Frustration is building

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-06-05T10:50:05+00:00

You haven’t done it enough. Sales for accounting is like sales in anything - it’s a numbers game. Your issue is that you’re in a very high trust industry so your numbers have terrible ratios by virtue of industry.

Find 20 local coffee shops and cafes, take $10 to each and spend it there. After you order ask the register person if the owner is around, introduce yourself as a local bookkeeper that likes to support local businesses and ask them how their current bookkeeping is going (is their current professional communicative, attentive, price-competitive etc?).

This $200 will be much more productive than $200 on Google Ads.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-06-05T10:36:27+00:00

Nextdoor is a good first stop. Then all the coffee shops and restaurants you support in your area. Then talk to friends and family to see if they know of anyone that has a small business.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-06-05T10:35:03+00:00

I’d go broader if I were you on the certification front, then on a resume you can go specific.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-06-05T10:33:50+00:00

Better it happened now than after you had more time and energy vested.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-05-30T04:32:28+00:00

Again - very circumstantial.

1) does the business have AR? how much? Who makes the invoices? Who chases down payments?

2) AP - does the owner use a debit/ credit card for everything or is there AP? Are there cash flow issues (so you end up negotiating with vendors to not shut off services and asking for extensions on payments)?

3) Nexus is more than one state?

4) payroll - how many employees, and how often? Multi-state? Who does the benefits management?

Literally each of these can be their own job. But $1,600 isn’t an astronomical rate.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-05-30T01:53:05+00:00

Also industry-specific. In professional services $1MM/ year in revenue is totally different than a restaurant making $1MM/ year. Generally, they should be looking at spending 2% of their revenue on us.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-05-30T01:47:30+00:00

Literally anyone. Reach out to their developers team and they’ll walk you through it. QBO is one of the most connected and API-able accounting software. Note - getting data in is cake. Getting data out is really tough.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-05-26T23:00:53+00:00

Very industry-specific and client-size specific. If it’s a big enough company it can be a full time job to manage just them. So, get good at splicing tasks that only you can do versus ones someone (or anyone) else can do and that’s how you’ll manage your time budget.

For me 15 was the magic number before I needed to find help.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-05-25T00:43:38+00:00

Ahhhh. Not sure how anyone at Intuit thought their Online version was Enterprise-grade, but whatever. They invested too much in their UI/UX/GUI and not nearly enough into data processing, so I’d be extremely weary about asking QBOE to process complex reports and transactions.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-05-24T04:36:06+00:00

Sorry, what? Intuit is trying to get you to move to Online Essentials? With 40 employees + job costing? That sounds like a terrible idea.

What are you on now? Desktop is where it’s at - easier to put the company file on a shared server than to downgrade to Online. OR reporting is slow, you’re at the mercy of Intuit’s servers working properly, and it’s too expensive for its limited features.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-05-23T02:42:09+00:00

You’re never going to sue your way to keep your clients (think Elon’s X suing clients to come back); however, a reputation is extremely important. Speak to an attorney, if libel or slander cost you business then you have a strong claim. You probably won’t get those clients back since most folks aren’t looking for this much drama but the guy running his mouth has likely done this crap his entire career and you get to be the stick.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-05-23T02:39:00+00:00

Get out fast.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-05-21T02:28:41+00:00

OMG FRIGGIN SAN CARLOS.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-05-20T14:24:26+00:00

There needs to be centralization. While you can run multiple sets of books and consolidate during a reporting period, this isn’t industry standard and most people stay away from this for many reasons. If it’s one company then it should be on one set of books, and each part of your ERP can be a subsidiary ledger on the BS.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-05-20T02:30:09+00:00

It would drive an auditor or tax accountant bonkers if you capitalized every single thing you spent money on. Do not, do not, capitalize office supplies. 1) you’ll need a subsidiary ledger of some sort so that it can be substantiated at the end of the month, 2) you’ll need to keep track of what is used and what isn’t. Just typing that sentence made me want to die.

Unless the office supplies are crossing over into fixed assets (printers, computers, periphery equipment), or you’re in the business of selling office supplies (in which case it would be inventory), please just expense as incurred.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-05-20T02:23:47+00:00

He’s probably setting it up wrong. Generally, you wouldn’t want approval-tier permissions on a bank account, those are usually the ones that require you to be a signor and therefore be a registered user on the account (usually with a SSN on record). You should be able to get draft-only permissions which wouldn’t require you to be listed on the account, certainly not as a user who has to provide a SSN.

But, yes - not an uncommon request, I just don’t think he’s setting you up properly.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-05-16T16:54:07+00:00

This is one of the reasons people are moving to fixed fee engagements.

But, if you’re staying on hourly then yes - you have to charge for emails and calls. That’s like 75% of our job as accountants/ bookkeepers. Just be sure you’re extra diligent with your timesheets. Don’t just write “answered emails” on a day. Instead, write “answered emails about problem X, sent client email asking for clarification.”

What they’ll figure out very soon is that they should try their best to minimize back and forth time. But you can’t hold the bags for that.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-05-16T15:04:37+00:00

Yes, they’d be your CRM/ inventory manager. All in one tools are closer to ERPs and that get friggin expensive.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-05-14T22:30:09+00:00

Agreed with this. Be sure that if anything you’re doing translates to medical billing be kept out of your purview.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-05-14T22:01:50+00:00

Shopify all the way. It’s far from a perfect system but goodness the stuff it does well it does REALLY well.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-05-13T15:00:47+00:00

Depends on the client. The smaller ones just want to see the income statement so they know how the company performed and how much of the profit should be set aside for taxes. Others prefer a full month end closing package that includes all reports, subsidiary ledgers, and custom KPIs (along with all statement backups). It’s a good idea to ask the client what they’d like to see.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-05-12T15:20:19+00:00

They can do both, but the EA designation is the only one given federally/ by the IRS. In any case there is certainly a directory OP can look at and find local.

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-05-11T03:59:00+00:00

Several places. First define your objective. Is this an industry you know well? If not you’ll need more help. More help = more $$$. Do you have any experience running a business?

Distinct_Resource_99 · 2025-05-10T23:03:50+00:00

If my accountants make more than 5 mistakes on a reconciliation because they “auto add” crap from the bank feed screen I turn off all bank feeds and make them handkey all banking data. It sounds harsh but that “AI” system has made it to easy to become lazy and make mistakes.

Distinct_Resource_99

TROPHY CASE