The One Where I Get Certified

TL;DR

I’ve got an analogy for you. Your career as an accounting professional is like a brick-layer constructing a building.

You are a hard worker, and each day you lay all sorts of bricks as you build your your accounting career. Some construction of your accounting career is structural and very intentional. Some is ornamental. And of course, some of those bricks are needed to fix some damage (maybe that you caused, maybe that your clients caused).

But every brick we lay is laid on top of a foundation. No matter how many individual bricks are laid, if the foundational knowledge of our field is not strong, things will start to crumble.

But the great news is that there are ways to repair and strengthen the foundation of your house without tearing it down. You can keep right on living in it and even adding on to it, but that foundation repair increases the longevity of the house and likely staves off other compounding problems.

My foundation needs repair. Specifically as it relates to payroll concepts. As I think about the scary times or frustrating times in my business, payroll issues stand out.

I have made it work, and gotten a lot of support along the way, but there is always a nagging fear in my mind anytime I have to talk about payroll issues with my clients.

I won't ever "do payroll". I know better than that. But even though I use an outsourced payroll provider, I still need to know a lot more about it. I need a stronger foundation.

So I am going to get the brand new Payroll Essentials Certification from Gusto. I took their People Advisor Certification in 2020. I would describe that as the 2nd level of their free training inside their Gusto Academy training platform.

So why would I go backwards and take this Level 1 basic course? Well, because the Level 2 People Advisor Cert was the only course they had at the time I took it! I would have started with the Payroll Essentials material if it had been available.

I remember how much better I could even just speak about payroll concepts after that People Advisory Certification.

I need to hear Gusto’s expert teachers succinctly boil down the basics of 941s and FICA and and Payroll Journals so when I find myself in conversations about those topics, my head is held a little higher and my shoulders are back and my words are fewer and more precise.

And maybe, just maybe, I might learn something that will make registering for state payroll tax accounts less torturous (though I am guessing even Gusto can't fix Ohio).

I would be taking this certification anyway. No question about that. But when Gusto approached me to ask if I wanted to rally together a study group to hold others accountable to learn this material along with me, it was an easy “yes”.

Do you or someone on your staff want to take the Gusto Payroll Certification with me? Just bang that image right below and you’ll get all the details you need. I mean, do you see how happy I am about this study group!?! So happy I’m popping my collar on my jean jacket!

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Deals Deals Deals

💰 The Bookkeeping Business Accelerator by Serena Shoup is open for enrollment*. VIP doors close October 4th. You can use code KATE for 10% off. Reminder, her program is for folks who already have a grasp of the basics of accounting (the debs and creds) and are looking to build a bookkeeping business.

💰 Tickets to 2023 BKX conference for bookkeeping entrepreneurs will be on sale starting Oct 4. If you reply to this email or comment below, I’ll make sure you have my affiliate link for $400 discount on October 4th. Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to share the link yet! I will be attending this conference because I’m moving to Fort Worth and the conference is in Dallas (some personal news, as they say…).

💰 Financial Cents is giving away one free ticket to QB Connect. See details here. I secretly hope the winner will be someone who has never gone to an accounting conference before. I think going to a conference will be life changing for the winner. Kelly Gonsalves agrees with me. She told me a story about how in 2016 she attended her first ever conference (QB Connect, in fact) because she won a raffle. And now she is a regular presenter at conferences. (Relatedly…I need to figure out a way to give away tickets to these conferences…I’ve got some ideas brewing…muahahaha).

Please always send me any news of deals that you hear of that others might benefit from.

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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.

📅 Mondays in October: Co-working hour from 11:00-12:00EST. Join fellow Bookkeeping Side Hustlers on Zoom and get work done. A nice little way to “work” with others. Zoom link and password can be found on the calendar. For me, I call it my “Hour of Pain”. I’ve been doing my most dreaded task during those Monday co-working sessions.

📅 October 4: Projects, Progress Invoicing, and Job Costing in QBO*. Royalwise has designed this class to be specific to construction and project-based jobs.

📅 +October 5: We kick off the payroll certification study group at 4:00EST! Then the Payroll Study Group co-working times are Thursdays at 4:00EST and Fridays at 11:00EST. trough October 26. Only action item now is to make sure you simply register your interest here and you’ll be given the zoom link and other relevant details.

📅 +October 13: How to Build a High Performing Firm. This is the 4th webinar in the series with Financial Cents. If you haven’t watched the first three, watch them here: Financial Cents Playlist.

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Featured Posts

🌶️ Scott Driscoll gives sage advice about what information to add to a Journal Entry when you have to make one. And then it blew up with other great advice about best practices around journal entries. Pretty sure everyone will learn something from this thread.

🌶️ Who else still gets nervous before a call, consult, speaking engagement, etc.? (I do! 🙋‍♀️) Go add your thoughts to Ashley DeWeerdt’s post and share how you feel before those big moments. How have you coped?

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Help You Hustle

💪 We all need to be thinking about our OWN retirement. And should encourage our clients to think about their retirement savings, too. Watch this interview with Sean Mullaney, The FI Tax Guy, about the Solo401k and whether it is a good vehicle for you or your clients. Y’all, please make sure you have a long term vision for retirement if you are a business owner. We have to be a lot more proactive about this than simply signing up for an employers retirement plan. Comment below on this newsletter with what retirement accounts you are using, Solo401k or otherwise.

💪 How Would You Prepare For An Economic Downturn? This 2Bobs podcast episode (one of my current favorite BUSINESS podcasts) gives advice about some steps to take now if you have a negative short term outlook on the economy. I plan on sharing some of this with my clients.

💪 Unfortunately, we had to cancel our 2-part series with The CFO Project about “What is a Virtual CFO” and “How to become a Virtual CFO”. But I noticed that Veronica Wasek basically asked The CFO Project the same question I wanted to. She has her “How to add an Outsourced Advisory Service (CFO) to your Bookkeeping Business” available for free replay. Give it a listen!
Relatedly, I’ve been wondering if taking the time to implement Jirav would short cut the road to becoming a legitimate fractional CFO. Jirav has a team dedicated to making sure accounting pros are successful with the Jirav Financial Planning & Analysis software. The monthly cost kind of takes my breath away, but true outsourced CFO services are supposed to be very high-ticket engagements for companies with the size and growth potential that can support the fees anyway.

💪 Uncat app (tag line: Stop Herding Cats) just added a new resource to their library of downloadable templates for bookkeepers. The newest one is about month-end close checklist. There are several others available. And I notice there is a $5 Starbucks gift card for new free trial accounts.

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For Fun

😹 “Bookkeeper: Someone who solves a problem you didn’t know you had in a way you don’t understand.”
That's from this funny t-shirt found on Etsy. Probably a good conversation starter if you make yourself wear it out in public. Biz Expense!

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Jobs

Job seekers, visit the #jobopportunity Topic/Hashtag in the Facebook Group to find these opps. I deliberately make you have to search a bit to get to these opps to help weed out tire kickers.

If you want your job opp featured here, be sure to use #jobopportunity on your post. This posts it to the saved hashtag, which is where these job postings are pulled from.

💼 Pooja Rohit Loomba is hiring a remote bookkeeper that has QBO experience.

💼 Candace Galiffa' shared NewWay Accounting is hiring a part time remote bookkeeper.

💼 Live near Boulder, CO? Check out Jill Wood’s post about a client looking for an in person employee.

💼 Intuit is advertising hard for the QuickBooks Live and TurboTax Live jobs. You can apply via the links here. And remember, if you don’t have the requisite experience, they have created exams for both of the roles to help improve the chances of people getting hired.

💼 Two new Canadian jobs posted at CloudAccountingJobs.com.

Don’t forget the standing opps on my Find A Freelance Job article. 1099 and W-2 opps.

Kate Builds In Public

🎢 I implemented a guest instructor feature to my FreshBooks weekly office hours. For my first guest, I had a payroll expert, Shannon Ballman Theis, come and give a short lesson on “How to pay your children from your business.” She just chopped down an existing presentation she had already created and spoke for 10 minutes.

So, now I ask you, reader: How can you partner with experts to bring more value to your clients. Get creative. Find ways to collaborate. Grow the pie.

🎢 Last week I attended something called Appy Hour Camp. The tag line was “An Intentional Educator Retreat”. I would say the common thread was that everyone there had aspirations to use their knowledge to teach and influence others. Some folks were more focused on educating other accounting pros. Some more focused on educating small businesses. Some do both.

Y’all, it was a “pinch me” experience. It was hosted by two influential industry leaders, Heather Satterley and Liz Scott (follow them and their show “Appy Hour”!). There were a handful of vendor sponsors. All combined, I’d guess there were about 80 folks there. It was amazing! The in-person connections with hard working and like-minded people (who are way ahead of me in my business) was a privilege that I can’t describe.

I’m so grateful to have been nominated by Kellie Parks, to have been accepted by Heather and Liz, and to the sponsors Intuit, ADP, Ignition, Karbon, Keeper, Swizznet, and Jirav for covering the costs (it was free except for travel, y’all!).

But here is why I am telling you this. It is not to toot my own horn. I want YOU to get to go next year.

If you are someone who wants to be an “intentional educator”, then just do 2 things:

1. Put your name on this Google form I whipped up and next year I’ll email you when/if they do it again. I have ZERO sway in who they invite through the door, but I can at least make sure you know there IS a door. That is all that this list is for.

2. Spend the next year doing your best to be an actual intentional educator! Teach for your local Chamber, make YouTube tutorial videos, ship that course you’ve been dreaming of, apply to every single conference to be a speaker, be a guest speaker at your local high school. Just move your butt! You will have to talk about your past efforts and your future plans when you apply to the camp. So prepare NOW!

🎢 I received a Google review from a client I did clean up work for in prep for her taxes. Maybe not so notable, BUT it came FOUR MONTHS after I asked for a review 3 times. Asking three times was hard to do, but I was confident that I had done good work and know that business owners are busy. But y’all, she finally did it! AND she asked for me to keep doing her books. Both hands raised high in victory!!!!

Now, YOU, yes YOU, please send that request to your clients to leave you a review. Do it! Then do it anther time in 2 weeks. Steel your spine and ask a third time if you can. Comment right here on Substack “Kate you are a pain in my neck, but I did it!” when you do so I can see who reads to the bottom of these emails. :-)

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From The Vault

⚡ Alma-Jasmin Smaljovic said she read my eBook 🙏 and it made her realize that she should work for someone else instead of starting her own business. There is such wisdom in slowing down and really thinking through the best approach to a virtual, cloud accounting career. You can be an Entrepreneur with Big Dreams, a Solo-preneur/Side-Hustler, or a Job Seeker. All are valid paths. So for this' editions From The Vault Section, I will remind y’all you can get my eBook at www.BookkeepingSideHustle.com/store and use code WORKFROMHOME for 30% off.

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Keep hustling!

Kate

-Chief Hustler-

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I am down right rabid about transparency and full disclosure. If a link has a * beside it, it means it is either an affiliate link where I might receive compensation if you make a purchase, at no additional charge to you. Or it could be a tracking link that another business provided me to see how many readers click on that link.