I recently read a great article on the Xero blog about what tradespeople want from their accountant or bookkeeper. It struck a chord with me because we love working with those in the trades. My dad is a licensed landscape contractor and my mom (the founder of BBB) has always done his books. She saw the struggle first hand of contractors that are great at their handcrafted trade but usually don’t want to do too much with their bookkeeping.
Somehow life has come full circle and now I, and another member of the BBB Team, do my dad’s books (In Xero of course!). In fact, this summer I spent some time working with my dad in his business (he now runs a pool cleaning service) to help him a little through the summer and let him take a vacation. So when I say we like those in the trades, we mean it! We have always had a special place in our hearts for those in the trades, and we really enjoy working with them.
What do tradespeople want in a bookkeeper though?
Based on the feedback from some of our construction clients, these are areas that they expressed were important to them:
- Support
- Time to focus on running the business
- Working with someone you can trust
Support
We find this as a common theme with tradespeople. They want to have support with their bookkeeping. We can’t blame them! When you run into an unusual situation with your bookkeeping, you need support to help you resolve the situation quickly and accurately.
A common question we get is “If I made a profit of $xxx, where is the money?” We can help answer this question! We can provide specialized reports that show you if you are making money and to help you to see where your money is going. For example, we can tell you how much you are spending on meals or materials. Using the tracking capacities of Xero, we can get even more specific. We know that you would rather focus on your specialized trade than the books. So we offer support and understand the trades and the struggles that you deal with.
Time to Focus on Running the Business
So you want more time? We can definitely understand that! Running a business takes a lot of time and effort and you probably started your business with a passion to do the work, not crunch numbers all day! Especially as business owners, a lot of responsibility falls on your shoulders. A bookkeeper with experience in the trades can do a lot of the day to day work and save you precious time.
Working with Someone You Trust
This is huge! It feels pretty personal having someone in the nitty-gritty financial details of your business. You want to know that this person or company is someone that you can trust. You want to make sure this person in professional and is keeping your private financial information private. In this day and age, privacy is very important. Trust is something that is earned and we understand how important it is to have someone in your corner that you can trust.
These are just a few things that matter to the tradespeople. We enjoy working with those in the trades and we offer a variety of personalized service that is tailored to your needs. If you are a trades business and you are looking for a solution that addresses your needs feel free to schedule your free consultation with us here.