Advice re hiring a bookkeeper/admin assistant

Advice re hiring a bookkeeper/admin assistant

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I'm a reasonably successful sole practitioner offering bookkeeping and accountancy services to small businesses in my local area. In the first year or so of building up my practice I have taken on some bookkeeping fees, which helped (and still do help) to pay the bills. Now my practice is growing rapidly, it is madness to spend what precious little time I have on £20 per hour bookkeeping work and potentially comprimising the level of service that I provide, when I could be doing accountancy rate work. Or building up more accountancy fees.

Early on in my first year as a SP, I tried to build a working relationship with a local bookkeeper who was in the early stages of building her own bookkeeping business. The idea was we could support one another and provide each other with business. The relationship broke down quite quickly as I spent most of my time providing her with support and on one occassion she asked me to come on site to help her with the bookkeeping (time I was not getting paid for as I couldn't expect the client to pay) and then in front of the client she left before the job was finished as she had a party to go to and expected me to finish it for her! So, I am quite nervous of the prospect of taking on a member of staff or finding another subcontractor. Particularly the prospect of investing so much time in bringing them up to speed.

I wondered if anyone could give me some advice on the following proposal:

I would like to take on a part time accounts administrator. Basically someone to do all of the data input for my bookkeeping and accounting clients. I would continue to do everything upwards of reconciling the bank statements so that I can ensure that everything has been input correctly and to save having to invest too much time on training or having to hire a qualified bookkeeper. I would be looking to pay in the region of £10 per hour for about 10 hours per week and the role would involve time spent on client sites and time spent working from home. My initial instinct is that I would like to hire someone that I know (as I know a lot of Mum's with young children that are looking for a part-time job). Rather than subcontracting my preference would be to hire them as an employee and pay a fixed wage.

Please could anyone with experience of having staff let me know if they think that this is feasible and realistic or if there are any potential drawbacks of this set up that I have not thought of.

With thanks in advance for your help!

Sir Digby

Replies (13)

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By puzzel
07th Mar 2010 00:14

Burning the candle at both ends

Hi Sir Digby,

You are as bad as I at this time of night.

Your quest is not solved over a bottle of wine or finding the golden chalice.

Freinds and family do not go in a working environment.

Play the field. If you appoint someone to do the basic book-keeping, you will know if they are up to the job or not. Yes, sorry to say, it is a game of trial and error.

Employing someone only leads to employment law issues when you find they are no good and you want to get rid of them. Short term contracts can be the answer, but just make sure you get the wording of the employment contract correct.

Maybe it is wiser to get a good book-keeper in and pay over the £10.00 per hour, at least you should know what you are getting.

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By Sarah Offord
07th Mar 2010 17:02

Pay peanuts and get monkeys?

My concern was that if I pay the higher rate and expect the bookkeeper to do more to a better standard I will be extremely annoyed and much poorer if it turns out that they need much more support and I would be much less likely to pick up lots of silly mistakes.

If I pay £10 per hour that buys me a pretty good admin clerk and I will be fully anticipating to have to thoroughly check what has been input into my system. Also I will be starting with a blank sheet so I can teach them my ways of working, which naturally are better, rather than trying to beat bad habits out of someone more 'experienced'.

Well, this is my instinct. I am happy to be told I am wrong, if others disagree. I really don't want to get this wrong.

In hindsight, I agree that mixing relatives and friends with business is probably not a great idea!

Sir Digby

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By Ian Bookman
07th Mar 2010 22:53

A Practice in a Practice

 As a self-employed bookkeeper who has only recently started trading and is aiming to follow in your footsteps, I would jump at the chance of working alongside an accountant. I appreciate you have already tried the accountant/bookkeeper partnership approach and that your first attempt didn't work out for you. However, I think it is worth persevering. Everybody has to start somewhere - before experience surely the quality of a bookkeeper is down to an understanding of businesses, qualifications, and attitude. Everybody makes mistakes and experience always help to reduce them, but a   bookkeeper who occasionally seeks your advice to clarify issues is surely demonstrating responsibility. I can assure you I wouldn't be partying until the work was finished.

I'd love to have an insight to the way an accountant operates on a day to day basis with clients, and to have access to reference materials to help me learn and progress.    

I think you're being a bit mean though  - pay someone like me £20 an hour - get someone with the right qualities and attitude and go home each evening, perhaps having had to give up a little of your time in support, but happy that your clients are in good hands.               

 

 

 

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By User deleted
08th Mar 2010 07:47

What worked for me

Seveal years ago I was in your posistion. The very best thing I did was employ a part time admin assistant. She is a working Mum so incredibly loyal and hardworking (allow a bit of give and take with children being ill on very rare ocassions, and the odd 10 minutes late in for the class assemblies etc., the time for which was always more than made up).

I basically got her to do all the bits and pieces which were taking up my time and taught her a bit of basic bookkeeping which she picked up easily - lets be honest its not rocket science and never worth paying £20 per hour for!

In summary that was the best employee I ever took on and allowed me to develop and build my practice. Good luck.

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By Richardrussell
08th Mar 2010 12:46

A word of caution

I took on a family friend about 5 years ago, which was fine at the time, but have since taken on more staff who have more relevant skills and now the family friend doesn't quite gel.  Bu the problem is...she's a family friend.

So go for skills relevant to your business rather than someone you know (I too know lots of mums from my children's school who would like p/t work, but very few have the skills I need).

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By User deleted
08th Mar 2010 13:15

Attitude

I would avoid friends & family and would always put a 'good' attitude, and willingness to learn, above experience.

I would choose an administrator before a bookkeeper. A qualified bookkeeper will resent doing the admin work, but a good administrator is worth their weight in gold and will save you hours of time. If they have the right attitude and are capable of learning, they will quickly manage simple bookkeeping, payroll, etc. and will be able to take on more and more tasks as they progress until you wondered how you ever managed without them!

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By Bob Harper
08th Mar 2010 14:40

First employee

My tips are:

1) Employ the resource you need not what you can afford

2) Make sure you have systems for them to follow

3) Invest in training and managing

4) There is no real profit charging £20 and paying £10 after allowing for hidden costs...but using bookkeeping to win accounts, tax and other services is a smart move.

5) There is a strong argument to employ a non-bookkeeper.

Bob

www.portfioliomarketing.co.uk

 

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By hsr1012
09th Mar 2010 12:23

Ever thought about an apprentice?

Three years ago our practice was in the same situation and we looked at all the options and decided to go with an apprentice, they didn't mind what work we gave them and we were able to train them to complete the work the way we wanted it to be done.

All the AAT training was paid for by the local chamber linked training provider and we could pay them a fixed wage.

Hope this helps.

Helen

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By User deleted
09th Mar 2010 12:33

the right staff

I have now been in practice for 2 years.  When I took on my first part time employee I asked around my clients for anyone they knew with experience.  I was lucky and I got a lady who has AAT and had been a purchase ledger clerk - not the exact right experience but in the right direction.  She has worked out well.  She is keen, loyal and has learnt so much and is now half way through her ACCA exams.  She gets paid £9 per hour.

My second part timer is a lot newer - she was very keen and did some volutary work for a couple of months to gain experience.  At the end of that time I took her on (and paid her).  She is AAT and hopes to continue training later on this year.   She gets paid minium wage at the moment - but will go up quite quickly in the future to the same as above.

They are both keen and both mums - so you do end up with some time off for kids etc (but then so do I).  I have tried to stay away from Family.friends as I think it can cause trouble - its hard enough telling someone - if it ever happended - that you needed to reduce staff, but family/friends would be social disaster!!

Obviously hourly rates can change a lot depending on area, but I would have thought someone with some experience/exams behind them would be ok at £10 per hour. 

I know that Iris are pushing a bookkeeping outsource - i have not tried it but I may be worth a look.  I try and keep away from bookkeeping as it takes so long and does not pay so well.

Good luck

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By sam_swain
09th Mar 2010 12:34

no matter how experienced, be clear and check up from the outset

When I employ, I give bookkeepers a test I have generated featuring a variety of postings, sales (where more than one nominal is set up), purchases (some vatable and not), bank entries relating to sales and purchases and general like PAYE and Drawings. I ask them to bank reconcile to check they do actually agree to statement and then I ask them to print a TB and tell me the obvious concerns, where I have set up a few balances that an experienced bookkeeper would question. (trade debtors being a credit balance for example). I have found many people keep books in individual companies and are never advanced by FD's and Finance Managers so years of experience is really just very basic data entry. (I was once that bookkeeper lol) The test weedles out those who know their stuff and those that may need some time and effort for a while. Either can work really well, those I have started with little experience go on to learn how I want the books done to minimise the Accountancy time at year end. My advice, whether experienced or not, is be very clear about the format you require and how you want queries fed back to you/client. Give them a ticklist to report back to you on last sales invoice/bank rec/queries etc so you can make sure nothing gets too far behind. It's helped me a lot to view TB's periodically, this has hilighted a few issues needing attention. Don't expect any bookkeeper to know everything straight away bear in mind that even practice bookkeepers have worked to someone elses requirements so give them fair chance to learn yours.

A good note taker at the outset is a good sign for me that someone understands it is impossible to remember everything about every client in practice bookkeeping !

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By The Tax Factory Ltd
09th Mar 2010 16:29

Advice re hiring a bookkeeper/admin assistant

Have you thought about contacting a local college that teaches AAT on a part-time basis.  They may have some students who may be looking for part-time work to gain some experience which would enhance their studies.

The Tax Factory

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By brian17
11th Mar 2010 10:50

Brian Wade

Hi Sir Digby,

If you are looking to hire someone for book-keeping/admin. on a freelance basis, look no further.I have done book-keeping for several years, working with local accountants, and at present, I do the books and payroll for a professional photographer, using Sage Instant Accounts and Sage Payroll.I am over retirement age, but nevertheless, I would welcome part-time work.

No idea where you are, but in this age of instant communication, that shouldn't be a problem.

If you would like to take this further, please reply via this website with your contact details.

 

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By futureb00ks
13th Nov 2012 23:39

hiring a bookkeeper

 

They are responsible for creating the general ledger (GL) which is the basis of the company’s management accounts.

They deal with every transaction. If the business has 800 transactions per month, the bookkeeper is likely to touch all 800 at least once.

As such, bookkeepers need to be fast, accurate and knowledgeable. They have to be resourceful because they need to quickly discover the origin of unknown transactions.

When hiring a freelance or full time bookkeeper, there are several qualities you should look for. They include:

•               knowledge

•               speed

•               accuracy

We posted more here: http://bit.ly/QBhPDb

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