Do I need a bookkeeper?
Short answer
Yes, the moment revenue passes $250-500K, or sooner if you hate the books. The hours you save will be worth more than the fee.
What they actually do
Categorize transactions, reconcile accounts, run monthly reports, and tell you when something looks wrong. Not your taxes, not your strategy. The plumbing, done right, monthly.
The cost-benefit
$300 to $800 a month for clean books that give you real numbers to make decisions on. Owners trying to save that fee usually miss tax deductions worth twice it, plus they make pricing decisions on bad data.
Ask your version of this question
This is one business owner-tested take. Your shop size, trade, and team change the answer. Ask the exact version inside Ask a Shop Owner and get a response grounded in how owners like you actually handled it.
Now run it against your numbers.
This answer is written for shops in general. Inside Ask a Shop Owner it becomes your answer: your revenue, your crew, your market, your history. Ask "Do I need a bookkeeper" and get the version that accounts for what you already told us.
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