Now that you have made the decision to outsource your bookkeeping—hiring a professional bookkeeping service rather than doing it yourself or asking one of your employees to take it on—how do you decide which company to choose?

Here are five quick tips to help guide you while you are choosing a bookkeeping service provider:

• Experience. You want to find a bookkeeping service provider that has the experience and knowledge to save you money by helping you to stay on top of your finances. An experienced bookkeeper will be able to tailor their services specifically for the kind of work you’re doing and the industry you’re in. Having worked with many businesses before across industries, a bookkeeper will also be able to offer valuable insight as a business consultant—having seen firsthand what works and what doesn’t.
• Time and Money. One of the benefits of outsourcing bookkeeping is that you do not have to hire an employee at a set number of hours. Make sure that the bookkeeping services provider will be able to adjust to the level of bookkeeping service that is appropriate for your particular company.
• Technology. The world of bookkeeping has evolved a lot in recent years—new technical capabilities have enabled bookkeepers to streamline much of what they do. When choosing a bookkeeping services firm, you want to make sure that they are not only up-to-date with technology, but that they’re enthusiastic and open to new technologies as they continue to develop.
• Company versus Individual. Another benefit of outsourcing accounting is that if you hire a bookkeeping services firm rather than an individual bookkeeper, you have a whole team working for you rather than just one person. When you look for a bookkeeping services company, look for one that has an experienced team of accountants. Even if you have one person who directly works with you, you want that person to have a team of accounting experts to consult with as needed, and to be part of a company that stays current with accounting changes and has established best-practices protocols.
• Safety. Using cloud-based storage is safer than you might think. Make sure your bookkeeping services providers are using leading cloud-based storage solutions for your data so that your information is safe and easily recovered.