By Makeida Antonio
Small business owners are being advised to brush up on their bookkeeping skills as a critical component to their success.
The timely advice comes from young accountant, Nikido Joseph, who recently posted on social media about his desire to help people learn basic accounting for themselves.
Bookkeeping is the process of recording a company’s financial transactions – such as accounts payable and receivable, and payroll – into organised accounts on a daily basis.
Joseph took his passion for accounting from the Antigua Grammar School to Antigua State College where he studied Accounting and Business Management with Law.
He went on to the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus to pursue a Bachelor of Accounting and Finance and was successful in 2017.
Joseph is now a member of the prestigious Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and is just five exams away from becoming a certified accountant. He has around six years of experience in public accounting.
He explained the adverse effects on businesses of not practicing consistent bookkeeping.
“The reason why this is very important is because it helps them to keep track of their business spending and earning.
“For tax purposes, it is good to have records to prove to the Inland Revenue that you have legitimate income and expenses. If they were to assess your business, you have records to prove to them when they want to charge you higher,” Joseph told Observer in an interview.
Joseph further outlined the challenges small business owners face with sourcing start-up capital due to lack of proper record-keeping.
“Also, this helps with getting loans from the bank because without proper records as a business owner or self-employed person it is hard for them to give you a loan without proper record-keeping and therefore this will result in your loans being denied,” he explained.
As a self-employed individual, Joseph highlighted why small businesses should seek assistance from qualified accountants.
“Small business owners should hire accountants to assist them, even if it’s in a consultant capacity. It is very important for a business to establish an accounting system or have an accountant when they first start out their business to help them regularise business processes and systems,” he said.
“Without the assistance of an accountant, it is hard for a business to really succeed and grow to its full capacity.”