Bookkeeping for Contractors

Find out why bookkeeping for contractors is best left to the experts.

Most employees dream of the day they can go into business for themselves, opening up their own small business and being their own boss. After all, why should your boss and the company you work for reap all the benefits when you’re the one out in the field performing the work each day? While many people entertain these thoughts from time to time, few will act on them – preferring the security of employment over the uncertainty of running your own business and finding your own clients.

If you’re one of the rare people that have branched out on your own and now work as a contractor – congratulations! It’s not an easy road, and hopefully the independence and flexibility of being your own boss have made up for any shortcomings in your business model. One aspect of working as a contractor that you may not have bargained for, however, is the bookkeeping requirements.

Bookkeeping for contractors can be complex, time-consuming, and at times confusing. You’ve already got your hands full negotiating new contracts, managing equipment and stock, not to mention making time to complete the work itself – you don’t have the time to worry about bookkeeping for contractors.

At Free My Cloud, we believe you shouldn’t have to. Everyone should play to their strengths, and by going out on your own as a contractor you’ve already recognised where your strengths lie. As for the bookkeepers at Free My Cloud – we have different strengths. We may not know how to complete a contracting project like you do, but we know everything there is to know about bookkeeping for contractors. And we believe that not only will you save time (and possibly your sanity) by handing over your bookkeeping for contractors to us, you’ll also save money.

How? Because when you complete your own bookkeeping, not only are you wasting time bent over a desk when you should be concentrating on your own business strengths (or enjoying some well-earned time off), but you’re also probably missing out on potential deductions and inadvertently generating incorrect reports, giving you an inaccurate picture of the health and profitability of your business.

Doing your own bookkeeping for contractor: common mistakes

Not convinced? Here are the top three mistakes contractors make when they do their own bookkeeping, and how these mistakes can affect the bottom line:

Not keeping your revenue streams separate. Revenue is revenue, but if you really want a true idea of the profitability of your business, you need to know how each client, each project, and each revenue stream is earning you money.
Not separating your business and personal finances. The first step in staying compliant is separating out your business and personal accounts, but a surprising number of contractors have personal and professional transactions mixed in together. Not only does this make bookkeeping much more difficult than it needs to be, it can also leave you open to liability.
Using the wrong bookkeeping system. MYOB, Xero, QuickBooks – not all bookkeeping software systems are created alike, and software that can work well for one business may be entirely unsuitable for another. Our expert bookkeepers can advise you on the best bookkeeping software to suit your needs, can set you up on the system, and give you online access so you can view the current financial status of your business at any time.

The expert bookkeepers at Free My Cloud have years of experience in bookkeeping for contractors. We work with Australian business of sizes across many different industries. As long as you’ve got access to the internet, you can have your books expertly maintained by the bookkeeping team at Free My Cloud.