Four Tips for Finding A Great Bookkeeper

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Having a terrific bookkeeper on your team brings peace of mind and improves your organizational health. But finding a great match for your business can be hard, especially if finances aren’t your strong suit.

To begin with the obvious, they should have basic bookkeeping skills, including:

  • Proficiency with bookkeeping software

  • Ability to add vendors and customers to your books

  • Ability to manage accounts payable and receivable

  • Familiarity with payroll taxes, and how to pay them online

  • Ability to reconcile bank and credit card statements

  • Knowledge of what clean books should look like, and the ability to spot errors and sleuth out problems

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Top 5 Employee Motivators

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1. Challenging Work—Providing your employees with challenging work does not mean over-loading or over-whelming them; it means that they are inspired to do more by being given challenges that help them feel more successful.

2. Recognition—Recognition is a powerful motivator.  Showing an employee that you recognize they bring their best effort to their work is key to employee satisfaction. Similarly, if an employee is unengaged in their work, recognition can bring an extra boost of confidence.

3. Employee Involvement—Your employees are aware of, and part of, the future goals of your organization. This is closely related to the practice of transparency, which means your employees see you actively engaged in work and trust that you’re keeping them up-to-date on what is going on with the organization. Work to create the sense that you are all in this together.

4. Job Security—Nothing will make employees disengage from an organization faster than fear they will lose their job. While you should aspire to create a work culture of transparency and employee involvement, take care to avoid sharing too much worrisome information about financial concerns, market issues, lagging sales, etc.  Helping your employees feel secure in the work they do will deepen their job satisfaction.

5. Compensation—While fair compensation is important, money sits at the bottom of this list of motivators. Increased compensation may bring employees through your door, but it doesn’t keep them for the long haul; no amount of money will keep someone in a work environment they are unhappy with.  

Six Steps to Hiring the Right Person for the Job

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This article is excerpted from an HR best practices webinar that Clarity presented in partnership with Washington Nonprofits.

Human resources are the people that make up your workforce—from the largest corporation to the smallest business or nonprofit organization. They are the engine that power your ability to invent things, produce things, or deliver services. Humans bring the value to your enterprise. As a business or nonprofit organization, your employees are your greatest expense and your greatest opportunity.

Once hired, it takes 6 months for an employee to learn all aspects of their job, and an additional 6 months to become proficient at it. This means it takes a full year to begin to offset the cost and investment of the employer. To receive a return on investment of a full year of expenses associated with hiring, on-boarding, training, and supporting your new employee to proficiency, you really need to keep an employee for two years. This is why it’s important to find just the right fit for your position during the hiring process!

Here are six steps every organization should take to boost their chances of finding and hiring a great match.

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Happy Spring!

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Bring growth and vitality to your business with an infusion of energy, fresh ideas, and new knowledge--take a class, attend a workshop, and participate in a networking event. Perhaps you're ready to hire new staff, or even shift gears in your professional life. Piggyback on the natural energy boost that comes with lengthening days and warmer weather to spring into a new chapter of success with your business, nonprofit, or career. See a list of opportunities below!

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