Bookkeeping Essentials
This regular series of blogs and articles are designed to help inform and elevate bookkeepers in practice. It showcases the latest trends and thinking from ICB USA members and other bookkeeping professionals who provide useful insights to assist in the day-to-day life of a professional bookkeeper.
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Nov 13th 2019
Have you ever had a prospect call your firm and immediately ask how much your services cost? This is a common occurrence, and – aggravating...
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Bookkeepers are inundated with offers from coaches and consultants with programs to help us make our businesses better. These coaches offer...
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There’s a good chance you’ve heard one of the following statements from a prospective client: "Bookkeeping in my area runs $25/hour, and my...
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As bookkeepers, we generally get along well with our clients’ CPAs and EAs. We form great working relationships with them, and, as a team,...
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Who is your client? If you’re like most independent bookkeepers, you’re thinking, “Business owners, of course!” But do you act as though...
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We have all heard it. “Why does it take so long?”, or “Just get it done!”, and “I JUST need something so that I can get the taxes ‘done’...
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For many people, December is a month focused on holidays, family, friends and parties. That isn’t necessarily true for the accountant,...
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Accountants and bookkeepers who decide to open their own practice do so with a variety of goals in mind. Some may find the freedom and...
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I often ask myself, “are bookkeeping emergencies really a thing?” I like to answer this question with a No. If we are communicating with...
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Payroll fraud is one of the most common and costliest forms of asset misappropriation and lasts an average of 30 months before it is...
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Small business owners are often tempted to revert to their old ways after tax season, despite having suffered through the mad scramble to...
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There’s no doubt many of your clients have moved to the cloud, but are they reaping the most benefits possible by being there? More...
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File storage applications and services are a convenience to customers and a way to attract new prospects, but how long should you or your...
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Now that we are through tax season, I have some thoughts about bookkeeper interactions with their client’s CPAs/tax preparers. This...
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Our clients know they need to create a budget, but actually doing so can be very difficult - even painful - for them. Most business owners...
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Bookkeeping professionals often find themselves in situations where you and the client are in disagreement. When these cases arise, who...
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We’ve all been talking broadly about how the accounting profession is changing, but how exactly can accounting professionals monetize these...
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Automated technology and other technological advances will replace many functions traditionally performed by bookkeepers and CPAs, but...
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Dead Bookkeeper Syndrome is a term I have coined to describe the situation of a company’s bookkeeper suddenly disappearing or dying. During...
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Bookkeeping and accounting professionals are on the edge of a new industry paradigm, with technology changing the entire way we do business...
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If you are like most traditional accountants and bookkeepers, you love working on the numbers, from financial statements to bank...
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Cloud-based technology vendors are producing more time-saving apps that automate everything from data entry to expense management -- tasks...
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I’ve had clients ask me, “Why do I need to reconcile bank statements in QBO? The bank feed pulls in all the transactions, so I know it’s...
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How would you feel if $40K in cash went unrecoverable with one of your small business clients? I met this week with my monthly bookeepers...
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Different fields within the accounting profession – accountants, bookkeepers and consultants – should work together in helping their...
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Lawyers, particularly of small-scale law firms, have a lot on their plate – court case, clients, advertising, networking, management,...
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When I first started my online bookkeeping firm, I thought things were going to be a lot easier. I’d read plenty of books telling me all I...
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So you’re planning to hang your shingle and open your own bookkeeping or consulting practice. I often get calls or emails from people just...
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The thought of what our value is as bookkeepers is very clear to me as I write off debt at the end of the year for clients that did not pay...
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As an accounting professional, you have a wide variety of choices to help market yourself or advance your career, the most common of which...
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As professionals in this industry, we are aware that only a small percentage of business owners take on the responsibility of handling...
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Bookkeepers are one resource that every business needs, and when a small business starts, the success or failure of that business can be...
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Bookkeepers are not known in our industry to be professionals; however, per the definition, an office worker is a professional. Looking at...
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Ongoing technological innovation in the accounting industry today means that bookkeepers must use increasingly capable automatic workflow...
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Whether you are just getting started as a bookkeeper or you have an established firm, ensuring clients are a good fit for your practice is...
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Today, if you Google “bookkeeper definition,” this is what you will find: A bookkeeper (or bookkeeper) is a person who records the day-to...