The One About This Time Of Year
TL;DR
It's that time of year! You can smell it. Stinky bookkeeping files are starting to pile up all around.
The stressed-out owner’s of these piles of 💩 are asking themselves “Do I do a poor job of cleaning up this mess with my own inadequate time & tools & knowledge, or do I hire a professional to do it”.
That is where we bookkeeping experts come in to save the day!
I believe these things to be true about clean-ups:
The more you know your Debits and Credits, the more confident you will feel. So please make sure to have a solid foundation in the fundamentals of accounting. There is a huge difference between doing ongoing bookkeeping correctly vs fixing many months/years of incorrect bookkeeping.
You won’t know how to price clean-up projects at first, and no matter what price you say, you will feel so broke on your first clean-up! That is because you will be inefficient. And this holds true whether you quote a project price or bill hourly because I bet you will not report all your hours. You won’t know how to use some of the tools that help identify problems. You won’t have a system to stay on track and remember where you left off. But you will get better the more you do it!
Side note about pricing clean-ups: Do not let anyone make you feel dumb for being confused on how to price clean ups. I’ve heard some of the biggest thought leaders in our industry give wildly different opinions. For example:
“I would never discount a clean-up project. Shoot, I charge more, or the client will always just hire you to clean up because it is cheaper than ongoing work.”
“I am happy to do clean-ups at a discount because the real value is getting the client to be on a monthly bookkeeping plan for years, so I don’t let a high priced quote keep me from landing the long-term client.”
“I don’t make them pay for clean-ups up front but explain that I will spread it out on top of their first 3 months of ongoing bookkeeping work so it doesn’t sting as much.”
“I charge in 10 hour blocks and then bill more for time once we go over 10 hours.”
“I divide the clean up fee into 3 payments. A third up front, a third when the end is in sight, and a 3rd after completion.”
Read below for my (Kate) most recent very scientific method for pricing the current clean up I’m doing.
Thankfully, another thing is true. There are seasoned pros who have taken their lumps on clean-ups and developed resources to help rookies learn from their mistakes and implement their processes. Yes, these courses cost money, but one clean-up client more than pays for the training. And then you get to use your knowledge over and over again on other big project work.
Last year, I realized I wanted to see an example of how a great QBO clean-up expert diagnosed and fixed messy files (so I could create my own system for Freshbooks clean-up projects). I invested in Veronica Wasek’s “Paid Diagnostic Review” course and then applied her concepts to making my own personal template for FreshBook clients (which I hope to sell one day). I highly recommend her course! She’ll teach you how to get paid to examine a client’s file, to understand the extent of the mess so you can quote a good price, and create notes to allow you to speed through the clean up when your client accepts your proposal!
I love getting our community great deals at the perfect time, so I’m thrilled Veronica accepted my idea of advertising her annual Black Friday sale on her Diagnostic Review and QBO Clean-Up Course.* Use the referral code “5mbhustle” to get 15% starting NOW! (FYI, the code works on all her courses, too).
Deals Deals Deals
💰 Because it is Veterans Day, I wanted to remind you that Bookkeeper Launch* (the course I took to get started in this career) has a big military discount. Used to be 50% when I got it (yes, spouses count!). I think it might be 30% now. The man who founded it was in the Air Force before going to school to study accounting. He likes helping fellow veterans.
💰 Black November sale for Fast and Easy QBO certification courses. You save $728 dollars on the bundle that gets you QBO Basic, Advanced, and Payroll certification courses*.
💰 Veronica Wasek’s 5MB Academy is offering %15 off with code 5mbhustle. Don’t wait until after Thanksgiving - grab this deal TODAY!
💰 The Bookkeeping Side Hustle Store T-Account mousepads are on sale for 15% off. Use code “blackfriday”.
Please always send me any news of deals that you hear of that others might benefit from.
Be There or Be Square
Items with a “+” are hosted by me. All these events can be viewed and registered for in the DESCRIPTIONS of each event on the Bookkeeping Side Hustle Calendar.
📅 + Monday Morning Co-working Hour: Join me on zoom each Monday morning at 11am EST for a co-working hour with other Bookkeeping Side Hustlers. RSVP to the 11/13 and 11/20 co-working hours so they are added to your calendar.
📅 Nov. 14: Breakaway Coffee Meetup Invitaion: Breakaway Advisors sent this message for me to share. Hey rebels! Attending QBC next week? Meet up with Team Breakaway for coffee before you start your day on Tuesday at 7:30am. The first 10 people to email us info@breakawayba.com and show up will get some killer swag. They will be at the Starbucks near the guest elevators in the Aria. (More details when you RSVP).
Kate strongly believes in a business support system a la Breakaway Advisors. You should at least give them a look-see to see if this might be a better fit that completely solo entrpreneurship.
📅 +Nov 17 & 28: OnPay is presenting 2 exclusive webinars for our community to help you run your business more smoothly and help you grow.
11/17: Your Year-End Payroll Playbook - RSVP to the LIVE to learn about attacking those required year-end payroll tasks.
11/28: Boost Your Bookkeeping with Payroll Services - RSVP to watch LIVE to learn how to increase your revenue by offering payroll services via full-service payroll provider OnPay.
📅 Nov 21: Products, Services, and Inventory in QBO. Come learn how to correctly use QBO’s Products and Services list. This Royalwise class will help you gain the knowledge and skills that will propel your company to new heights. Register HERE.
Featured Posts
🌶️ Thank you Nancy for sharing tips for those attending QB Connect!
🌶️ Irina J. asked what you do if you notice a client doing something “iffy”? Go read the comments and share your thoughts.
🌶️ Kimberly D. wonders what you would do if you didn’t think you had the right expertise for a client’s needs?
🌶️ What specific skills do you look for when hiring someone for your firm?
Help You Hustle
💪 Hear ye, hear ye! If any newsletter reader creates a course similar to Veronica’s course but focused on Xero, I will give you free publicity to get beta testers and free publicity when you release the course. I love when I see accounting pros who are really baller at our craft find ways to make money doing “Accounting Adjacent” things. A diagnostic review and clean-up course could only be created by someone with great technical expertise in both accounting fundamentals and Xero software. I salute you!
💪 I’ve been eyeing Seth David’s messaging about his course on using Notion as a Practice Management System. His sales page is live*, but the course officially releases in 2 days. Check out the sales page to see if this resonates with you. One thing I’ll say about using general project management tools like Notion vs tools that are specific to our industry is that they are A LOT cheaper. And developing an expertise in Notion can be applied to your entire LIFE (keeping track of your college coursework, t-ball coaching, managing your aging parents’ medical treatments, planning your next vacation, etc) whereas the accounting-specific tools, well, apply to the business part of your life.
💪 Joana L. shared about QBO Bootcamp from Intuit - get the details about this FREE training HERE. Their free webinars are how I got my own Basic and Advanced QBO certs when I first started.
For Fun
THESE ARE NOT ACTUALLY FUNNY, BUT MORE NIGHTMARE-ISH
💀 Lynsi I. shared about the debt collection calls she received - on a client’s account. Crazy things happen out there.
😹 When a potential client rewrites your engagement letter! What in the world!
Jobs
💼 New jobs this week in the Job Guide! Forensic account, property management bookkeeper, part-time positions, and an experienced bookkeeper job. Check out the jobs HERE.
Don’t forget the standing opps on my Find A Freelance Job article. 1099 and W-2 opps.
Kate Builds In Public
🎢 Personal Priorities
I did 2 things the last few weeks that are in deep alignment with my personal priorities. Notably, I am able to commit to these things during the day because I am my own boss (read much further down the page for the NOT good side of being your own boss).
I got approved to be the “PTA Copy Machine Mom” every other Friday morning. Already had my first shift! I’ll admit that sometimes it isn’t super clear how much value I provide as a bookkeeper (some clients barely communicate with me!). However, making copies for the teachers educating our children was the most clearly high value task I did in recent memory and there is not even a close second.
I signed up for a Bible study that meets on Thursday mornings. I’m hopeful to get really plugged in there. We are studying the Book of Judges and the horrors that happen when “Everyone did what was right in their own eyes”. Judges 21:25. Kinda reminds me of 2023.
🎢 New billing in last 2 weeks:
1 new FreshBooks Office Hours Member ($59 per month)
1 new diagnostic review ($250)
3 easy extra training hours from former training clients (3 x $125)
And…
🤑 I bagged a $4800 clean up.
Here is the story…
It’s more of a catch up because they have only done invoicing in their FreshBooks account. It’s a rush job that I agreed to complete in 10 days because they are behind on tax filing. It is for 24 months (2021 and 2022) and has 1 CC and 1 bank account. Sounds easy. But…there are 3 partners who seem to have a bit of a stressful relationship. And Partnership Structures really aren’t ideal for FreshBooks because the Balance Sheet report is so very limited. That means I’ll have to massage the financial reports in excel, so in that regard, I’ll definitely be earning my pay. As long as I go slow and use my T-Accounts and pencil and paper to triple check the partner capital accounts and manually roll their respective shares of Net Income to their capital accounts, I should be good.
Because it was a rush job, I did NOT do my normal process of a paid diagnostic review (that I learned from Veronica Wasek of 5M Bookkeeping*) for this client. Just pulled my shoulders tall and stated a price as he was looking at me on zoom (note, I did have him share his screen quickly and had him show me a couple of places to do a very quick disaster check). He accepted the price immediately. I tried not to dwell too hard on the “Dang it! I could have said a higher number!”
Do you want to know how I came up with the price?
We have a family goal of paying off our house before my husband retires from the military so that he has true freedom to decide on his second “career” (I hope he chooses working for me!!!). To meet that goal, we need to average an extra $4,800 per month on our mortgage. Of course, I didn’t tell the client that. But I just let that figure factor into what I quoted him. I said, “since you are in a rush, we can skip the diagnostic review and I’ll just quickly quote your project at $200 per month for the 24 months. But I do reserve the right to come back and tell you I need to raise the price since I’m not doing a full diagnostic review.”
Follow me for more very complex pricing tips where you just go bag clients that make you the money you need for your own personal financial desires! 🙃
Shall we continue on with this clean-up story…
Admittedly, this has been more work and more client interaction than I normally have. I've had a couple calls with him super early in the morning when he and I were both free when I would have normally been more attentive at breakfast. But I told my kids that this is a big project and that I'm getting a lot of money for it.
So to further solidify this life lesson that a good day’s work can lead to a lot of money, next week I will have my 10 year old daughter log on to the mortgage payment portal and pay the entire amount that I earn from this project towards our mortgage.
🎢 Playing Lawyer
There is so much NOT glamourous about having your own business. At least about small solo shop like mine where I am in charge of everything. I have been a bit negligent in transferring my LLC from Virginia to Texas when I moved to Fort Worth in August.
So I’ve been doing a lot of “playing lawyer” recently (I mean, I did take the LSAT as a 21 year old, so I guess you could say that makes me lawyer-ish).
I am so sick of being on hold on the phone for 30 minutes. Sick of confusing, cut-rate state government portals and seemingly pointless and obscure documents and rejection letters because I checked a box wrong. I’m also very much over that sickening feeling you get when you aren’t 100% confident that you are doing things correctly.
But the one bright side is that occasionally I feel like bookkeeping is kind of boring (shhhh), but now I have a whole new appreciation for the boring parts of our job, because at least I'm not in the business law field where I am forced to care about the nuances of rando state form A-645.9 versus C-745-3(revised) that has to be uploaded to this portal not that portal.
I think I should have just hired someone to do it. My mood would definitely be better, and I might not have cost that much money. I didn’t even try to hire someone.
Have you ever played lawyer and regretted it? I’m not recommending anyone follow my path.
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Keep hustling!
Kate
-Chief Hustler-
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