One of the hardest tasks as an owner of a bookkeeping firm is to find a qualified bookkeeper. You are out marketing like crazy when suddenly you realize you are at capacity. You need to bring on another bookkeeper to handle all the work you've brought in. So what do you do? You place an ad for the position and get some great responses. You schedule some interviews; you do all the right things. During the interview you ask all your normal interviewing questions. Afterwards you decide that you liked the candidate and feel like they are qualified for the job so you check out their references. They all check out and you end up hiring them, then what happens? After you hire them you find out they lied. They don't know QuickBooks at all, even though they answered all your questions correctly. So how do you know what they do not know?
This has taken some time to perfect. At first, the thought of bringing on another staff member would put a knot in my stomach. This was an intricate process with a no win scenario, because no matter who I brought on I would have to groom them into the position. Initially I started asking detailed questions about QuickBooks and bookkeeping but I found that just wasn't enough. Job candidates can give you all the right answers and still not be qualified enough for the job. I realized that I needed a way to test their skills upfront, something more concrete than just their answers to my questions.
I started investigating different resources to get me out of this dilemma. One of the first resources I found that you should take the time to check out is the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers. They offer a free comprehensive bookkeeper hiring test for employers that checks their knowledge on the practical applications of accounting. You can find the test right on their homepage. The test is based on the national Certified Bookkeeper Exam. It is twenty questions based on journal entries, depreciation, pre-paid expenses etc.
My favorite resource is McWilliam and Associates, Inc. I give this test to all new hires. It is 78 questions of all aspects of practical QuickBooks usage. It tests on General QuickBooks Knowledge, Payroll, Inventory, Banking, Accounts Receivable etc. The average grade is about a 50 because it tests on everything. They also have some other cool tools for other purposes as well. One that I like and have gotten a lot of use out of, is their Knowledge Base Subscription. It is an online troubleshooting guide for QuickBooks. They also have a great Diagnostic tool for when you are doing clean up work, which allows you to put a report together to give to your client on the work that needs to be completed.
So now that you have some trusty resources to help you out next time you find yourself involved in the hiring process, don't cringe at the thought of bringing on another staff member. Just do your homework and you will know what they do not know upfront. Test their actual bookkeeping knowledge, don't just take them at their word. It'll save you a lot of frustration later on, not to mention a whole lot of your time.