When accounting work piles up, the natural response is to hire another bookkeeper.
Sometimes that is exactly the right answer. But first, find out what the new person would be stepping into.
A backlog can be caused by lack of capacity. It can also be caused by a broken workflow: unclear approvals, duplicate entry, missing information, inconsistent coding, a software setting that does not match the business, or a report nobody trusts.
A good bookkeeper in a broken workflow just makes prettier mistakes.
Before opening a job posting or sending work to an outside provider, diagnose one process from start to finish. Accounts payable is a useful example:
How does an invoice enter the company?
Who confirms the work or charge is valid?
Who approves payment?
Who enters or reviews the coding?
When is the payment released?
Where does the team see an exception?
Who confirms the transaction reached the correct ledger and report?
Mark every handoff, wait, duplicate entry, and manual workaround. Then ask whether the delay comes from volume or design.
If one trained person truly cannot complete a sound process within the available time, the company has a capacity problem. Hire for that defined work.
If the process itself creates repeated corrections, adding capacity will not remove the cause. Clarify the role, repair the setup, shorten the approval path, or replace the workaround first.
This approach is fair to the business and to the person being hired. A new team member should enter a workflow they can learn, follow, and improve — not inherit a mystery and be blamed for the results.
Diagnose before you prescribe. Fix the bottleneck you can see. Then invest in the capacity that remains.
Not sure whether the problem is people or process?
Let’s solve this Leak together! SCOREE Services LLC.