we tailor our services to the needs of every client. When we first start working together, we want to understand you and understand why you’ve fallen behind on your bookkeeping and your accounts. Our aim is to get you back in full control of your bookkeeping because, for your business to be in the best possible health and to put it in a strong position to grow, you need to fully understand its financial performance.

Over time, you can ascertain an average level of profit or loss at different points of the year to determine whether your current performance is better or worse that its previous performance.

2. Check that your current entries are accurate

When we first start working for you, we carry out an initial assessment. This gives us an idea of how money moves in and how money moves out of your business from your Xero account and from your bank statements. We’ll then have an idea of how large or small your current bookkeeping problems are.

After that, we identify any errors with your bookkeeping to date and correct them. At this second stage, our job is to make sure that what’s on your Xero account is accurate and that it reconciles with your bank statements. During this process, we identify the reasons behind incorrect entries and non-reconciling transaction – areas of potential concern like wrongful payments, frauds, and incorrect classification of your deductible expenses.

Payroll is often a concern with rescue bookkeeping jobs too – we check that your available payroll records are correct and inform you whether you’ll need to be keeping money back to settle any underpayment of tax and NI to HMRC related to employees’ wages.

3. Update your books with all the missing paperwork

At this point, our team will then bring the rest of your company’s financial records and paperwork completely up to date. At the end of this stage, what’s on your bookkeeping software packages will now match fully with the transactions on your bank statements.

4. Identify any wider problems with your bookkeeping and your business

Now that you’re back on track with your accounts and you have the best and most current information available about the financial performance of your business, it’s time to find out how well you’re doing. On Xero there are reporting tools which allow you to measure your performance – from your balance sheet to your profit and loss to how many days it takes your clients to pay your invoices and more.

We’ll show you how to use these reporting tools and we’ll help you interpret the insights they provide. With your bookkeeping up to date and regular financial performance reports, you’re better able to make the right decisions on the future of your business.

Get back on track with our bookkeeping rescue service

Contact us here at The Business Bookkeeper today to ask us about our rescue bookkeeping services and about keeping your accounts up to date after we’ve brought them up to date.