I've been researching offering a "bookkeeping plus" service at circa £1,000 to £2,500 a month.
This is where the bookkeeper offers a total finance department including an address for the clients customers and suppliers. The service would include:
Debtor statements, credit control and banking
Maintaining the purchase ledger including payment
Bank reconciliations and VAT returns
Setting of the annual budgets
Monthly or quarterly management accounts
Attending a monthly or quarterly board meeting
Having recently spoken with an accountant who does this I am sure there is a growing market for this and believe bookkeepers are ideally placed to take advantage of this even if they need to do a bit of extra personal development.
Does anyone have experience they would be willing to share?
That sounds like a great idea, I think i would like to go that way Once i have finished my AAT's (fingers crossed this august!!!) Im so so keen to start working self employed, but its probably not the right time to start!
Think about starting your marketing ASAP because it takes time to kick-in. And, this will be valueable research and experience because if you can't make any sales perhaps you should think about something else.
I charge my biggest client somewhere between £500 to £1000 per month, depending on how long I've worked on their stuff. I suppose it is the only bookkeeping job I do nowadays apart from my own accounts and that's because for the time being I like to know everything that gies on with these guys. I will at some point get one of my bookkeepers to do some of it quite soon though.
I got this job as a referal from an accountant. The client had employed two bookkeepers and then used a local firm of chartered accountants who would send a junior down to the office, all of which he was dissatisfied with. He has Sage set up and I use logmein to do the work. They send a package of invoices to me every week and a bunch of emails and a fair few questions.
There is no need to do any credit control, banking or debtor statements as there are just a few clients who pay religiously monthly direct into the bank. The purchase ledger can get a bit messy but we have that pretty much under control now! Obviously bank recs and vat.
The accountant has a monthly conference call with the board and does monthly management accounts too, which I am not involved in. I think in time I will be asked to do more work of an analysis nature, so I'll need to brush up on project codes and such like.
I would agree there are companies out there who are able to pay this kind of money for that service. I would say they need to be companies that are not so big that they have their own accounts department but obviously big enough to warrant that service. I think flexibility is the key. And that is one of the ways I sell my services, always accentuating that point. However to offer all the services (board meetings, budgets etc) the bookkeeper would have to be both very competent and also very confident. Clearly three or four clients like this and a bunch of smaler clients (spread the risk!) would be a decent set up. For me personally it does become a little too much like working for someone, but then I would probably have one or two people doing the bulk of the day to day stuff for me.
@Rob - I agree, the bookkeeper will need to be competent and confident but 99% of the work can be delegated so I think there is a viable business model.
Oh it's definitely viable Bob, it is the kind of work that accountants delegate out to junior staff all the time so there is a market there and one of those could be worth twenty little ones so worth looking for.
The dangerous thing about this sort of post though is that newbies such as Stuart are already assuming that they would be able to take this path when they have passed their exams but the skills and knowledge involved in a full service arrangement where not delegated to staff are beyond the scope of many of the members of this site.
I'm sure that entrepreneurs such as yourself Bob or Rob can easily make a success of this but this reply is just meant to bring balance to the thread for all those bookkeepers out there who should not contemplate taking on anything like this.
I think experienced site contributors know their limitations from experience but newcomers to this can take on too much too soon thinking that they can handle matters without the experience necessary to back up their aspirations.
For any who go down this route I wish them the very best but just be aware that the client expectations of a full outsourced finance department may be more than the expectations than they have of their existing finance function!
kind regards,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Shaun - a major problem for accountants and bookkeepers is that they tend to live with a negative mindset.
The problem maybe because we are always telling clients you can't do this, you are not allowed to claim that and we live in fear of the tax man and now Money Laundering. But, business is about risk and return. Life is about experience so I would encourage bookkeepers to get comfortable outside their comfort zone because that is where growth comes from.
However, I would urge personal development on business management before promoting the service. But, at the end of the day it is just glorified bookkeeping - what specifically do you think is so difficult?
Bob I had a discussion with you last year over this model and told you then that for ICB members they cannot employ anyone that is not covered by ICB , even as a data entry clerk, which is the way you put it to me.
Yes business is a risk but the risk to us is a spell in prison with a fine when we come out with no hope of ever being able to practise again to pay the fine.
@Julie - I checked with ICB and spoke with Gary Carter and believe that non ICB members can be employed for data entry if supervised. However, if it was the case we would look at alternatives.
