A Bookkeeper as Your Business Consultant (aka Power Bookkeeping)

Some businesses view their bookkeeping service as merely someone to do their books. They view it as nothing more than data entry, writing checks and creating invoices. Unfortunately, they are missing a very powerful role that their bookkeeper is well positioned to provide. What role is this? It’s acting as the profit consultant for the business. Bookkeepers can provide profit consulting that can help any business grow and become highly successful if you have the right system in place.

What Is Profit Consulting?

Before you can see how a bookkeeper can be your best profit consultant, you need to understand just what a profit consultant does. It can be a very nebulous term, but it’s relatively easy to shed some light on it and give it some definition.

A profit consultant is someone who can advise your business on how to solve problems, plan business strategies, increase business knowledge, and understand business processes for profit. Business data analysis is increasingly a major function of a profit consultant. They are also profit coaches that help business owners reach their full potential. Succinctly, profit consultants provide you with actionable information to help you build your business and run it more effectively.

Your Bookkeeper is Already on Your Team

One of the top members of your small business team right now is your bookkeeper. No one knows more about where your business stands at any moment than your bookkeeper. They have access to the numbers showing your revenue, your expenses, and most importantly your profit. They can see where your money is going and where your revenue is coming from. Your bookkeeper is in charge of helping you understand this information so you can make business decisions.

It makes a lot of sense to go with a team member that you already trust when it comes to building your business. Your bookkeeper is someone on your team that already knows your business and it’s in their best interest to see it succeed. Your bookkeeper can provide four very important roles in profit consulting.

Bookkeeper as a Data Analysis Expert

Bookkeeping tools are continually evolving to provide more actionable information. With cloud based apps and software guessing should be a thing of the past. No longer do you need to wait until tax time to know how your business is doing. Cloud-based accounting tools can show you at any moment how your business is doing. You can know how profitable your business is and what areas you are getting the most revenue from as well as categories that represent your highest expenses.

The amount of data that's available from these new cloud-based accounting tools is amazing. It's impressive just how much information is available in easy to understand graphs and charts. Being able to create actionable information is a major benefit to having a bookkeeper who is very skilled at computerized accounting systems. A bookkeeper who understands how to use these cloud-based tools is not just a bookkeeper but a business data analyst as well.

Bookkeeper as a Profit Coach

A coach is someone who can help you reach your full potential. They are someone who can help your business work through issues and find the path to success. The best profit consultants are coaches. A good bookkeeper is there to give you advice to keep you motivated towards business success. They can help you effectively manage your time. They can help you look at your business in a different way. They provide an outside voice that wants you to succeed. They can help you put all the tools together along with your own capacities.

Bookkeeper as a Profit Strategist

Business plans are not something that is discarded after a business starts up. They are an integral part of what the business does and its strategies. The actionable information that your bookkeeper has access to can be used to identify areas of your business that are the most profitable.

It’s been said that the Pareto Principle is applicable to most business. 80% of your profit comes from 20% of your business. Focusing effort on this 20% can lead to more revenue without a corresponding increase in expenses. Identifying this 20% is in your bookkeeper’s domain. Along with data tools, your top business areas and their corresponding profitability are easy to be seen and evaluated. Through forecasting methods, you can see just how effective any change can have on your bottom line.

Bookkeeper as a Profit Educator

There is a lot to know about running a business. You might be an expert when it comes to your line of business. You know the ins and outs of your industry, but you may not have the same level of experience when it comes to running an actual business. There is paperwork to be filed and red tape to be overcome. You must understand how a business credit works, you must make sure that bills are paid on time, and you must know how different expenses affect your business.

Fortunately, a bookkeeper already has that knowledge and can educate you about what you need to know to run your business more effectively. Your bookkeeper can give you advice on courses of action to not only solve problems but keep the problems from happening in the first place.

It’s clear that a bookkeeper can fulfill the most important profit consultant roles and give you the data analysis, and profit coaching, needed to run and grow your business more effectively.

Power Bookkeeping

Power Bookkeeping is the elevation of transactional bookkeeping to Profit Consulting Bookkeeping. Your bookkeeping system should create clarity into all facets of profit for your business. The Power Bookkeeping System overlays your existing bookkeeping functions providing you with a deeper understanding of your business financials.

Additionally the Power Bookkeeping System creates more accountability within your bookkeeping and accounting team so you know at all times how profitable your business is.

Take action now and build a more profitable business. Contact us today for a free consultation

"Profit consultants provide you with actionable information to help you build your business and run it more effectively"