10 Things to Ask Your Bookkeeper/Office Manager

One of the major problems we see in small businesses is lack of engagement by the owners. You can outsource responsibilities, but you can’t outsource concern. Having the knowledge and ability to stay involved and engaged is one of your greatest assets in fighting off employee theft, legal exposure, tax audit risk, and other business risks.

As a business owner it is easy to overlook what is happening right under your nose at your office. You run your business, but you hire others to handle a lot of details. Those who handle your bookkeeping and payroll have a great vantage point to help you run your business. They may be the biggest asset you have. Trusting them implicitly is great, but it can leave you a little out of the loop on some things. We want to give you some tools to get yourself back into the loop and provide some oversight without having to get too deep into their work.

We have devised this set of questions for you to ask those managing your finances to help you stay on top of things.

1. What is being done to keep accounts receivable down?
2. Are we using segregation of duties to protect employees and company funds?
3. How long does it take to close out the month and prepare the financial reports for the business (and what can be done to speed up that process)?
4. Are all of our payroll deposits made on time and are payroll tax reports timely filed?
5. The bank statement reconciliation is off by $.81. How much time do you spend to find the discrepancy?
6. Do you need training?
7. What can be done to make our bookkeeping system more efficient?
8. Without looking at the books, tell me right now: Where we are wasting money?
9. What have you seen that concerns you?
10. If this were your business, what would you change?

If you are a business owner and you would like more information about these questions, or what kinds of answers to expect, contact us at thinknextstep.com.

What's your next step?