Easy bookkeeping does not exist

Online invoice tools to electronically create and send invoices are mushrooming like crazy. Indeed, Twinfield has an Invoice subscription so entrepreneurs can directly create sales invoices within the bookkeeping environment. The big advantage is that it saves the accountant or administrative office from doing the same job twice because invoices are filed in the books immediately without having to be typed up again. Although for us it is an obvious way of working, the National Bookkeeping Survey of small businesses in Holland in early 2010 showed that more than 80% of  SME’s create their invoices in an Office program and therefore work very inefficiently!

It is sometimes implied that when invoices are created the user is performing bookkeeping, because the invoices are filed in the business administration and, therefore, bookkeeping is easy! An online tool is seen as really no more or less than a substitute for an Office application because it is just as unconnected to the administration as the Office application. This, however, slightly misses the point. The truth is bookkeeping is not easy at all and creating sales invoices forms only a small part of a business’ administration.

Despite all the available online tools, invoices are still being imported (or, even worse, re-keyed) into the books at an accountant’s or administrative office, which costs time and money. Let alone the mistakes that can occur when exporting and importing those invoices. Straightforward bookkeeping exists, sure, but easy bookkeeping is, in my opinion, a myth. As with so many other things, 80% of it will be normal, day-to-day stuff, but 20% will be a little different. And it is that 20% that takes 80% of the time to deal with correctly, and for which an accountant or administrative office is indispensable. They have the knowledge and ability to reduce that time, and in doing so, reduce the amount an entrepreneur spends on administration. No, there is no such thing as easy bookkeeping. If that were the case, thousands of accountants and administrative offices would cease to have a right to exist.