Choosing a Bookkeeper in Melbourne: What to Ask First

Melbourne has no shortage of people calling themselves bookkeepers — from sole traders working out of a home office in Brunswick to established firms with a shopfront near the CBD. The trouble is, "bookkeeper" isn't a protected title in Australia the way "registered BAS agent" or "chartered accountant" is. Anyone can print business cards. That means the burden of due diligence sits with you, the business owner, before you hand over bank feeds and payroll access.

Below are the questions we think every Melbourne small business should ask before engaging a bookkeeper — including a few most people don't think to ask until something's already gone wrong.

Are they a registered BAS agent?

This is the single most important question, and it has a legal basis. Under the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (TASA 2009), anyone who charges a fee to prepare or lodge a Business Activity Statement on your behalf must be registered with the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB). This isn't optional or a "nice to have" — unregistered BAS services for a fee are a breach of the Act, and it exposes you as the business owner too, since you're relying on someone with no formal accountability.

• Ask for their BAS agent registration number directly.
• Search the TPB register yourself (tpb.gov.au) — don't just take their word for it.
• Check the registration hasn't lapsed or been suspended.

If someone hesitates or gets vague when you ask this, that's your answer. A properly registered agent will have the number memorised and won't blink.

What software do they use — and are you locked in?

Most Melbourne small businesses run on Xero or MYOB. Ask which platform your bookkeeper works in, whether they hold current certification (Xero Certified Advisor status, for example), and — critically — whether the subscription is in your name or theirs.

We see this go wrong regularly: a bookkeeper sets up the Xero file under their own partner account, and when the business owner wants to leave, they either can't access historical data or face a fight to get it released. Insist that the Xero or MYOB subscription is billed to your business, with you as the primary admin. This one condition alone will save you enormous grief later.

How do they price their work?

Melbourne bookkeeping rates generally run $60–$110 per hour depending on experience and whether payroll or BAS lodgement is included. Hourly billing sounds fair in theory but often creates a mismatch of incentives — the slower the work goes, the more you pay. Fixed monthly packages, scoped to your transaction volume and number of employees, tend to work better for predictability.

• Ask exactly what's included in the quoted fee (reconciliation, payroll, BAS lodgement, super guarantee reporting).
• Ask what triggers an extra charge — catch-up work, ATO correspondence, EOFY reporting.
• Get the fee structure in writing before your first bank statement changes hands.

A CBD-based firm with premium office overheads will typically charge more than a home-based Melbourne bookkeeper doing identical work remotely — that's not necessarily better service, just higher rent being passed on.

Who actually touches your books?

Some larger bookkeeping firms sell you on a senior consultant during the sales call, then hand day-to-day reconciliation to a junior or an outsourced team. Neither approach is wrong on its own, but you deserve to know upfront. Ask:

• Who will be doing the weekly or monthly reconciliation?
• Is any part of the work outsourced offshore, and if so, where does client data sit?
• Will you have a direct line to a real person, or only a shared inbox?

For businesses in regulated sectors — allied health, NDIS providers, trades with subcontractor payroll — knowing exactly who has eyes on your data matters more than it might for a simple retail business in Chapel Street.

What happens at BAS time, and who's liable if it's wrong?

Registered BAS agents carry professional indemnity insurance and are personally accountable to the TPB for the accuracy of lodgements made under their registration. Ask your prospective bookkeeper:

• Do they carry current professional indemnity insurance?
• What's their process for reviewing figures before lodgement — do you see a draft first?
• How do they handle GST coding disputes or ATO review requests after lodgement?

It's also worth clarifying scope: a BAS agent can advise on GST, PAYG withholding and super guarantee reporting, but cannot lodge your income tax return or give tax planning advice — that requires a registered tax agent under TASA 2009. A properly run bookkeeping practice will say this plainly and refer you elsewhere for that work rather than overstepping.

Data ownership and security

This is the question most Melbourne business owners forget until they're trying to switch providers. Confirm in writing:

• You retain admin-level access to your accounting file at all times.
• You'll receive a clean, exportable handover file if the relationship ends.
• Bank feed connections are set up under your business's own login credentials, not a shared or generic one.

Your financial data is yours — full stop. Any bookkeeper who treats it as leverage to keep you as a client is not someone you want holding your books in the first place.

Red flags to walk away from

A few patterns we'd flag immediately if we were shopping around ourselves:

• They can't produce a BAS agent number when asked directly.
• Pricing is vague or "we'll work it out as we go."
• They control the Xero subscription and won't add you as admin.
• They promise tax advice or claim they can lodge your income tax return.
• No written engagement letter or service agreement — everything is verbal.

None of these are dealbreakers in isolation necessarily, but two or more together should make you pause before signing up, especially if you're a growing business in industries like construction, allied health or NDIS support where payroll and compliance complexity ramps up fast.

The short version: treat hiring a bookkeeper the same way you'd treat hiring any professional adviser. Check registration, get pricing in writing, confirm you own your data, and understand exactly where their scope ends. A five-minute conversation covering these points will tell you almost everything you need to know before you commit a single bank feed to someone new.