Running a successful winery requires you to manage numerous departments—production, processing, sales, and administration, to name a few. Often bookkeeping and accounting are some of the first areas neglected when there’s not enough of you to go around.
When you find yourself scrambling at tax time or with a pile of unopened bills, hiring a bookkeeper can help ease your burden. With a professional in charge of your day-to-day finances, you’re free to tend to the areas of your winery that need your expertise.
A Bookkeeper Will Allow You to Focus on Your Business
Great bookkeeping is the backbone of any successful business. Ensuring your bills and employees are paid on time, your taxes are filed, and your financial statements are current are just some of the things a great bookkeeper does.
While you may think that doing your own bookkeeping saves you money and allows you to better understand your business’s finances, every bit of time you spend crunching numbers is time away from building, managing, or expanding your business.
You didn’t get into the winery business because you enjoy accounting and administrative work. Your time is better spent working on producing wine.
Bringing in a professional to help with your bookkeeping can prevent you from being spread too thin and burnout. Stay focused on what you really love doing and leave it to the financial expert to handle the numbers.
A Bookkeeper Will Help You Better Understand Your Business
You know a lot about wine grapes, harvesting, and selling wine. Chances are you aren’t a skilled accountant.
You may know how much your grapes cost but do you know you receive a 10% discount if you pay your vendor a few days early? A bookkeeper will help you manage cash flow to ensure your business takes advantage of any money-saving opportunities.
As your winery grows, knowing how much cash you have in the bank isn’t enough. You’ll need to know how much money you have coming in and going out in the future. Keeping track of it in your head can lead to cash flow struggles.
A great bookkeeper will manage your accounts receivable and accounts payable to keep cash moving.
Having a bookkeeper who’s devoted to your winery’s books allows them to be able to spot irregularities early. Maybe a vendor is charging more or you are selling more than in the past, but you aren’t collecting more sales tax. Addressing any inconsistencies from the start will save money and time in the long run.
An experienced bookkeeper can help streamline procedures too. They can help standardize how documents are retained or create a calendar to manage due dates of bills.
We provide your organization a true end to end solution to all of your tax needs. Tax season is year round to Protea – if you aren’t preparing daily, it’s too easy to get behind. We are always working with your organization to streamline your businesses tax management.
A Bookkeeper Will Help Keep Your Business Compliant
Taxes come in many shapes and sizes. Federal payroll and excise taxes. State payroll and income taxes. Sales taxes and business licensing.
Bookkeepers excel at organizing, recording, and filing. Experienced winery bookkeepers know the ins and outs of the various taxes your winery will need to pay. They will ensure processes are in place so that your taxes are filed and paid on time, preventing you from incurring penalties and reducing your anxiety.
State regulations govern the winery industry. Keeping on top of your winegrower’s license, wholesaler license, and your on or off-premise retail license is another area an experience bookkeeper can assist. They can ensure your licenses are renewed before they expire and can provide any necessary reports.
If you have loan covenants to maintain or investor reporting to prepare, an experienced bookkeeper can manage this to ensure you don’t miss a deadline.
With a dedicated bookkeeper, year-end tax time can be less stressful. Your bookkeeper has kept your financial house in order throughout the year. This makes it easy to hand over your tax records to your tax professional.
A Bookkeeper Can Save Your Business Money
In addition to the compliance aspect of tax time, your bookkeeper is probably less expensive than your tax professional. Having a bookkeeper on staff who timely records your transactions decreases the amount of work your accountant has to do to prepare your tax return.
A high-quality, experienced bookkeeper will have a general idea of how much things costs. While they may not know specifics about the winery industry, they will know prices for office supplies, telephone service, and bank fees. This wealth of knowledge will prevent you from paying more than you should.
A bookkeeper will ensure your bills are paid on time so you avoid late payment fees or interest. These unnecessary expenses reduce your profits and may harm your business’s credit score.
Bookkeepers can also monitor your budget. They can provide reports comparing your budget with actual expenditures and will be able to zero in on any differences. With enough experience with your winery, they can also assist in developing future years’ budgets.
Even if you’re just starting on your business journey, hiring a bookkeeper early will prevent the stress and struggle that comes from DIY bookkeeping. And those further along the business path, now’s the time to consider the benefits a bookkeeper can provide.
Whether you’re looking to hire a bookkeeper as an employee or outsource it, having a professional in your corner makes sense. You’ll be able to focus on taking your winery to new heights.
