Hiring out help when it comes to your finances can be a significant relief, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t come with concerns. It’s important to understand that the need to safeguard your finances arises when you hire a bookkeeper or staffer to help. There are easy steps that can be taken to ensure that you’re protecting your finances and personal information from others who have access to it. Here are the best ways that you can be sure that your money is staying safe and secure when working with those outside of your business or home.
Trust who you hire
It can be stressful to find someone you trust to help with the books, but it’s an essential piece of the puzzle. Starting with family and friends might be a great idea if they have the skill sets and knowledge you need.
If you don’t know anyone who is an experienced bookkeeper, you can work with an outside agency to find the perfect fit. Make sure that whoever you partner with, you’re doing your research on them to be sure that they’re screening applicants and candidates.
Audit your own books
While this might seem like extra work, it’s still important to do. If you hand off your books and finances to somebody, you need to follow up and make sure that you’re checking in and keeping an eye on what’s going on. If you don’t know your numbers, how will you know if something is awry?
It can be as simple as looking at your books on a monthly basis to make sure that there are no red flags.
Keep passwords locked down
I know what you’re thinking – how are you supposed to have help when you’re not willing to give out passwords? Thanks to the world of technology, there are ways that you can share passwords with others in a way that they can’t actually see what the password is.
Find a program that works well for your needs, and rest easy knowing that they can’t actually view your password or have access without you letting them.
This keeps your information safe and doesn’t let them know what your password is, which is great, primarily if you use the same password for multiple things.
Allow only guest user access
Instead of giving total access to all your finances and records, minimize what they can look at and have access to. Guest access will allow you to decide what they can look at and what they can view and alter it as needed.
This is better than giving them admin access which would allow them access to everything, which is something that can put your information and finances at risk.
Use a RSA device
When it comes to protecting your business and finances, the more security features, the better. Using an RSA device is a great tool because it creates a code that can only be used to access certain information. Think of it like an extra layer of encryption that does a great job of securing your data and numbers.
Even though it can be a bit scary to give someone else access to your finances, you don’t have to lose sleep over it. The above examples are ways that you can provide security to your information and finances, and they’re all relatively easy and painless to do.
If you’re ready to find comfort in the fact that you can safeguard your business and money, choose from the options above and do what you can to provide a layer of protection in your life. These are easy ways to give security to your books and future business endeavors.