Bookkeeping & Payroll: Should you hire an expert?

How do y'all, welcome back to the big idea presented by Block advisors built by H&R block. It's time for a quick tax break, y'all. Today, we're talking about two critically important parts of running a business, bookkeeping and payroll. H&R Block manager Evan White is here to help me break down the best ways to keep your business on track. Evan leads the company's centralized bookkeeping and payroll team, so he knows a thing or two about staying compliant.

All right, Evan, welcome to the big idea. It's great to have you.

It's great to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

entrepreneurs and small business owners try to do everything themselves for as long as possible, right? And, you know, I think when it comes to your taxes and bookkeeping and legal, you know, there's a point where you got to have good expertise and a lot of help. Why is it such a misconception that it's costly to get help around bookkeeping and so on?

I mean, you're right. That is a perception that a lot of our clients have because they think about bookkeeping around tax time. But actually, bookkeeping is about a lot more than just getting you ready in April. Uh, good bookkeeping should help you answer critical questions like, are you making money? What products or services are the most profitable? Can you afford to hire? Is your cash flow improving or getting worse? And obviously, you know, small business owners are living this every day. And so they know a lot about their business, but actually taking a step back and looking at the financials, uh, can really provide a new layer of insight that really can help them take the business to the next level.

So people talk a lot about the 28 hour rule and sometimes it'll be a little more, a little less, but but tell us what that means and why it's important.

Yeah, absolutely. So the first thing to acknowledge is it's not a universal federal rule, it's just a practical business guideline. So many employers pay close attention when employees consistently approach that 30 hours per week because the benefit threshold and workforce planning considerations can become more relevant around that threshold. Maybe an employee covers a shift, maybe business gets busier than expected, maybe someone stays late to finish a project, that extra buffer can help prevent unintended scheduling issues. But it's also important to note that every business situation is a little different and benefits eligibility, labor requirements and state specific rules can vary. And that's something that uh, you know, we really pride ourselves on uh as a company is when you are working with our payroll associates, we can help you work through some of those issues.

Well, that that's a great transition to, you know, there there is a very big difference between software versus expertise and how do you approach um asking the right questions, finding the right expert and so on.

The automated solutions like Gusto or your DIY software providers can be really valuable, um, and they're the right solutions for some businesses and not for others. For me, I think the question that I would tend to ask uh, business owners is what's the highest and best use of your time? You know, when you start in a business, uh, you spend so much time doing everything, right? But

for a lot of people, if you don't want to take the time in the burden of going through and entering that information and making sure that everything's correct. If that doesn't sound attractive to you, that's where I would start to explore assisted offerings, right? So of course, HR Block offers payroll services, but we're not the only provider. The thing that you want to make sure is that you're comfortable that whoever you work with is going to stand behind their work and help you make sure that your employees are paid and that the taxes are remitted on time. Um and then, you know, if you have other accounting needs, it's often useful to to go to the same provider so that you're not having to be a middle man between, you know, your your tax provider and your bookkeeping business and your payroll business.

So if someone's listening right now, we've talked about a lot, but what is the one sign that they need to go find help and expertise?

Yeah, I would say if you are a business owner and you are working on payroll or bookkeeping issues at the expense of serving your client, it's time to ask for help.

Evan White, thank you so much for you and HR Block for coming on the show and giving us all this great advice.

Thanks so much for having me.