4 ms·

Who do you outsource your bookkeeping to and how do you manage that process?

by porter 14y ago

patio11 14y ago
I have the same homegrown bookkeeping software which I've used for forever. (Don't do this folks. Use Quickbooks. The only reason I use the homegrown stuff is because it publishes stats direct to my website.) I have a VA in the Philippines who I hired through Pepper. Every month or two, I take all of my credit card statements, zip them up, and send them to her. We have a standing orders document (terribly out of date -- should fix that) of what expenses count as business expenses and how to categorize them in the bookkeeping software. (Expenses are the only part which requires manual entry -- my sites do their own revenue tracking.) There's a workflow hack or two to ensure that novel transactions get checked by me, eventually. (e.g. I have a personal credit card in the mix, for those rare times when both business cards fail, which means she sees a lot of transactions which aren't business related and should filter them all out. It wasn't obvious from the one-line description that e.g. my wedding venue is probably not appropriate for deduction, but since it was marked as novel (and ginormous relative to my expected expenses for that month), I caught it prior to doing the year in review numbers. I do a more in-deoth review of the big expense categories (AdWords and travel) prior to doing my taxes and spot-check everything else. If e.g. a $60 software purchase ends up getting missed that's unfortunate, but it is only about ~$20 of unfortunate, and a few slip-ups are substantially cheaper in opportunity cost (and sanity) that having me do line-by-line review of all ~500 entries. For general advice on how to work with VAs, I strongly recommend Rob Walling's book and have heard good things about the 4 Hour Work Week (but have never read it).
- markdown 14y ago
  > I have a VA in the Philippines who I hired through Pepper. Pepper?
  - joshkaufman 14y ago
    http://www.peppervirtualassistant.com/ http://www.peppervirtualassistant.com/
    - markdown 14y ago
      Thanks
- edanm 14y ago
  I've heard people talking about using Quickbooks or other bookkeeping software, and I'm unclear why. I'm running a business in Israel, and we have an accountant and bookkeeper. Once a month we send all receipts/invoices to the bookkeeper, who deals with everything. I get reports a few weeks later. I never have to touch any software. Is this not standard practice in the U.S.? It seems many people talk about using Quickbooks. Alternatively, am I missing something by not doing the books myself? In general, I still have some issues in understanding the finer points of our finances, and I'm still looking for ways to get better insight into our cashflow, revenue, etc.

Who do you outsource your bookkeeping to and how do you manage that process?

by porter 14y ago

Who do you outsource your bookkeeping to and how do you manage that process?

I have the same homegrown bookkeeping software which I've used for forever. (Don't do this folks. Use Quickbooks. The only reason I use the homegrown stuff is because it publishes stats direct to my website.) I have a VA in the Philippines who I hired through Pepper. Every month or two, I take all of my credit card statements, zip them up, and send them to her. We have a standing orders document (terribly out of date -- should fix that) of what expenses count as business expenses and how to categorize them in the bookkeeping software. (Expenses are the only part which requires manual entry -- my sites do their own revenue tracking.) There's a workflow hack or two to ensure that novel transactions get checked by me, eventually. (e.g. I have a personal credit card in the mix, for those rare times when both business cards fail, which means she sees a lot of transactions which aren't business related and should filter them all out. It wasn't obvious from the one-line description that e.g. my wedding venue is probably not appropriate for deduction, but since it was marked as novel (and ginormous relative to my expected expenses for that month), I caught it prior to doing the year in review numbers. I do a more in-deoth review of the big expense categories (AdWords and travel) prior to doing my taxes and spot-check everything else. If e.g. a $60 software purchase ends up getting missed that's unfortunate, but it is only about ~$20 of unfortunate, and a few slip-ups are substantially cheaper in opportunity cost (and sanity) that having me do line-by-line review of all ~500 entries. For general advice on how to work with VAs, I strongly recommend Rob Walling's book and have heard good things about the 4 Hour Work Week (but have never read it).

markdown 14y ago
> I have a VA in the Philippines who I hired through Pepper. Pepper?
- joshkaufman 14y ago
  http://www.peppervirtualassistant.com/ http://www.peppervirtualassistant.com/
  - markdown 14y ago
    Thanks
edanm 14y ago
I've heard people talking about using Quickbooks or other bookkeeping software, and I'm unclear why. I'm running a business in Israel, and we have an accountant and bookkeeper. Once a month we send all receipts/invoices to the bookkeeper, who deals with everything. I get reports a few weeks later. I never have to touch any software. Is this not standard practice in the U.S.? It seems many people talk about using Quickbooks. Alternatively, am I missing something by not doing the books myself? In general, I still have some issues in understanding the finer points of our finances, and I'm still looking for ways to get better insight into our cashflow, revenue, etc.