Dear Abacus,
I have an amazing admin who gets stuff done so fast that she has a little bit of free time. I’m thinking of having her trained in bookkeeping so I can save some money on outsourcing my accounting. Is that a good idea?
Thanks a lot,
Envisioning Efficiency
Dear Efficiency,
It is always good to have effective help and to save on costs. But you have to remember that admin and bookkeeping work are very different. Before you start training your admin, you need to understand what exactly you are going to ask her to do.
Accounting can be complex. It is very situational work, and some situations require you to have a foundational understanding of the field. There won’t be a blueprint of exactly what to do in each situation, so if she isn’t a trained accountant she might be left in the dark when an unusual situation arises.
Accounting isn’t something you can master during a three-hour course. It takes years to grasp some of the more complex work. While she may be trained on data entry and simple bookkeeping, there is no guarantee that she will be able to meet all of your company’s bookkeeping needs. Even if you hire the best, most expensive trainer in town to spend months with her, that doesn’t guarantee that your admin will be able to effectively and accurately do the bookkeeping.
Before you make a decision, you need to make sure that the money you’ll save on outsourcing to an accounting team is worth the cost of potentially subpar bookkeeping. Segment out the work you want done and identify your standards. Make sure to build in a budget for review, as it’s likely that your admin won’t be able to recognize her own errors. If the costs look like they will outweigh the benefits, you might want to reach out to your CPA or another accountant for bookkeeping help.
Good luck,
Abacus the Accountant
Share this article
