Running a small business often means wearing several hats at once. You may be serving customers, quoting for work, managing suppliers, paying staff and trying to keep an eye on the bank balance, all while your paperwork builds up in the background.
A bookkeeper can help bring order to that workload. The right time to hire one is not necessarily when your business is large. It is when keeping your records accurate and up to date is taking too much time, creating stress or making it harder to make confident business decisions.
What a bookkeeper can do for your business
Bookkeeping is the regular recording, organising and checking of your business’s financial transactions. It is the day-to-day foundation that supports your BAS, tax return, payroll, cash flow management and financial reporting.
Depending on their qualifications, registration and the services you engage them for, a bookkeeper may assist with tasks such as:
– Recording sales, purchases, expenses and payments
– Reconciling bank accounts, loan accounts and payment platforms
– Managing accounts payable and accounts receivable
– Issuing customer invoices and following up overdue amounts
– Processing payroll through appropriate payroll software
– Maintaining records for employees, contractors and superannuation payments
– Preparing regular profit and loss reports and balance sheets
– Setting up or improving accounting software processes
– Preparing information for your accountant at tax time
– Assisting with BAS-related work where they are appropriately registered
Good bookkeeping is more than data entry. When transactions are correctly coded, reconciled and reviewed regularly, the numbers in your accounting system become useful information rather than a collection of guesses.
That information can help you understand whether the business is making a profit, whether customers are paying on time, which expenses are growing and whether there is enough cash available for upcoming commitments.
Signs it may be time to hire a bookkeeper
Many sole traders start by doing their own bookkeeping. This can be a practical approach when transaction volumes are low and the business is straightforward. However, the work can become increasingly difficult to manage as the business grows.
You may benefit from a bookkeeper if any of the following sounds familiar:
– You are regularly behind on entering transactions or reconciling accounts.
– You avoid looking at your accounting software because the information does not seem reliable.
– You are spending evenings or weekends sorting receipts, invoices and bank statements.
– You do not know how much you owe suppliers or how much customers owe you.
– You are surprised by BAS, PAYG withholding, superannuation or other payment obligations.
– You have started employing staff or engaging regular contractors.
– Your accountant receives a box of receipts or incomplete records near EOFY.
– You are unsure whether expenses are being classified correctly.
– You are growing quickly and need clearer information to plan purchases, staffing or pricing.
– You are using several payment methods, such as bank transfers, cards, online payment services and cash.
A bookkeeper can also be valuable when the business owner is capable of doing the work but is not the best person to do it. Your time may be more profitably spent working with clients, supervising staff, developing services or building relationships.
The question is not simply, “Can I do my own books?” It is also, “What is the cost to my business if I keep doing work that could be handled more efficiently by someone else?”
Accurate records support better tax and BAS compliance
Australian businesses are required to keep records that explain their transactions and support the information reported to the ATO. For most transactions, records generally need to be kept for five years. The records should be accurate, complete and available if needed.
A bookkeeper can establish a more reliable process for capturing and storing documents, including:
– Supplier invoices and receipts
– Sales invoices and payment records
– Bank and credit card statements
– Payroll records
– Contractor information
– Vehicle and travel records where relevant
– Loan documents and finance statements
– Asset purchase information
– GST and BAS working papers
This does not mean you can hand over every receipt and stop paying attention. Business owners should still understand their financial position, approve payments, review reports and ask questions when something does not look right.
However, regular bookkeeping makes it much easier to identify missing documents, duplicated transactions or unusual expenses before they become a larger problem. It also helps your accountant work from organised information when preparing annual accounts and tax returns.
For businesses registered for GST, timely bookkeeping is particularly important. The GST registration threshold for most businesses is currently $75,000 in GST turnover, while the threshold for non-profit bodies is $150,000. Monitoring turnover properly can help you recognise when GST registration may be required and avoid leaving the issue until too late.
A bookkeeper cannot remove the need for professional tax advice where a transaction is complex. For example, buying or selling a business asset, restructuring a business, dealing with a trust or company, making payments to owners, or considering employee benefits can have broader tax implications. In those situations, the bookkeeper and accountant should work together.
Payroll can be a turning point
Hiring your first employee often changes the bookkeeping needs of a small business. Payroll involves more than transferring wages into someone’s bank account.
Employers may need to manage pay records, PAYG withholding, superannuation obligations, leave balances, employee onboarding details and Single Touch Payroll reporting. The correct treatment of workers is also important, as employee and contractor arrangements can carry different tax, superannuation and employment law consequences.
A capable bookkeeper can help maintain consistent payroll processes and ensure records are kept in a usable form. This may include setting up payroll software, maintaining employee details, processing each pay run and reconciling payroll accounts.
The business owner should still approve payroll and ensure the person handling it has appropriate access, authority and supervision. Payroll errors can affect employees directly, so it is worth having a clear process for reviewing wages, leave, bank details and superannuation payments.
If your bookkeeper provides BAS services for a fee, you should check that they are registered with the Tax Practitioners Board as a BAS agent, or that they are working under appropriate supervision within a registered practice. BAS services can include work that helps determine, advise on or represent a client in relation to certain GST, PAYG and other BAS-related obligations where the client is expected to rely on that work.
Checking registration is a sensible part of due diligence. It is also worth discussing exactly what the bookkeeper will and will not do, particularly where payroll, BAS preparation and communication with the ATO are involved.
The financial value is often in visibility, not just time saved
Hiring a bookkeeper is sometimes viewed as another overhead. It can be, but it may also give you the information needed to make better decisions before a problem becomes urgent.
When your books are current, you can usually see:
– Your sales trends over time
– Your gross profit and operating expenses
– Whether your business is generating cash or simply making sales
– Which customers are overdue
– Which suppliers need to be paid
– Whether stock or project costs are being controlled
– Whether pricing is covering your costs
– How much you may need to set aside for business obligations
Consider a trades business that is busy and has plenty of work booked in. The owner assumes the business is doing well because money is coming into the bank. But invoices are not being followed up promptly, supplier bills are arriving late, and business purchases are being paid from different cards and accounts.
Once a bookkeeper brings the records up to date, the owner can see that several larger invoices are overdue and that material costs have increased on recent jobs. With clearer reports, the business can follow up customers earlier, review quoting practices and plan upcoming payments with fewer surprises.
The bookkeeper has not created profit by themselves. What they have created is visibility. That visibility gives the owner a better chance to act.
Choosing the right bookkeeper
Not every business needs the same level of bookkeeping support. A sole trader with a small number of monthly transactions may only need periodic assistance, while a growing business with employees, regular supplier payments and multiple revenue streams may need weekly support.
Before engaging a bookkeeper, think about the work you actually need help with. You may want assistance with basic data entry and reconciliations, or you may need a more complete service covering payroll, debtor follow-up, management reporting and BAS preparation.
Questions worth asking include:
– What bookkeeping tasks will you handle each month?
– How often will my accounts be reconciled and reports provided?
– Are you registered as a BAS agent if you will provide BAS services?
– Do you work with my accounting software?
– How will you request and store receipts, invoices and other documents?
– Who will communicate with my accountant at EOFY?
– How will payroll, supplier payments and bank access be controlled?
– What reports will I receive, and what do they mean?
– How do you charge for your services?
– What happens if transactions need correction or further investigation?
It is also important to choose someone who communicates clearly. A bookkeeper should be able to explain what they need from you, raise concerns early and present information in a way that helps you run the business.
Technology can make bookkeeping more efficient, but software alone is not a complete solution. Bank feeds and automated transaction rules can save time, yet they still need oversight. A transaction may be matched automatically, but that does not always mean it has been treated correctly for accounting or tax purposes.
How to make the relationship work well
The best bookkeeping arrangements are collaborative. Your bookkeeper needs timely information, while you need clear reports and practical communication.
You can make the process smoother by:
– Keeping business and personal spending separate where possible
– Using a dedicated business bank account and card
– Sending receipts and invoices promptly
– Explaining unusual transactions rather than leaving them unexplained
– Approving supplier payments through a clear process
– Reviewing reports regularly, even if you do not prepare them yourself
– Raising questions early when sales, costs or cash flow change
– Letting your bookkeeper know about new staff, equipment purchases, loans or changes to business structure
Separating responsibilities is also good practice. For example, one person may prepare payment details while the owner approves payments. Regular bank reconciliations and report reviews create another useful check.
Your accountant can then focus on matters that extend beyond the daily books, such as tax planning, business structure, annual financial statements, tax returns and advice on more complex transactions.
A practical investment when it gives you control
Hiring a bookkeeper can make sense well before your business becomes large. If your records are behind, your cash flow is unclear, payroll is becoming more involved or you are spending too much valuable time on administration, bookkeeping support may be a practical investment.
The aim is not to distance yourself from the numbers. It is to have accurate, timely information so you can understand the numbers and make decisions with greater confidence.
can help you work out the level of bookkeeping, accounting and tax support that suits your business, whether you are a sole trader, a growing company or an established family business.
This article is general information only and is not personal financial or tax advice. Your circumstances, business structure and obligations matter, so speak with a registered tax agent or accountant, such as, before acting on information that may affect your business.