A good bookkeeper is worth his or her weight in gold. They’ll keep your finances on track, your books straight, and your mind free to focus on more pressing things. But how can you tell the good from the bad and the great from the disastrous? How can you make sure that you don’t wind up with someone who can’t get the job done? Continue reading below to find out.
Organization
Above all else, finance professionals, including bookkeepers, need to be organized. After all, a bookkeeper’s entire function can be conceptualized as an organization of one’s finances. It’s difficult to imagine how a disorganized person could perform the basic tasks of bookkeeping, let alone excel at them.
Look for someone who seems to have themselves, their surroundings, and their thoughts in order. You likely don’t want a bookkeeper who appears 20 minutes late for your appointment, looks disheveled and forgets his or her laptop in the car.
Of course, everyone has bad days. But your bookkeeper should, generally speaking, be an organized human being.
Experience
Bookkeepers aren’t all cut from the same cloth. There are different areas of industry and business that require their attention. Many bookkeepers will come to specialize in a single field or area.
That’s particularly true for those who work in the legal field. The sensitive and complicated world of IOLTAs and trust accounting generally requires a steady, experienced hand. It’s important that your bookkeeper has a thorough understanding of the intricacies of law firm financials.
More than that, it’s important that your bookkeeper be familiar with lawyers, legal culture, and legal vernacular. Bookkeepers who have experience in dealing with law firms develop a feel for the unique dynamics and culture that drive law firms. This feel enables them to stay on the same page as their legal clients, able to anticipate their needs rather than just respond to them after the fact.
Technical Mastery
It’s not the 1980s anymore. Bookkeeping now involves, indeed demands, familiarity and comfort with several different software suites. Your bookkeeper should be able to effortlessly navigate a typical consumer PC and use software like Quickbooks or Invoice Sherpa.
This typically isn’t a major issue anymore, as most people who clung to pen and paper bookkeeping were left behind years ago. But there are still a few folks who are profoundly uncomfortable on a computer.
When you’re choosing a bookkeeper, try to get a feel for his or her level of familiarity with computers and software in general, and the setup you use in particular. So, for example, if your office runs on Macs and Quickbooks, find out if your potential bookkeeper is familiar with that technology.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, the question of what to look for in a bookkeeper is a matter of personal fit. Do you like this person? Do you trust this person? (We’ll have more on the issue of bookkeeper trust in a future article.) But at the very least they should also have the three listed characteristics before you trust them with your books.