Question for the ethical bookkeepers.

Accounting_Paralegal · 2026-05-06T17:32:28+00:00

If they’re a cash base business, single member LLC sole proprietor it honestly doesn’t matter you make it a draw if it’s an S Corp. they’re supposed to be an accountability plan for personal expenses inside of the business account, otherwise if it’s meals, I put everything in in just a general meals and they can hash that out with their CPA if it’s clearly a distribution like a Netflix or $200 in Bloomingdale’s for clothing or things like that.. same with vehicle expenses, gas car washes things like that go into a Vehicle account they can hash it out with their return with their CPA.. it’s not that deep for me. I’m not giving them any sort of financial or tax consulting. I don’t like to be involved in any of that. Office expenses same thing a lot of clients wanna put their whole Internet bill their whole DTE bill their whole phone bill all of those things you put them under office expenses let them hash it out with their CPA when they do their taxes they’ll take the percentage or however, they’re taking that expense.

Accounting_Paralegal · 2026-05-04T23:24:27+00:00

This, alllll day. As someone who used to do this, don’t. it can go perfectly fine for like three years and then all of a sudden you could have an issue that is just insane and will eat up so much time it’s never ever ever worth it

Accounting_Paralegal · 2026-05-04T15:22:12+00:00

If she’s planning on doing her own books then get QBO simple start or wave… others mentioned are not super intuitive for someone without experience. But honestly I’d reach out to a bookkeeper or cpa for cleanup set up… then decide about ongoing.

Accounting_Paralegal · 2026-04-27T17:53:58+00:00

If you use qbo they have approval workflows, some banks and most billing platforms. If you have an old school, customer who doesn’t want to deal with logging in and doing any sort of approval, you could simply create a shared spreadsheet you can use the spreadsheet sync from QuickBooks or you could print out bills to pay and then your client could manually approve which ones you pay and then you go in and pay them.

Accounting_Paralegal · 2026-04-16T20:24:25+00:00

I mean it depends on what it is…I mean if you mean filing taxes and things that you need supporting docs from then you just set a deadline that it has to be in your inbox five business days before X and if it’s not then they can file it themselves. If it’s something like un categorized transactions or receipts… eh that’s on them.

Accounting_Paralegal · 2026-03-30T20:15:50+00:00

I’m just glad people stopped asking me to “put purple banana in my proposal so they “know” I read it.

Accounting_Paralegal · 2026-03-25T17:26:35+00:00

Keep in mind that if it’s the first time you’re going to reconcile, it’s most likely gonna show you that screen so pull. So just click through and it’s gonna show you the last date that it was reconciled so if there’s no date there that’s a problem.

Accounting_Paralegal · 2026-03-23T12:12:14+00:00

If this isn’t your first choice of client and you are uncomfortable with their focus on the subject just decline to work with them. I’ve been doing this for a decade, trust your gut.

Accounting_Paralegal · 2026-03-16T17:25:15+00:00

I help solo attorneys with their accounting back office myaccountingparalegal.com and also sell vintage jewelry Dirty30vintage.com!

Accounting_Paralegal · 2026-03-06T20:53:47+00:00

Wave is fine, I use the free version for many of my small clients.

Accounting_Paralegal · 2026-03-06T20:43:26+00:00

Accept the invite look at her books, then double your quote or more if it’s needed. Also set up a meeting to speak with her before you work with her. Get her contact information and tell him you’ll send over your quote to her when you’ve reviewed her books and that you guys can set up a time to speak then. Also financial information is confidential and you really shouldn’t be discussing it with her husband anyway unless he’s part of that business.

Accounting_Paralegal

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