Hiring A Bookkeeper? Make Sure To Ask These Questions!

Your small business is growing, you've got an amazing business plan in mind, and you're ready to step up your business. Now, it's the right time to hire a bookkeeper. As your business evolves, its accounting obligations get more complex and time-consuming. Due to this, you are more likely to end up spending more precious time and focus on accounting instead of on your business's core skills and long-term goals. 

To avoid a situation like this, you'd hire a bookkeeper at the earliest with the required skills to assist your accountant simultaneously. However, the hiring process of a bookkeeper isn't as easy as hiring any regular employee. To onboard the most deserving bookkeeper in your team, don't forget to ask the following questions to the candidate.

Top 5 Questions To Ask Before Hiring A Bookkeeper In 2021 

Here is the complete question bank for assistance in your bookkeeper hiring process.

What services can you offer to the company? 

You must know that bookkeeping isn't about just data entry. It's a process that monitors your cash flow, business finances, and helps to keep you at the top of your finance game. Besides, there are other responsibilities a bookkeeper can assist your company with. These include: 

1. Recording your transactions and posting them to various accounts 
2. Processing payroll 
3. Conducting banking activities 
4. Generating daily financial reports 
5. Reconciling reports to third-party records such as bank statements. 

What are your credentials? 

Anyone can be a bookkeeper, isn't it? However, you must partner with only those candidates with relevant degrees, certifications, and accomplishments. For example, today's most sought-after bookkeepers are ones with Xero Bookkeeping or QuickBooks certification.  

How much experience do you hold?

Experience is another crucial factor you must be mindful of while looking for a bookkeeper. While an entry-level bookkeeper will only provide your business with the basic bookkeeping duties, an expert can assist your firm with the other confusing or consequential aspects of accounting.

What security practices do you follow?

Bookkeepers will deal with the sensitive financial data of your employees and other firms (if you provide bookkeeping outsourcing services). This necessitates the fact that the bookkeeper must guard it aggressively. Hence, check out what measures the candidate adopts to guarantee digital security and personal privacy. 

Can you connect me with your past clients?

No matter how promising answers you get from the candidate for every question from your side, don't forget to ask the candidate about their past clients. It will help you understand the candidate's style of working and verifying their statements. Furthermore, if they refuse to connect with their past clients, it raises a red flag about their certainty.  

 

Conclusion 

 

Bookkeeping is not just about data entry. It's a process that monitors your business's financial condition. Since you shouldn't assign bookkeeping duties to any novice, it makes the process of hiring a bookkeeper more challenging. However, the above questions will surely assist you in the hiring process, no matter if you're a good interviewer or not!