Are you running a small business and doing your own accounting? Yes?
Why?
A web professional keeping their own books is like Uncle Roger ‘making websites’ in Dreamweaver—the job gets done, but probably not in the most cost (or time) efficient manner.
Break it Down
Finding someone to handle money correctly is the number one piece of advice PJ and I received when starting our company. “Send your bills to your accountant and forget about it. It’s worth the cost.”
And really, it’s the number one piece of advice we’d give anyone else starting their own business. Here’s the math:
Let’s say you’re a talented, solo web developer charging $85/hr. Following that, there’s a golden accountant with a winning personality available charging $70/hr. Without getting into taxes and details, it’s easy to see this is a deal: a good accountant (hopefully) is a CPA, possible a Certified Tax Preparer, too, and has formal training which you do not. They’ve experienced a whole bunch of weird situations, shortcuts, and other nuggets garnered from time spent on the job which you can use to your advantage.
Would you pay someone with little to no experience $85/hr to build your website? Of course not, so why are you paying someone with little to no experience (yourself) $85/hr to keep your books?
What’s it for?
We try to let our accounting firm handle everything: personal taxes, business taxes, expenses, our company credit, subcontractor invoicing, and client invoicing. We work with a few people and think they’re all amazing. Swift, too.
While we could be doing this stuff ourselves, we’d much rather pay professionals and free up time to do more work or afford more non-billable hours for things like this blog post.
Most importantly, our accountant answers any questions we have. And we have a lot. While we’re still learning the ropes, they’ve seen it all before and have never failed to help us out with a prompt solution.
Finding the Dream Date
The hardest part, of course, is finding an accountant who will work with you personally and answer any questions you have. If you’re in San Francisco, we’d heartily recommend Keeping Your Balance – they take great care of us.
Yelp, believe it or not, is a good resource for this type of thing, but no replacement for your friends and colleagues. Don’t be afraid to ask around. There are many small business forums on the Internet, some even Rails-specific, which can help get you in touch with like minded individuals.
Accounting for Change
We reiterate our point because, well, it’s something we need to remember. Often we feel like we can, and therefor should, do everything. “Why would I pay someone to keep track of my invoices? I can do that.”
But, of course, time is money. Spend it wisely.
