Remote Bookkeeping - How Does it Work?

This is 2016 and technology brings us closer together, even when we are physically far apart.    This is not only because of social media, but also because of applications like QuickBooks online, and Skype.   Are you seeing where this is going?

I work with some clients that I rarely ever see.  In this day and age it is not entirely necessary to be physically present in the office as a bookkeeper.  Now, that means that it is absolutely CRITICAL that you communicate efficiently with your clients.   They need to be confident that you are there for them when they need it, and customer service can not slip just because you are not present in the office.

For a lot of long-time business owners it is hard to see how working remotely can work for them. Here is why it works for just about everyone.

1.  Communication.   Customer service is everything in this industry.  So it is important that your bookkeeper be available to support you when you need it most.  Email and texting allow for easy communication 24hours a day. And in emergency scenarios there is always the phone.   However, for initial meetings, and annual reviews I like to use Skype just to remind your customer that you are a real person!

2.  Scanning / Emailing / Online Doc Storage.   There are so many paperless options out there.  I like Google Docs, and DropBox.  Google Doc's allows you to create spreadsheets and other documents, and you can share them with people and store them there, and also upload documents.  I am always able to print out my own copy of bank statements (which paperless usually saves the account holder money).   Setting up a regular schedule with your bookkeeper will allow you to prepare the sharing of bills, and invoices.   And establish a routine for getting work done together.

3.  Bill Payments.  With QuickBooks Online you can print checks from any computer any time.  It is best to establish a routine here though as it can get confusing if too many people are handling bill payments.  So, the best thing to do is have your bookkeeper deal with the regular bill payment, and to have the owner/manager handle things on an as needed basis.   Online banking also offers a free bill pay feature that helps stream line things for your regular bills like electric, and rent.

4.  Money Savings.  Hiring an inexperienced bookkeeper that also acts as an office administrator can end up costing you more.  A experienced part-time bookkeeper will get things done right the first time, and can work faster then some one who has no clue what they are doing.   Hire an office administrator to focus only on office management,  they are less per hour and having a separate bookkeeper will that admin position to be part time as well.  If an inexperienced person is working on your accounting, you have no clue what the results will be, and your CPA is going to charge you a lot more if they have to correct things.   Besides, you want some one who will pay attention to your expenses, and make sure that everything is what it should be.

The bottom line here is that you need to trust your bookkeeper, so make sure that you get to know them before making any decisions.   Make sure that you are able to communicate well with them, and be confident that they know what they are doing.

A good bookkeeper can offer a lot more then your financial data entry.  They can give you a good picture of how your business is doing, and help you make things better.

As The Year Winds Down, It's Time to Start Planning for Year End

As we are looking at the final quarter of 2016 it is wise to take a quick look at your financial statements to make sure that you haven't missed anything through out the year. With stacks of papers being shuffled around it is surprisingly easy to miss bills,  or other documents while you are working on your accounting.

The best way to get  a snapshot of your company is to work off of your balance sheet and profit and loss statements.  When doing a detailed review of your statements you need to customize the report so that every line item is showing, and subtotal the report by month.  In the customize window, click show by month, then narrow the width of each column so that you can see all 12 months with out having to scroll.

When reviewing the P&L pay  special attention at your expenses, especially ones that are incurred on a monthly basis: utilities, insurance, rent, etc.   If anything looks too high, you might have entered something twice.  None of these columns should show a zero, if it does then one of two things happened:  the bill wasn't entered, or it was entered in a different month.

When working from your Balance Sheet, you want to make sure that the ending balance on all of your bank accounts matches exactly what the end number on the bank statement shows.  This will get tricky. If you have it broken down by month then you might have an easier time pin pointing the problem, if there is one. One of the problems could be the reconciliations.  If any of your reconciliations are off, it will automatically adjust your ending bank balance.  See my post regarding reconciliations for more info on that.

These are just a couple of things that will get you started when you are prepping for the year end.   If you are having any trouble at all feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email and see if we can trouble shoot it.   I am also available to take a final look at things if you want a second opinion.

Abigail
abigailecarroll@gmail.com
551-252-2255

Why Hire a Bookkeeper?

A lot of small business owners prefer to do the bookkeeping them selves, which is great if you have a good understanding of what you are doing and the implications of doing it wrong.  There are a few reasons you might want a little help with your books, and there are a few options that you have when working with a professional.  Here are just four reasons why a professional might be helpful:

1.  CPA's charge A LOT more then a bookkeeper.   At year end, if your Accountant has to do a lot of work to get your financial documents in order for the taxes, they are going to charge an arm and a leg.  A bookkeeper is going to charge significantly less to do the same work.  A bookkeeper can help through out the year so that you are not incurring such a large expense at one time.

2.  A little support can go a long way.   You could resume your normal day to day operations, and focus on growing your business rather then deal with something that is not your specialty.    This will give you the opportunity to focus on the business that you are passionate about.  You would hire a contractor to do physical upgrades to your business, why not hire a professional to help you with the financial side of the business?  The consequences of errors can be great.

3.  Save Time and Money.  If you are not focused or not organized, you can make mistakes, and might have a hard time finding those mistakes later on down the road.  If you miss expenses, there will be tax implications.    If you are missing important info regarding those expenses, and an audit comes up, you might have trouble if you have not properly recorded the information.   The more time that you, the business owner, spends on these matters, the less time you are spending  finding new business, or expanding upon your current business.

4.  You might be missing something important.   If there is a category you don't quite understand, a professional might be able to help you sort it out. A professional can help you determine if there are other expenses that you should be including in your books.  You might also be misrepresenting your financial documents.  If you hire a professional you know that it will be done right, and you can get a better snap shot of what is going on with your business.  Are you really as profitable as you thought you were?  Are there areas that clearly need improvement, now that you have a better idea of what is going on financially?  Is your business doing better then you thought it was doing?

Some things you might want to consider:  You don't need to hire a professional to do everything for you.  You can hire someone just enough to help supplement what you are already doing.  You might be comfortable with the invoicing and the accounts payable, but some one can help with reconciliation, and financial document preparations. The right bookkeeper should give you service options, depending on what you are looking for such as:

On Site or Off Site Servicing
Weekly, Monthly, or Quarterly Assistance
Annual Help for Tax Prep
Consultation and Education, to help you get going in the right direction.
*See my list of services to get a better idea of your options

The Importance of Reconciliation

This may seem silly to many of you out there, but there are some people new to this that might find some of the information useful...

To begin a reconciliation on QB Online go to the gear icon in the top right of the page and click on reconcile.  Select the account you wish you reconcile, and enter the date and ending balance on the account.  Select each of the transactions that appear on your statement.  If anything is missing it should be entered at this time. The purpose of the reconciliation is to verify that all transactions are recorded in QB that the company had during the month.

If there are things that have been entered that have not cleared there are a couple of things that should be done.  First if a check was mailed, but has not cleared yet, then do nothing, it will most likely show up in next month's statement.    If the check was lost, it should be cancelled with the bank.   If it was cancelled it should be voided in the ledger (this will make it so the check still appears, but shows a $0 amount, therefore not effecting the ledger).  You could also delete the check, but it will not show in the ledger if this is done.  Also, this will show up in the audit trail.

If there is a deposit showing in QB that is not appearing in the ledger, you have to find out why.  If it is a duplicate entry, then it can be deleted.  However, you might have bigger problems if it was a deposit.  Did it go into the wrong account?  Did it never make it to the bank?  You will have to do some detective work to find out what happened and take the necessary steps to rectify it.

Each and every account should be reconciled on a monthly basis.  If there are very few transactions you could do it quarterly, but the more months are done at once, the harder it might become to find the issues.   Each bank account, and each credit card should be reconciled, to make sure that the proper balances appear on the Balance Sheet.

It is quite easy for a discrepancy to appear.  The first thing that you should do is confirm the deposits and the withdrawals.  This will help narrow down which transaction you are looking for.   If both numbers are off then it might be easiest to start from the beginning.  Go slowly.  If yo begin to get frustrated you can leave it and come back when you have a clear mind, as frustration can become a big obstacle.   There is a button for this on the bottom of the page.   When you return the everything will be exactly as you left it.

A good trick to use is to make a copy of your statement for you to write on (write on the original if you want, you can always get another copy off line.)  Use different ticks, or a highlighter to mark off that you have checked it off in your reconciliation. I don't recommend crossing it out completely, as you might have to go back and do it again, and it is easier if you can read what the line says.  Once you get in to the swing of things, you will figure out what works best for you.  Stick with that.

Good luck.   If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.  I would be happy to walk you through it or help you find where the discrepancy lies.

QBO Pro Advisor Certification

I decided that I would get my QBO Certification for 2016 for a few reasons really...  

I had the time for one, and it did require a lot of that.  I figured I would probably learn something despite using the program for a while now.  And it boosted my Pro Advisor status so that it would display my profile online.  

All in, it took about 6 hours yesterday.  You couldn't miss one second or you would miss a lot.  It was action packed. 

Long story short, I learned a lot of little tips and tricks that will help navigate through the program. 

A couple of things to note:

1.  It should be noted that QBO is optimized to work best in Chrome.  There are a couple different ways to open multiple windows with in the company, one is to  click on your window tab and click duplicate.  The other is to click on the "briefcase" and click duplicate window.  You can also open two companies at once by either opening an incognito tab, or signing into two different google accounts, and opening a new tab in the other google account. 

2.   If you are having trouble with your banking feed, you should first check that your log in and password info is up to date before doing anything else.  If that doesn't work then make sure all the data is entered into the GL, and disconnect the bank, and reconnect.   If that still doesn't work, then there is a chance your bank has made some changes, and you should contact them. 

3.  The QBOA is something most of you may know about.  If not, its a great tool for us Bookkeepers, or Accountants.   If you have QBO clients, they should invite you to do their books, as an accountant.  This will allow you to create your own sign in (if you don't already have one) as an accountant.  You get a FREE version to do your own books in.  If you sign up for Pro Advisor (there are free editions as well as two paid versions) you are able to invite new clients and give them discounts to the program and all of its versions.  If you pay for the subscription and bill the client, you get a 50% discount on all applications for the duration of the subscription.    There are so many benefits to this.  It is worth looking into.  I could go on and on about it.  

If you click on your ProAdvisor tab you can do all kinds of training.  And share them with your clients.   

Welcome!

I am a  boutique bookkeeping business, based out of Ringwood, New Jersey.   I bring my own unique personality to my clients and business.  My goal is to be transparent with my clients, and make sure that they understand exactly what is happening through out the process.  

I am starting this blog to get a conversation going with the intention of answering some of your questions.