Bookkeepers
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Bookkeepers
May 2007
I am looking for updated recommendations for a trustworthy,
detail oriented, reliable bookkeeper for my consulting practice
who can come to my home for approximately two half days/month to
handle invoicing, accounts payable/receivable, Quickbooks and
Quicken data entry, and bank reconciliations. My current
bookkeeper just took a full time job so I'm hoping to hire
someone asap. The archive recommendations seem somewhat dated so
I thought I'd post again. If you know of anyone, or have ideas
for where to find someone (besides Craigs list), I'd be most
appreciative. Thanks in advance!
Seeking a great bookkeeper asap
Marlene McCall of Creative office services is great. You can reach her in Berkeley
at 649 1295.
doctorsydney
For an excellent bookkeeper who is trustworthy, reliable and detail oriented, call
Ann Valliant at (510) 848-1516. She's simply the best. Lynch.larry
Feb 2007
I have a situation with my bookkeeper. My accountant has commented that she can't
understand why it is taking so long to get my books prepared for tax time (two
consecutive years we have had to apply for two extensions with a third expected this
year). I engaged her about 6 months after starting my business, so she has been
playing catch up, but we are still not up to date, two years later.
She charges me $70 and hour for data entry into Quickbooks and $90 and hour for
'consulting', which seems to constitue any conversation I have with her involving her
answering a question about my books. And she charges for her travel time to my
house/office. She comes around 2 times a month. (She does not seem to have time to
come more often than that)
Anyway, I am trying to decide if I am being overcharged and whether she is taking too
long. She is very thorough, but I am not sure if she is efficient. She loves to stop
and chat with me - so i often make sure I am not home when she comes to work in my
office.
We have two checking accounts (with about a half page of transactions each) which she
is tracking and also between 3 to 4 credit cards. She enters the transactions
manually into the program rather than importing them.
As a sole proprieter of a small business I don't have time to do what she does, even
if I did know how to, nor do I know what's a realistic amount of time to do this many
accounts. Each credit card statment probably has an entire page of transactions on
it. However I am spending around $6000 a year having her come to do them.
How can i figure this out? Is it worth me showing another bookeeper my books to see
if they agree with my accountant. or Should I just stop complaining. I would love to
hear from anyone who has a great bookkeeper for a home-based small business. thanks
in advance.
feeling overcharged and clueless
It certainly sounds like you are being charged WAY too much by your bookkeeper. I
also run a sole proprieter business, and my bookkeeper comes and does my books
monthly on Quickbooks (it doesn't sounds like I need as much data entered as you
do). She also prepares all my quarterly taxes (sales tax, employment taxes) and
deos my payroll, as well as preps for my accountant annually -- which is done very
easily. She charges $35/hour and usually works about 4-6 hours/month. She takes
phone calls from myself and my assistant without charging, and is extremely honest
and thorough. I wouldn't even imagine that she would ask to charge for travel time.
So the short answer is yes, I think you should be looking for another bookkeeper!
Tara
As the sole proprietor of a small business with about 10 years of
bookkeeping help (before that I did it all myself on paper), I
don't think that you are being overcharged regarding the hourly
rate. A good bookkeeper has to understand principles of
accounting, not just be able to read and enter figures, and it
takes training and experience to get those down well.
I presently pay $65. an hour, plus travel time over 1/2 hour
round trip, for experienced help. If I call her on the phone with
a question, I always say, ''Don't forget to put this time on my
next bill''.
I've had cheaper bookkeepers, and twice have later paid
substantially more than $70. an hour for my business consultant
to come in and sort and straighten out the mess left behind
(which wasn't obvious at the time it was happening).
As a small business owner, you know that your time is your money,
and it's the same for a bookkeeper. Running around from one small
job to another eats up a lot of time and gas.
Whether or not she's taking ''too long'' isn't something anyone can
accurately evaluate just from hearing your list of tasks. If I
had your same concerns, I'd hire (i.e. pay for the consulting
time!) another similarly qualified bookkeeper to assess the
situation.
If you haven't already told her of your time concerns, do so now.
If you haven't already told her that work chatting doesn't do it
for you, that you can't chat and focus at the same time, just say it.
But there's a couple of things I'm wondering if are in the
background of your post:
1) maybe you just don't particularly like this woman's style, and
it's not a good personality match
2) having a business, especially a new business, is financially
stressful, and you may be letting those concerns cause you to
resent paying professional rates to a fellow professional for
professional work.
Anon
hello:
i am a california CPA and charge about the same amount for the
services you described. if you are paying about $600 per year,
thats approx. 6 hours per month. based on the amount of
transactions you have described, that seems very reasonable. i
also enter most of my transactions manually...many times this
method is more efficient, depending on the nature of the
tranactions and the accuracy of the download.
the one thing i would be concerned with is that you are still
behind...financial data is most useful when it is timely and if
you are consisently lagging behind, you are not getting the full
benefit of professional accounting services.
maureen
I'm a Bookkeeper and I would say that $70/hour is pretty
expensive, unless she's providing services outside what you would
get from a full charge bookkeeper. Does she do your taxes?
Budgeting? etc. Everybody works at their own pace, of course, and
it's good if she's slow because she's thorough. Asking for
reimbursement for travel expenses is reasonable, but she
definitely shouldn't be charging you for time spent chatting!!
It's up to you to decide if you think you're being ripped off,
but I always say to go with your gut!
Jill
I do bookkeeping for small non-profits (and undercharge...got to
work on that...), but for $70 an hour you should VERY reasonably
expect your books to be up to date and ready for your accountant.
It sounds as if two days a month should be PLENTY to maintain
the books of a small office if you are paying the bills/invoices
and other day to day processes etc. If she has been with you for
two years there should be little need for ''consultation'' other
than the occasional questions ''what was this expense for? Do you
have back-up for this'' etc. etc. Charging more for consultation
of this sort is a RIP OFF!
HOWEVER! If your bank statements, credit card statements, check
ledger, back-up invoices and receipts are not available to her
when she arrives, you can expect delays in the processing of
information. (I have this issue with a few clients who send
information to my home office and OFTEN forget to send complete
information for months at a time....grrrr.)
Have someone else look at your books. You will not be sorry.
Nancy
Jan 2006
I'm seeking a reliable bookkeeper who will come to my home in N. Berkeley on a
monthly basis to reconcile accounts and pay bills. This usually takes 2-3 hours. I
use Quicken on a Macintosh. Anyone had experience or know of such a
professional?
spark2
I would like to recommend my bookkeeper, Anna Bennett for your
home business. She has been my bookkeeper for my architectural
business almost 4 years and I don't know what I would do
without her. She comes in usually just once a month at the end
of the month to input all my receipts, etc. into Quickbooks and
then helps me generate the monthly invoices for my clients.
Anna is intelligent, efficient, knows Quickbooks and all the
required tax info and saves me a great deal of headache. Feel
free to contact me if you need more info, or you can contact
Anna directly at: (510)237-9771 or via email:
ABenn91269[at]aol.com. Best of luck!
Rebecca
Dec 2005
I am looking for a bookkeeper for my small business. I've
checked the archives and there are only a few listings from
several years ago, so current recommendations would be a great
help. We use Quickbooks on a cash basis, have two employees, do
our own payroll and do not have inventory. I do the basic entry
of checks and deposits and need help with payroll, monthly and
quarterly tax payments, reconciliation etc, and tax planning if
possible. The books are kept in Montclair, but working over the
Internet is certainly a possibility. Thanks much!!!
- bookkeeper-less in Oakland
I would recommend Diane Tyler of D.L. Tyler and Associates. Her
office is at 440 Grand, Suite 202 in Oakland. Phone - 444-1355,
email - diane[at]dltylerandassociates.com. Check out her website:
www.dltylerandassociates.com
Melanie
Nancy Rogers of Accurate Bookkeeping is terrific! She and her business partner do small business bookkeeping, and her real strength is in how well she guides people through the process, and how ridiculously precise she is with numbers. Her number is (925) 283-5738.
Julie
May 2003
I have a new handbag
business. I recently purchased the expensive Quickbooks
premiere b/c I thought it would keep track of my inventory.
After spending many weary hours with it, I am no longer sure it
will do what I need it to do. I have become so frustrated that
now I am looking for a bookkeeper that can help me get set up.
Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!
Mandy
Try Hatch Bookkeeping Solutions. David and Jenn started up
their business a couple of years ago. They're in Marin, but
aren't opposed to traveling to the East Bay. They specialize in
smaller retail businesses. David Hatch used to work with me
(doing accounting). He's great person and has a knack for
computer systems. I haven't used their bookkeeping business,
but have confidence that its fantastic just from having worked
with David for many years. I'm sure you could check their
references. Their number is 415-257-8878.
I'd like to recommend Johanna VanGelder for bookkeeping
and training on Quicken and QuickBooks for both small
businesses and home offices. I have known Johanna for 6
years while our sons have attended school together. She is
very intelligent, works very hard, and is a person of great
integrity. For individuals, Johanna offers bookkeeping
services using Quicken. She sets up files and maintains
them. She also trains people to use Quicken so they can
produce accurate financial reports for taxes, budgeting, etc.
For small businesses, Johanna uses QuickBooks, which is
a more complex program for financial recordkeeping,
analysis, and reports. Because QuickBooks is more tricky
to use, a small mistake can cause inaccurate financial
reports. Johanna offers several services to businesses
using QuickBooks: new accounting system set-up,
training sessions to help business owners and staff learn
how to use QuickBooks, bookkeeping services (either
off-site or on-site) using established accounting systems,
and QuickBooks file analysis to determine whether an
established QuickBooks file has been set up and used
correctly. Johanna is a certified QuickBooks Pro-Advisor
with Intuit, the company who produces QuickBooks and
Quicken. She is also a Certified QuickBooks Consultant
with The Sleeter Group, which offers training in QuickBooks
to CPAs and bookkeepers nationwide. Johanna is a
member of the American Institute of Professional
Bookkeepers and the Marin Bookkeepers Network, which
provide their members technical support from a reliable
CPA or QuickBooks trainer. Johanna can be reached at
510-517-9236 or johanna.vangelder AT attbi.net.
Maria
Jan 2003
My husband and I are looking for a bookkeeper with excellent
skills and integrity to manage and organize the books/paperwork
for our architectural woodworking business.
We have an excellent tax
person, so no assistance is needed in that area, but a working
knowledge of tax/workers comp/EDD for small business is
required. Any recommendations?
Kathleen
EXCELLENT bookkeeper -
Lisa Cohen
Phone (510) 524-5152 (Albany)
lisamcohen at aol.com
Jonathan Cohen
Feb 2002
I am looking for help in reconfiguring my small business
bookeeping & invoicing (probably with Quickbooks) and
preparing and updating invoicing to 10-20 clients every
other week. I would greatly appreciate any recommendations.
Thank You,
John
A woman I know very well provides help specifically to
small businesses who need to set up their bookkeeping
and financial management. Her name is Linda Lebovics
and she is a Quick Books expert. You can contact her
at: lindaATquick-skillsDOTcom or 510 482-6169.
Elizabeth
[Editor] phone number updated March 2004
My husband, Jerry, is a consulting bookkeeper. You can
e-mail him at jerryceccoATyahooDOTcom or call him at
(510)338-0427.
Nancy
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