Sometimes when you’re not actually doing the work, it seems like it shouldn’t be that hard or take that long right? Maybe you’re wondering what you’re actually getting while paying for your bookkeeping services, so we thought we’d give you a behind the scenes look at what it is your bookkeeper and CPA are doing for you monthly!
Our bookkeeping and accounting process starts by reviewing all of our specific notes on you as a client. Each client is different, and has their own special circumstances and needs. We keep a list of these specifics and review it each month before we start your work to help us ask you less questions, and to accurately complete your bookkeeping. Sometimes, we may need to sync or reconcile an external software you use to Quickbooks before we even begin our accounting work.
Next, we post all the transactions from your bank and credit cards to the correct accounting categories, anything that we aren’t sure about, we post to an account to review with you later. We also review all transactions that don’t have payees and all unapplied payments to fix or add to a list of questions we need to ask you. Depending on the client, we may need to check for personal transactions, review loan payments, record cash transactions, adjust payroll to correct accounts, and review the undeposited funds account for unposted payments. We also request or download your bank statements that we will need soon. Once we have finished all of this preliminary work, we send out a list of questions that we need your help with!
Great! So you’ve answered all of your questions now, so we are able to make any adjustments based on your responses and start reconciling your accounts. We perform account reconciliations for all of your bank and credit card accounts, and sometimes other accounts like loans as well. Reconciling won’t keep your books tidy though if the uncleared transactions aren’t addressed, so we review those every month and make adjustments as needed. Some clients need additional work done, like posting interest, adding fixed assets, or following up on old invoices or payables. Once all this work is done, your accounting is ready for review.
First, your bookkeeper reviews all of your financial statements to look for errors or inconsistencies. Next they update your notes with any specific circumstances to keep In mind for next month, and then they let your CPA know anything that might affect your final financial statements or needs to be looked into further. Finally, your books are ready for a CPA to review and prepare your financial statements.
The CPA Review is an in-depth review of your accounting. This starts with reviewing all accounts have been reconciled, unreconciled transactions are recent and do not need to be adjusted, and there are no negative accounts or other strange account balances. Next, the CPA reviews that all the bookkeeping work has been completed and there are no issues that need to be addressed. The CPA then reviews every transaction in every account to verify that all transactions have been posted properly. Finally, the financial reports are reviewed for errors, inconsistencies, or discrepancies, and then a brief financial analysis is performed to prepare the financial statements for the client.
Not every bookkeeping company is as thorough as we are, however, we pride ourselves in making sure that all of our clients, from the smallest to the biggest, are always getting the most accurate possible data to use when making business decisions. Our extensive reviews allow us to catch errors, and our processes allow us to keep our clients involvement as low as possible in order to free up their time for what’s most important – running a successful business with confidence!
