Choosing the Right Bookkeeping Style
Every successful law practice relies on a competent staff to manage the daily activities of the firm. A spacious building, secretary, and of course the attorneys themselves are needed to make the practice succeed. The need quickly arises for a bookkeeper, as well, and the firm must decide which type of bookkeeping style will be required – staff or virtual.
In this modern age, the internet is becoming increasingly better for outsourcing and simplifying tasks. Faxing, emailing, advertising, and quick meetings can all be done online. The internet makes these tasks faster and cheaper. Bookkeeping is also moving online, making this normally detailed and arduous job easier to outsource, and bringing down the cost of having a person come into the office to do the work.
Although having a bookkeeper work over the internet, i.e., virtually, has many advantages, having an in-office person can also be advantageous. Each law firm must decide which method works best for them.
In House Bookkeeper
An on-site bookkeeper will be an actual, live, present person in the law office. The attorneys or secretary can ask her questions, hand her receipts, or quickly discuss her tasks each day. The bookkeeper can also distribute reports, statements, and invoices readily throughout the day, as they are needed.
An office bookkeeper may even be able to multitask to some extent, such as filing documents, answering phones, or helping with client appointments. Meetings with the bookkeeper can be more interactive, real paperwork can be shared and studied together, and the online meetings will be few and far between.
Paper receipts are easily handed off, and the bookkeeper may even be able to handle the billing and bill payments for the business. A good bookkeeper in the office usually becomes the doer of all financial tasks, and learns to be very good at many different parts of the attorney’s record keeping.
However, the in-office bookkeeper also has some disadvantages. A good, experienced bookkeeper will require a yearly salary of at least $40,000, plus insurance, employer taxes, and bonuses. A staff bookkeeper will need a week or two of vacation each year. He will require sick days, personal days, and holidays off.
Having a staff bookkeeper also means using up valuable office space, purchasing a desk, computer, printer, scanner, and whatever else he will need to do his job competently.
Another problem with a full-time bookkeeper is that most law firms don’t actually have enough financial work to fill up 40 hours a week. Especially with the fantastic software available now, a good bookkeeper can keep up with his job in only a fraction of the 40 hours. That leaves the employer with trying to find other tasks for the bookkeeper to do, or asking him to step down to part time work. This leaves gaps of time when the office can’t communicate with the bookkeeper, and may have to wait until those few days each week to get financial tasks or reports from him.
Virtual Bookkeeping
Welcome to the 21st Century, attorneys of the world! During this amazing time in history, work can be outsourced and still be top-notch quality. This is especially true for something like bookkeeping. A great bookkeeper living in Maine can still organize and maintain the books for a successful attorney in Texas.
Virtual bookkeepers are much lower cost in nearly every area compared to an in-house bookkeeper. They don’t need to be provided with an office space, desk, chair, computer, phone, parking space, or even salaries.
Most virtual bookkeepers work on a contract basis, which means the law firm will also save money on payroll taxes, insurance, holiday pay, vacation pay, and sick pay. Contractors are also extremely motivated to get their work done efficiently since they are not paid hourly, so even if their monthly rate is several hundred dollars, it still pales in comparison to an hourly staff member who is paid a minimum of $700 a week.
Virtual bookkeepers are nearly or even more accessible as an in-house bookkeeper. They tend to check email more frequently, are available via phone, online meeting, or chat message during business hours each day. Even on their sick days, they will probably still squeeze in some work for the company so as to not fall behind. Virtual bookkeepers tend to be very thorough and organized, saving their clients many hours of follow-up time.
Another huge advantage a virtual bookkeeper could bring to a law office is the experience of working with similar businesses, and therefore she can help each law office to know if they are overspending in some areas, or if they need to tighten up their finances in others. Virtual bookkeepers attempt to help every client with the knowledge that they gain from working with similar industries.
Each law office needs to carefully compare the two options when selecting a bookkeeper. Obviously there will be pros and cons with each, so the choice needs to be made on an individual basis.
¹https://www.salary.com/research/salary/benchmark/bookkeeper-salary
