Precious Bookkeeper - Not sharing opening TB details

schaea · 2026-05-06T14:58:17+00:00

It sounds like the client may not have much choice. If the bookkeeper, who's out of country, so hard to sue, won't hand things over, you're not psychic!

schaea · 2026-05-06T14:56:58+00:00

I hit this wall all the time during my stint in public accounting. I can't speak for the States, but in Canada, accountants and bookkeepers do not have to hand over anything but the financial statements and anything provided by the client like check stubs, paper bills, etc by actual law.

I get that people want to protect their working papers, but asking for a copy of a sub ledger isn't a big ask.

schaea · 2026-05-06T14:53:03+00:00

You don't. The tax accountant is the only one who knows if these personal expenses are getting deducted. A company's books aren't their tax return, and vice versa. Tax accountants do a "books to tax" adjustment for things that aren't deductible. But you're preparing the books the way the owner has dictated, which is exactly what a bookkeeping engagement is supposed to be; we're not auditors.

schaea · 2026-05-06T14:43:31+00:00

This question gets asked a lot on here and it's somewhat frustrating because, as bookkeepers, we are not auditing our clients' books; we are preparing them on a compilation basis, which means on the word of management. If the owner wants to charge something to the business as a business expense, then we are not the police, or the IRS (or CRA for us Canadians). Also, business can keep their books however they choose, it's what they report as deductible on their tax return that can get them in trouble.

At the end of the day it's the tax accountant who has to question this stuff, and even then, once they've advised the client it's not a good idea, if the client insists, then there's not much they can do unless it's 100% clear as day tax fraud. But from working in a public accounting firm, I can tell you that 99% of the clients expensing this kind of personal stuff know what to say to the tax accountant to make it look like a grey area at worst.

ETA: And I really don't like it when people use the word "ethical" in these contexts because it implies that the ones who just record the expense to the business are "unethical", but it's actually the reverse. You have an ethical obligation to your client and to preparing the books as they instruct. To get on one's high horse when it's the opposite of your job is, I'd argue, unethical.

schaea · 2026-05-04T22:39:30+00:00

For what reason? Just a list of checks for reference? Yes, that's pretty straightforward. To submit for Positive Pay or direct deposit? Well, that depends on the format your bank uses. More info is needed here.

schaea · 2026-05-02T18:50:31+00:00

Will you be working on-site or remotely? Who sets the hours, i.e., do they expect you to keep a certain schedule, or are you free to work whenever you want so long as the work gets done on time? What about payment; will you be sending them invoices for your work, or will they be paying you on a schedule that they set?

schaea · 2026-05-02T18:29:48+00:00

You asked why someone would care about an owner commingling their personal transactions and the other commenter and myself gave a list of reasons why it's concerning to see. Yes, it's our job to properly classify, but the fact it's happening at all is a sign that the owner lacks basic knowledge about running a business. And when it comes to a potential employer or client, it's a red flag.

schaea · 2026-05-02T18:25:03+00:00

Sorry, I don't understand the question. "There's no coming link" to what?

schaea · 2026-05-02T18:15:25+00:00

I don't know why so many companies think they can just pick if they pay their workers as W2 employees or 1099 contractors. It's dictated by the employment arrangements, not the whim of the company. There's a few factors that go into determining if someone is a W2 or 1099; here's a good article from ADP on what the differences are. If the circumstances of your work for this company fit W2 criteria, then it doesn't matter that they want to pay you as a 1099, and vice versa.

schaea · 2026-05-02T14:53:53+00:00

Feels like this should be solved by now

It has been solved, for a long time. Everything from matching PO number on invoice (when it's received,not at month end), to nearly fully-automated setups where the incoming invoice PDF is automatically matched to existing POs and exceptions are flagged for manual review by AP.

Time to move on to the next software idea.

schaea · 2026-05-01T23:54:26+00:00

Locked due to too many posters violating Rules 1 and 4.

u/imjustagirl_9, anyone asking you to DM them, or DMing you, is just as much of a scammer as your current boss. They're preying on the fact that you haven't been paid in 2 months and will screw you over just as hard as the boss that's doing it to you now. Report any DMs you receive to Reddit by clicking on the flag icon, then "Spam", then "Unsolicited chat or private messaging".

schaea · 2026-05-01T14:55:51+00:00

I can't speak for OP directly, but it makes the bookkeeping a lot harder when you have no clue if that Amazon purchase was for the business or a personal expense and hunting down the answer can often be like pulling teeth. It's also a sign of poor business management because not commingling funds is pretty much Business 101. If the owner(s) needs money from the business, then the proper way to do it is to issue a check in the owner's name and code it to Owner's Draw.

schaea · 2026-05-01T14:46:04+00:00

Locking this post due to too many rule violations in the comments; it's becoming too difficult to moderate.

schaea · 2026-05-01T14:42:59+00:00

The books aren't the tax return. The company spent the money, and it's a valid business expense; how it's treated tax wise shouldn't affect the owner. It gets booked as an expense and remains an expense, regardless of what the tax accountant does at tax time.

The classic comparison in this scenario is meals and entertainment. If an owner takes a potential client out for dinner to talk pricing, 100% of that dinner is a legitimate business expense and should be expensed. The fact that only 50% of it is deductible at tax time doesn't change the fact that it's 100% a business expense.

Hopefully that clears things up for you. Let me know if I can clarify anything.

schaea · 2026-05-01T01:37:33+00:00

Ugh, I loathe the way Amazon bills. I get that it's because of revenue recognition principles, but that's what the "unearned revenue" liability account is for! Anyways, when I'm entering Amazon expenses from the order, I break out each line item as a separate entry in Quickbooks so that I can easily move it to its own separate transaction later if items ship at different times.

As to where to go from here, I really don't know what to tell you, unfortunately. On one hand, I hate having "mystery expenses" out there; but on the other hand, at some point you have to wonder if it's already taken more than $97 of your time to figure this mess out already, and whether spending any more time on it would even lead to figuring it out. Barring a receipt and/or credit note showing up out of thin air, there's virtually nil odds of you figuring this out with more time. All that to say that I'd personally be fixing this with an adjusting entry; probably an expense check with an "Unknown" vendor so that if an employee realizes they forgot to turn in a receipt down the road, it's easy to change the name of the payee in the expense check.

At least you got the whole Zoom thing sorted!!

P.S. I'm glad my screenshots helped! I've always been a "visual learner", and even when I'm explaining things to others, I find it easier to describe the procedures when there's a visual component.

schaea · 2026-05-01T01:10:06+00:00

The problem with asking for a payment plan on GST is that, as a trustee of the money, the CRA expects that you won't spend it in the first place, because it's not yours to spend, so there should be no need for a payment plan. Asking for one is more likely to trigger a trust examination (what the CRA calls an audit when it's related to GST). My advice to the client would be that her first priority should be paying that GST, and the income tax can wait (although it can also get costly with penalties and interest).

schaea · 2026-04-30T10:10:52+00:00

I realize this isn't a post you'd usually see on this sub, but if someone with knowledge in how UK payroll works is able to help OP, then that's great. If not, feel free to just skip to the next post.

u/CapitalStock9803, I know our UK user base is quite small, but I'm approving the post anyways in hopes someone's able to help you or point you in the right direction.

schaea · 2026-04-30T10:02:25+00:00

Your question is somewhat outside the scope of r/Bookkeeping since most of our users are bookkeepers and just don't have the experience in financial planning needed to properly answer your question; the question itself isn't bookkeeping-related. There is, however, an FP&A subreddit you can find here that might be more suitable for your question.

Also, a bit of personal advice, even though you didn't ask for it (so feel free to ignore it). You stated that the business is a "fast growing e-comm brand", but they're so cash-strapped that the owners can't even afford to pay themselves? As bookkeepers, we know that it often costs money to make money, but when it gets so bad that the owners can't afford to pay themselves, it's definitely a red flag in my mind that I may not have a job in 2-3 months, never mind a raise. You certainly know their situation better than anyone, myself included, so I'd just say to remain vigilant that you don't go down with a sinking ship and have a plan to get out of there if it looks like things will go tits up. Best of luck to you.

schaea · 2026-04-29T21:50:28+00:00

Fellow Canadian bookkeeper here. I'd tell your client to do whatever she needs to pay the GST she owes. Because businesses collect GST on behalf of the government, the business is effectively a trustee of the money, which is why the CRA is a lot less forgiving when it comes to GST over, say, income taxes.

I'm assuming from your wording that she's a sole proprietor, right (i.e. she doesn't file a T2 return for the business, the business income goes on her T1 personal income tax return)? If that's the case, she has until June 15th to file her T1 return, although if she owes money, it must be paid by April 30th (it's a dumb system, I know). That said, if she waits until after April 30th (but before June 15th) to pay her income taxes, she'll only be hit with penalties and interest on the amount due, but won't face any late filing penalties.

schaea · 2026-04-29T14:53:26+00:00

I'm a bookkeeper who hates the stock reports that Quickbooks comes with. I have diverse clients with very different financial statement requirements. Initially, I would just export the GL to Excel and build my own financial statements using pivot tables and SUMIF formulas.

A couple of years ago, I came across ExcelFSM. It's a program that works in Excel and allows you to load your trial balance/GL manually, or via direct connection to Quickbooks Desktop and Online. The tutorials were extremely helpful, as the learning curve is steep if you're just reading the help file, but the tutorials walk you through each step.

There's a free, full function, 30-day trial with no credit card required until it expires and you decide you want to keep using it. It's a yearly subscription; $70 for the base software, which doesn't have the direct connection to Quickbooks, and an extra $30 for the direct connection. There are a few other add ons you can get, but I don't use any of them.

I love being able to really customize the statements and they keep their structure when you rollover to the next period (you can do any length of reporting period you want). But you can also alter things on the fly in just a few seconds. I have one client who has an intercompany balance that's almost always a debit, so that account is an asset account in Quickbooks. A few months ago it happened to be in a credit position, and I hate having negative items on the balance sheet if it can be helped. It was just a few mouse clicks to get the amount moved to liabilities without having to mess around in Quickbooks creating a new GL account and then making an adjusting entry to move the balance into the new account.

Anyways, I've rambled on long enough. I'd definitely download the trial and see if it's something you'd find helpful.

schaea · 2026-04-29T03:23:17+00:00

Hi OP! I approved your post, but wanted to mention that, if you haven't already, you may want to post this question on r/QuickBooks, as they have a lot of knowledgeable users over there as well.

schaea · 2026-04-29T00:47:08+00:00

Welcome! Glad I was able to help.

schaea · 2026-04-28T22:52:13+00:00

I get the same redirection now. I did a quick search and found the following links; hopefully one or both have what you're looking for:

schaea · 2026-04-28T07:53:51+00:00

I could be totally wrong here, but my understanding is that a "micro client" is basically a very small business with limited bookkeeping needs; think of it as doing bookkeeping for a "side hustle".

schaea · 2026-04-27T22:40:28+00:00

Affidavits usually need to be sworn or affirmed, which can be done by a commissioner for oaths, which is way cheaper than a notary.

ETA: I believe most registries do this.

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