Elevate your solo bookkeeping practice with these 6 expert tips

Managing your solo bookkeeping practice can be challenging, especially when you're juggling multiple clients and deadlines. But you don’t have to go it alone — learning from the experiences of successful bookkeepers, who started out the same way as you, can help you work smarter, not harder.

In this article, you'll discover tried-and-true bookkeeping strategies to streamline your processes, enhance client relationships, and grow your business. With Ignition’s powerful proposal, billing and payments automation platform, you can simplify essential tasks, freeing up time to focus on what truly matters.

Are you a time-poor bookkeeper? We get it. Mastering time management is a must when you’re flying solo and balancing multiple clients and deadlines. Thankfully, some tried-and-tested tools help you automate some of the more tedious, repetitive tasks – everything from client engagement letters and proposals to client billing and payments. 

“You need to automate low-value work, whether it's you or members of your team chasing debtors,” says Leanne Berry, founder and CEO of Love Your Numbers, a New South Wales-based bookkeeping and advisory services consultancy. “You want them concentrating on the higher value work. So this kind of automation is really important.”

With Ignition, for example, bookkeepers can create, send, and manage engagement letters seamlessly and in mere minutes – not hours – speeding up client onboarding and renewals. Ready-to-use engagement letter templates help simplify these processes and save you even more time. 

For Jacalyn Fenech, owner of Sydney-based J. A. Finance Solutions, such time savings have the added benefit of creating that much sought-after work-life balance:

Another time-saving no-brainer? A tool for receipt capture, says Michele Grisdale, founder of Rainforest Bookkeeping. “If you're not using something for receipt capture, and you're doing data entry, you are wasting your valuable time. This is an instant win.” Apps such as Dext, Hubdoc,  Xero, and QuickBooks Online offer this core bookkeeping function. 

When running a bookkeeping business, one of the best things you can do is get your engagement letters sorted. Engagement letters let you set clear expectations and payment terms, ensure compliance, and simplify renewals. 

Yet, as Grisdale points out, "So many solopreneurs don't have engagement letters – at all! Engagement letters are critical!" And although they might seem intimidating, she emphasises that they don’t need to be complex. 

“All they need to say is what you will do and what you will not do,” says Grisdale. “What's your responsibility? What's the client's responsibility? What are your payment terms? What are your late payment terms? What do you do if a client stops paying you? Do you stop working? Just get every single thing that's important to you on paper, or use one of Ignition's templates.” 

Automating engagement letters with Ignition makes this process far easier. Ignition’s templates provide a solid foundation that solo bookkeepers can customise to match their services and policies. 

For Berry, ensuring compliance is a huge driver for having engagement letters. “We're not talking about compliance enough, especially when you're looking at remaining compliant with the new Professional Code of Conduct ... and what you need to do in your business to meet the new rules,” she says.

Former bookkeeper and business owner and Ignition Senior Key Account Manager Michelle Timperley expands on this, highlighting the value of engagement letters at renewal time. "It's not just about compliance, even though that's critical; it's the opportunity to review the client's account over the past 12 months and assess the scope for the new financial year,” she says. “This includes increasing your price each year, adding any new services, and so on. You can use Ignition's terms templates to advise that your fee will increase annually based on the consumer price index or scope change.

Chris Alleyn, founder of AMC Biz Solutions, is onboard with Timperley: "I do renewals every year, and that's it,” he says. “And now I can do it with Ignition.” 

A clear engagement letter can also help bookkeepers manage that all-too-familiar phenomenon: scope creep. By including a line in your engagement letter that addresses out-of-scope tasks and how much you charge for them, you’re setting boundaries and safeguarding your time and resources. The risk of not doing this, Grisdale explains, is that you open yourself up to your client saying, 'Well, I thought you were going to do that'. “That's when you're going to get bitten and end up doing a lot of work that you're not going to get paid for," she says.

Keryn Stack, Director of New South Wales-based Accounts All Sorted, agrees: "You really need to watch [scope creep], because, suddenly, you've got a client that's grown from five to 10 employees, and payroll’s taking twice as long. But they're still on that original agreement."  

Another way to guarantee you get paid for your work – and get paid what you’re worth – is by automating invoicing and payment collection, and considering a move to upfront payments. Automatic invoicing and recurring direct debit setups help you stop chasing payments, eliminate debtors and improve your cash flow.

Along with getting direct debit in place, Grisdale advises invoicing more frequently and shortening your payment terms. “Your business survives on good cash flow so talk to your clients and at least monthly. My tradies love fortnightly direct debits for cash flow." she says. “Get your clients into good payment habits so they can get their customers into good payment habits."  

Grisdale also underscores the importance of prompt payment terms. "As bookkeepers, we know how much money our clients have, and we shouldn't be funding them; we should be paid within less than seven days." What’s more, she says, is that shorter payment terms are easier for your smaller start-up clients to deal with – and you get better cash flow. "My payment terms are three days, and everyone has to be on direct debit, or they pay more. I give them better rates if they're on direct debit, because I know I'm going to get paid." 

When it comes to the helpful role Ignition plays for managing payments, bookkeepers agree it’s been a game changer. Chris Alleyn values the platform’s role in payments automation: “Ignition automates payment collection, eliminating the need to chase debtors and letting me focus on my important tasks instead of chasing payments,” he says.

Keryn Stack echoes Alleyn, saying:

Leanne Berry adds her two cents, too: “Ignition helps me to automate admin tasks and eliminate debtors, which gives me peace of mind that my cash flow is humming!” 

But Michele Grisdale adds an important tip for bookkeepers to be self-assured in getting paid what you’re worth. "It's 100% a confidence issue... as a bookkeeper or BAS agent, you have expertise that your clients don't have,” she says. “You need to own that you're the expert, and you should be paid upfront for it. You have expertise in compliance that your clients just don't have. Can you build a house? Can you install a power point?" 

Ignition also provides the capability to capture payment information when your clients sign an engagement letter to enable such upfront payments. 

Along with client onboarding, proposals, and payments, Ignition can also help you streamline your business in another – perhaps surprising – way. “I use Ignition to filter out bad clients,” says Timperley. “I've met some prospects who challenge me on how I run my business and my pricing or don't want to pay using direct debit… So if the prospect doesn't want to sign the client agreement, I'm okay with that because it's those people who have given me the most grief, and they're just not worth taking on board. I’ve learned to say ‘no’ when the occasion calls for it. It's hard to do, but trust your gut; it won't let you down.”

With this in mind, it’s a good idea to review your client base once or twice a year to make sure you’re working with clients who align with your business values.

Since your time is one of your most valuable assets, the key to scaling your practice and improving cash flow lies in streamlining repetitive tasks. Automating client engagement letters, invoicing, and payment collection — all within a single platform — can significantly reduce your admin workload, giving you back hours in your week to focus on what matters most: growing your business and deepening client relationships.

Ready to streamline your bookkeeping practice? The Ignition Solo Plan is designed specifically for solopreneurs generating less than $200,000 in annual revenue. It’s perfect for solo bookkeepers, accountants and professional services businesses looking to streamline their operations. As your business grows, Ignition offers a range of plans designed to scale with you.

With all the essentials to automate client engagements, proposals, and billing, Ignition helps you reduce admin, save time, and ensure quick payments. Integrating Ignition into your workflow means not only saving valuable time but also boosting cash flow and client satisfaction, helping your practice run more efficiently and profitably — all in one place.