The benefits of outsourced bookkeeping: how we saved a software firm 60 hours a month

When a small business realised its bookkeeping processes weren’t up to scratch, the Project Alfred team onboarded and started managing its books within eight days.

One of the first things we’re often asked by prospective clients is, “What are the benefits of outsourced bookkeeping, and how long before you’re actually able to run my books for me?” Whether you need help paying suppliers, running payroll, processing bank reconciliations in Xero, or all of the above, we can get everything up and running like clockwork in about a week.

Here’s a recent example of how we completely took over a client’s bookkeeping within eight days of them first making contact with us.

The situation:

The client:

• A small Australian software development business
• 5-10 employees
• Annual revenue $1m – $1.5m

The challenge:

This business owner reached out to us because they weren’t happy with their current bookkeeping processes and the amount of personal involvement required.

The business was already technically outsourcing their bookkeeping, but the owner was spending about six hours each week trying to keep up with invoicing, paying suppliers, keeping their Xero up-to-date and managing payroll (and all the admin work that comes with hiring new employees). Frustratingly, this was often outside their preferred working hours, or to the detriment of other important work that only they could do.

They had three options:

1. Bring the bookkeeping completely in-house, meaning it would take the owner around 15 hours per week (on a good week)
2. Continue using their same outsourced bookkeeping processes, leaving the owner spending around six hours on it per week
3. Completely outsourcing bookkeeping processes to experienced business accountants so they could be as hands-off as possible

The solution:

After seeing Project Alfred come up in a Google search, they booked a discovery call and we discussed their business and current bookkeeping situation. We went through the benefits of outsourcing their bookkeeping to us, and established that we could take over the following tasks for them:

• Bank reconciliations (reconciling incoming and outgoing cash)
• Posting supplier invoices
• Setting up supplier payments
• Payroll management services (setting up new employees, including contacting the employee directly to streamline the process, and running payroll fortnightly)
• Registering WorkCover and annual WorkCover reconciliation
• Process superannuation payments
• Lodge payroll tax

We sent through a proposal of work on the same day as our call. The following day, the business owner accepted the proposal and, shortly after, we sent through a formal letter of engagement that was signed digitally by our new client.

One day after the owner gave us access to the business’ old accounting system and transaction history, we had everything successfully converted to Xero. We then set up owner-access to their new Xero account, as well as to Dext (a digital bookkeeping platform we use to capture, store and send clients’ purchase invoices, receipts and bills through to Xero automatically).

Eight short days after initially talking to the business owner, we had another conversation to formally onboard them. We chatted about the nuts and bolts of how we’d manage their bookkeeping, everything from what days we’d pay suppliers and process payroll, to which time-consuming tasks we'd automated for them.

The result:

The business owner now spends less than half an hour a week on anything bookkeeping-related and says they’re much happier knowing that qualified accountants have dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s across all the business’ books, so come tax and BAS time, everything is already in order.

Like the sound of outsourcing your bookkeeping? Send us a message today to get started.