Should You Have Your Spouse Doing Your Bookkeeping or Not for Your Small Business in White Rock, South Surrey BC?

 

It sometimes feels like the right, economical and certainly the easy thing to do - have your wife or husband help you out with your bookkeeping for your small business. This may look okay at the beginning but there are a number of things you should consider before taking the decision to have your spouse looking after your accounting.

 

Pros of Having Your Spouse Doing Your Bookkeeping

• They are Invested in Your Success

• You can be assured that having your spouse involved in your business means that they are on your side and want your business to succeed as much as you do

• Lots of Passion

• They likely know your business inside and out and have a similar amount of passion for your business (although nothing can probably match yours) and won’t mind working some overtime for you (can you say flowers and dinner)

• Level of Trust

• It’s not always easy giving a person on the outside the keys to your financial affairs - especially not in the early days - so having a spouse or family member that you trust to help often feels more comfortable

• They’re Economical

• Sometimes your spouse will even work for free!!
• This means that when you are starting out and don’t have the ability to spend a lot on an outside company – it gives you some breathing room when you don’t have to write that cheque to your spouse

 

 

 

Cons of Having Your Spouse Doing Your Bookkeeping

• They help you “when they have time”

• In a busy family household, this may be after work, after school or on the weekends etc. and there are certain aspects of your business that need to be addressed on a regular basis
•  When you have a bookkeeping professional, the invoices get out on time, the reconciliations are occurring on a monthly basis, the financial are reviewed and assessed to see if the business is growing or not

• They likely don't have an accounting background

• Doing spreadsheets, recording receipts or doing invoicing is something that is helpful, but doing more complicated bookkeeping functions may be out of their realm
• Being able to produce profit and loss reports or balance sheets and cash flows is something that can contribute to the successful management of your business

• They may not know about your industry

• You are likely the most knowledgeable person when it comes to what you do, and your spouse, although on board for what you do, may not know the intricacies and industry specific accounting details to help you succeed
• A bookkeeper can help you determine special tax requirements, industry write-offs or specific work-arounds in specialized areas

• They won’t be able to provide advice to increase your business profitability

• An experienced bookkeeper, like Green Quarter Consulting, can help you in so many areas to help your business succeed! You have access to real-time financial information – where you are losing money – where you can be more profitable
• Do you know what your customer acquisition costs are? Are you spending too much? A bookkeeper can provide you with that information

• Fighting or Disagreements

• Probably the #1 reason for NOT using a spouse or family member is to keep your home life Happy! How do you deal with a family member if they happen to make a mistake that costs your business hundreds or thousands of dollars? The last thing you want is to have disagreements with your spouse that spill over from office to home
• Do you really want to fire your spouse? It’s better to rip this band-aid off earlier than later!
• When using a bookkeeping professional – you can be confident that if any mistakes are made there are safety measures and double-checks in place to ensure that errors are rectified and that your business remains successful

 

 

 

At Green Quarter Consulting - Accounting and Bookkeeping Services for White Rock, South Surrey, Langley and Surrey BC, we are here to help. We can assist with guiding you through some of the Pros and Cons of having a spouse as your bookkeeper and why a professional Bookkeeping Service is, in our opinion, the best choice for your small business.

 

Contact us today at 778-791-2864 or 604-970-0658, let’s talk, or send us an email here and we will be in touch very shortly.

 

 

 

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