Evaluating Your Bookkeeper’s Efficiency: When is it Time to Act?
Running a successful Bookkeeping business comes with its share of challenges, especially when expanding your team. I faced this firsthand when my business quickly reached its maximum capacity after just 18 months. To manage my growing client base and continue scaling, I decided to bring a freelance bookkeeper on board.
Having worked with this contract bookkeeper for a year now, I’ve noticed a consistent sluggishness in task completion. While I aim to be patient—acknowledging that proficiency and speed improve over time—my concern is mounting over delays in finishing projects. Particularly troubling is an instance where a single annual file took over 80 hours to complete due to difficulties in recalling certain procedures.
My dilemma is determining the reasonable timeframe for Bookkeeping tasks and understanding when a remote worker might no longer be a viable option. I’m hesitant to make any rash decisions, yet it’s challenging to assess whether the time taken exceeds acceptable limits.
If you’ve navigated similar situations or have insights on maintaining a balance between quality and efficiency, your advice would be invaluable.
One response
Assessing whether your contract bookkeeper is taking too long involves evaluating both qualitative and quantitative factors. Here are some practical tips to help you determine if the time spent is reasonable, along with some advice on how to address the situation.
Establish Baselines and Benchmarks:
Begin by setting clear expectations and benchmarks for task completion times. This could involve creating a standard time frame for common Bookkeeping tasks like reconciliations, payroll processing, or tax preparation based on industry standards. These benchmarks will provide a point of reference for assessing whether your bookkeeper’s pace is within the expected range.
Evaluate the Complexity of Work:
Consider the complexity of the tasks assigned to your bookkeeper. If the work involves intricate financial situations or large volumes of transactions, it’s reasonable for the tasks to take longer. However, compare these tasks to similar ones you’ve completed. If you or other professionals find the duration excessively long, it could indicate an issue.
Review the Quality of Work:
Quality is just as important as speed. Review the completed work for accuracy and thoroughness. High-quality work may justify a slower pace if errors and corrections are minimized, ultimately saving time and resources on rework. However, if the work continues to show errors despite the long hours, this might raise a concern over efficiency or competency.
Assess Resource Utilization:
If feasible, invest in project management or time-tracking tools that can provide insights into how time is allocated across different tasks. These tools often reveal bottlenecks or distractions that may be impacting productivity. Ensuring adequate resources, such as software tools or training, might help improve efficiency.
Communicate Openly:
Engage in open and constructive conversations with your bookkeeper. Discuss your observations and provide feedback on areas where you see room for improvement. They might be unaware of their inefficiencies or could be facing obstacles that you can help address, such as inadequate training or unfamiliarity with certain tools or systems.
Consider Professional Development:
Sometimes, slow performance is a result of a lack of skills or unfamiliarity with specific processes. Offering additional training or mentoring might significantly enhance their productivity. Consider setting up regular check-ins focused on professional development or even pairing them with a more experienced bookkeeper temporarily.
Re-Evaluate Work Allocation:
Look at how tasks are distributed. Sometimes, it might be beneficial to reassign certain jobs to better match an