


It’s not difficult to learn how to fill out tax forms, but there is much more to know to adequately advise your clients. Tax returns: Only provide tax return preparation to your clients if you have tax expertise.Be sure to pick a client software package that can easily be expanded to include payroll.

Payroll: If your bookkeeping business provides payroll services, you’ll need to not only issue payments to your client’s employees but also track and pay payroll taxes.You can submit payments to their vendors or simply provide a list of bills that need to be paid. Bill payment: You can provide value to your clients by tracking their unpaid bills.Even if you don’t prepare and mail the invoices, you could collect, deposit, and track customer payments. Invoicing: Some bookkeeping businesses will prepare and mail invoices to their client’s customers.The result is typically a basic set of financial statements at the end of each month. Basic bookkeeping: Basic bookkeeping usually includes entering banking transactions, classifying payments, and reconciling the bank statements.Here are some of the common services offered by bookkeeping businesses: You might add more later, but knowing your initial offerings are important so that you can choose the right certifications and software. You should decide what services your bookkeeping business will initially offer. While choosing a niche will greatly reduce your available client base, it makes it much easier to gain expertise and distinguish yourself from your competitors.
Starting a bookkeeping business drivers#
For example, construction companies compute their profit by project, truck drivers have special tax rules for computing travel expenses, and restaurants have a very high volume of relatively low-value inventory items to track. The best niches to consider are those that have unique bookkeeping challenges. It’s much easier to become an expert in accounting for a particular business niche than it is for all businesses in general. The next decision is whether to focus on a particular small business niche or offer services to all small businesses. You should plan on paying for help with online advertising, web design, search engine optimization (SEO), and website content management. While it’s tempting to offer your services online to a worldwide audience, it adds a lot of complexity to your operations. You should first decide whether your target market will be limited to your surrounding area, or if you’ll offer online services.
