DOING YOUR OWN BOOKS? HERE IS WHEN TO STOP.
Doing your own books is fine early, when the company is small and you know every job. It stops working when you no longer have time for it, when the reports are late, or when you cannot see which jobs earn. The alternatives are a part-time bookkeeper, outsourced bookkeeping, or outsourced finance with job costing and a monthly meeting.
The honest test has little to do with skill. It is what your time is worth and how late your numbers come. An owner who keeps the books at night is paying for it in the hours they are not estimating, selling or running jobs, and the numbers usually come weeks after the month ends, when nothing can be done about them. Owners also tend to code to what they remember and not to a structure, which makes job cost unreliable. If you enjoy it, your books are current and you can say which jobs earn the most and the least, keep going. If not, the three options below cover different needs.
WHAT EACH ONE DOES.
| Capability | Keep doing it yourself | A part-time bookkeeper | Outsourced finance with job costing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your time | Hours each month, often at night | Gets most of the hours back | A few hours a month |
| Books current | Only if you keep up | Yes | Yes |
| Job cost structure matches the estimate | Only as you remember it | Works inside what exists | Designed against the estimate |
| Someone reviews the close | No | Rarely | Yes |
| Forecast and decisions | If you build it | No | Yes |
| Cost | Your time | An hourly or monthly fee | A monthly fee, published |
| Single point of failure | You | The bookkeeper | No, a team |
| Where it breaks | Late numbers and no time | Current books on a loose structure | More than a simple company needs |
WHEN THE COMPANY IS STILL SIMPLE.
If you have a handful of jobs, books that are current, and you can tell me which job made money last quarter, doing them yourself is cheap and it keeps you close to the numbers. There is no reason to hire help you do not need.
It breaks when the books run weeks behind, when you stop looking at them, or when you are the bottleneck for every decision. Late numbers are as good as no numbers.
WHEN YOU NEED THE HOURS BACK.
A part-time bookkeeper takes the data entry, reconciliation and bill paying off your plate and gets the records current. For many owners that alone is a big step, because the books stop being the thing you do at night.
What a bookkeeper does not usually do is design the job cost structure or review what the numbers mean. You get a current record. If the record is coded loosely, you get current and loose.
WHEN YOU WANT THE NUMBERS RUN FOR YOU.
This is bookkeeping plus a job cost structure aligned to your estimating, a reviewed close and a monthly meeting where the numbers become decisions. The goal is that you spend a few hours a month on it and still know where you stand. That is what SPM does.
It costs more than a bookkeeper because it does more. If your only problem is that the books are behind, a bookkeeper is enough, and we will say so.
WHERE WE COME OUT.
Keep doing it yourself while the company is simple and the numbers come on time. Check yourself against two questions: are the books current, and can you say which jobs earn the most and the least.
Hire a part-time bookkeeper when the issue is hours and the books are behind. It is the simplest fix and often enough on its own.
Move to outsourced finance when you also cannot trust the job costs, no one reviews the close and you want to stop being the person who checks. That is the point where the problem has moved from the record to the decisions.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
