If you are looking to engage a bookkeeper, you may be choosing between a local bookkeeper or an overseas provider, so we are discussing below some points to consider.

What can you expect from a local bookkeeper? 

You should expect a personal service from an individual or small team who you will know in person. They will have your number stored in their phone and when you ring them, they will know who you are and be knowledgeable about your business.  They might come to your premises to work, or they might work remotely, and you may or may not meet regularly face to face. But you will know each other. And from general life experience, they will have some knowledge of your operating conditions, such as instantly recognising names of your local suppliers, which can help improve the accuracy of processing and reduce the number of questions that get referred back to you.

Most local bookkeepers are members for a UK recognised professional body that ensure that they hold necessary professional indemnity insurance and that ethical standards are maintained.  You can ask to see these documents.

It is quite easy to change from one local bookkeeper to another.  The professional bodies ensure that there are very well-established procedures for handover from one bookkeeper / accountant to another, and you should already have full access to your own records. For more information, read our blog "why use a local bookkeeper" here.

However, there are a number of overseas providers who have come onto the market recently who are offering hourly rates that are significantly lower than those from local UK bookkeepers.  We have seen rates advertised as low as £8/hour for bookkeeping in Asia, compared with a starting rate of around £20/hour in the UK.  For the benefit of transparency, we point out here that we have not, ourselves, utilised these low-rate overseas services and we do not have any experience of their service standards.  But we fully understand that low bookkeeping rates like these are tempting, so we’ve put together a few questions that you may want to find answers to before you go overseas.

Questions to ask an overseas bookkeeping agency

• How are questions / queries communicated to you?  Bookkeeping work is never 100% straight forward, there are always a few questions, so what methods do they use to put queries to you.
• How do you they deal with your questions, e.g. if you want to know how much the company spent on the fuel cards last year, can you ring or email them to ask that? If you have a supplier requesting a payment, but your ledger shows that it has already been paid, what do you do? Will the overseas provider speak to your supplier and resolve the issue for you, or do you need to get involved?  If you have a VAT inspection, will they speak to HMRC for you and help with responses, or do you have to do that yourself?
• If they bill per hour, will they send you a timesheet detailing the hours that they have worked? Do they have a minimum charge per month, or a minimum contract period? Do you have to pay by direct debit?
• Which software do they use, and what backup is there?
• Can you see their insurance policy?
• What happens if you want to move away from them in future.  Perhaps you outgrow them and want to employ an accounts person in house. What is the process for the transfer of your records back to you?  Does it sound straightforward?

The above is also a useful list of questions to ask of any new bookkeeper or accountant, whether based in Redditch, Droitwich, London or Asia, and regardless of their advertised hourly rate. To find out more ways that JRMA can support your business, contact us here.