The Bookkeepers Tool Kit (and Utility Belt)

If you’re a bookkeeper with Batman tendencies, then our resident bookkeeping mensch, Paul Rosenblum, has some advice for you in this post-tax season episode. He’ll help you reevaluate your bookkeeping-life balance including an audit of your client roster, physical work environment, software stack and more. Should there be more bookkeeper specific episodes like this? Let us know and we’ll set them up on “the same bat-time, same-bat channel”, whoops, we mean bookkeeping episode, bookkeeping podcast. 

Transcript

Episode 33 The Bookkeepers Toolkit

Hello there, and welcome to another episode in the podcast. In part one of this two-part episode, I spoke about the Client toolkit (as I call it) and today I will be talking about the toolkit for a self-employed bookkeeper mostly – however, I will speak about a bookkeeper who is employed as a W-2 worker.  I’m a little older, and a little greyer and still recovering from tax season --  Paul Rosenblum

Since I am writing this right after tax season ended on April 15th, the last episode and this one might signify a ‘new beginning’ for clients and bookkeepers.  Many smaller business clients don’t even start books until after tax season, either because their bookkeeper is busy with bookkeeping that will be filed without an extension, or the client is in flux with their bookkeeping and accounting team.  This week let’s talk about a new beginning from the bookkeeper’s viewpoint.  

Self-employed bookkeepers and accountants, for that matter, usually right after-tax season reevaluate their cliental, as well as their in-house staff and generally how they operate, after the April 15th tax filing, April 18th (First quarter estimate payments), and April 20th (monthly sales tax payments) work is done, as well as the quarterly payroll is filed.

Existing firms sometimes trim their clientele by walking away from the lowest revenue (to the firm) clients, and they (and we) reevaluate subcontractors or employees, as well as the software used (mostly accounting firms rather than bookkeepers).  

Let’s talk more specifically about self-employed bookkeepers: 

1. Independent bookkeepers not only reevaluate their businesses, but also reevaluate where they (we) are in life outside of the office.  How many clients do we want?  Are we charging the right hourly or monthly rate?  Should we move to a smaller or a larger office or stay where they are?  
2. Self-employed bookkeepers also trim their clientele sometimes by walking away from clients who cause extra stress, clients who can’t afford to pay more than they are already paying, (and who would know better than their bookkeeper) slow payers, clients who don’t get back with information needed by the bookkeeper in a timely manner and as mentioned in prior episodes--- for one example--a client who does not give their bookkeeper access to their bank account. As a side note, it’s the hardest thing that I do and through the years, I haven’t done it often – and that is – walk away from a client.  It’s the freelance mind set – don’t walk away from revenue.  However, if I know that a client is doing something illegal, I will walk away from them the day after taxes have been filed.
3.   This year, I am trimming my client list in order to open up more time to work on this podcast, for example! (And I realize that as I get closer to the beginning of the 8th decade in life, I don’t want to work 65 hours a week during tax season again.  So, I am really re-evaluating my business, and my life, which has, for many years, been one and the same. (Yes, I admit it!)  ****
4. Self-employed bookkeepers also look at the systems that they have been using and make any necessary tweaks to it. This includes, not just the bookkeeping system itself, but possibly, the software used, or maybe starting to learn new software, or even (gasp) integrating online software to automate certain actions. 
5. Being a self-employed bookkeeper gives one the opportunity to work only with clients or the kind of businesses that interest you or want to work with.  Some bookkeepers don’t really care, but I, for one, have to be interested in the business and like the person who owns it to feel comfortable doing their bookkeeping. So, this time of year allows the bookkeeper to re-focus on their business and go back to why they wanted to be a self-employed bookkeeper in the first place. 

So, re-evaluating and tweaking the business is one part of a ‘new start’ after tax season ends and is part of the ‘Bookkeepers Toolbox’.  

There is, however, a totally different part of the toolbox -- the Utility Belt!  (My 1966 Batman reference—sorry about that) 

The actual physical ‘tools’ that a bookkeeper needs to have.  

1. A comfortable home/office.  Forgetting about the tax deduction for a home office, a bookkeeper has to have a quiet, comfortable place to work that is a separate room for all of their ‘stuff’, just like a therapist has a separate room for the therapy sessions. If that doesn’t work, then a separate office not at home.
2. A good PC or MAC that isn’t too old.  You don’t want a computer crashing and losing any information that you didn’t back up.  Part of keeping the computer in good shape is to maintain it. Run scans of the software, and make sure there are no viruses or spyware and make sure that the computer is as secure as it can be. The last computer that I purchased was about a year and a half ago, and I got Lenovo with a RYZEN chip in it, which is more speed than I would ever need for bookkeeping, but it was a sale that I couldn’t say no to. And it does help productivity when I’m using QuickBooks online or just looking something up that I’m inputting into a client’s books.  The PC zooms across the internet faster than any computer that I have ever had. But I digress, yet again. 
3. Maybe I don’t need to say this, but I will anyway – Get a good calculator. Make sure it has the features that you need, it’s the right size, the right weight, and the Number keys and the display is exactly what you want.  Difficult to purchase online, as you might want to do a ‘look and see’ in person. 
4. Get yourself a comfortable mouse. I use a wireless mouse, but wired is fine too. Just get one, if you are a bookkeeper, that you feel comfortable with, as you will have an intimate relationship with it. 
5. Make sure you have a good backup system. The last thing you would ever want is for your computer to die, and not have a backup of all of your client’s databases.   Get an external hard drive or save the data to the cloud. 
6. Re-evaluate what actual hours you will be working for your clients. Are you a 9-5 person, or are you like I have been for years, 9am-5pm (or 7am -5:30pm during tax season) in the office, and picking up phone calls at 8 or 9pm from home from clients, or are you going to separate (better than I do) home life from business life?  

If you are a W-2 bookkeeper employee, you might want to re-evaluate things as well.  However, most of the time, if you are comfortable being an employee working a pretty straightforward schedule, you might not have the mindset for freelance work.  And benefits such as 401K, health insurance as well as other perks are nice too!  I have personally never been good in office politics, so self-employment really works well for me. If you are an employee, you might want to evaluate if you are getting paid well enough for what you are doing and is the company giving you all the tools that you need.  If you are an employee working in a larger company, then they have their systems in place—you just have to follow them. But if you are a bookkeeper working for a smaller company, then you can have a say in tweaking the system internally to make it easier for you.  

Check out our LinkedIn group “The Bookkeeper Venting Group” – and just let your bookkeeping frustrations go.  We will all listen and give you all the support that you need to get through the day or the week. The link is below. 

And just an unrelated note – one of the most popular episodes on the podcast and on the YouTube channel is ‘The Chart of Accounts’  (Episode #7), and since it was done in 2022, when I was still a podcast newbie, it has been suggested to me that I re-do and update that episode with more specific information. So, that’s what is up next episode.  That might be a multi-part as well, so stay tuned.  Sign up for the newsletter with the link below and drop me a line at Bookkeepermensch@gmail. Would love to hear from you.  That’s it for this week -- if you’re a bookkeeper, take some deep breaths, and let them out -- tax season is over! (except my bookkeeper friend in Canada, but it’s almost over for you too)  

I’m cutting down my hours, and I’ll be in your earbuds next time ---  I’m Paul Rosenblum.