How To Become a Bookkeeper in 3 Easy Steps

hey what's up everybody my name is Zach pascarello and in this video I'm actually going to answer questions that somebody asked me in one of my earlier videos and let me just say if you have questions about starting a bookkeeping business or just QuickBooks and bookkeeping in general leave me a comment send me an email I would love to answer your questions in future videos and if you like this video make sure you subscribe to my channel because I make new videos every single day teaching you how to start and grow a bookkeeping business the exact same way I did I started three years ago and I have been able to grow a very successful business where now I'm making six figures and I want to teach you how to do the same thing that I did and if you want to schedule a one-on-one consultation with me I actually do mentorships with people trying to start their own business so schedule a consultation with me there's a link in the description below okay let's get started I'm just gonna run through real quick all the questions that this guy asked me and then I'm going to answer them so so after getting a client where do you start doing bookkeeping for them that's a pretty generic question like where do you even get started what are the things I need to know about my clients business in order to do their bookkeeping how can a client invite me to their QuickBooks account what are the things I need to ask a client when I'm doing their books and then finally how can a client share their information with me whether through email or Google drive or Dropbox okay so I'm just going to jump right into it I'm not going to waste your time I'm going to start answering all these questions and like I said if you have questions then send me an email or leave me a comment on this video I would be happy to make a video in the future answering your specific question okay this is a pretty generic question but where to start doing bookkeeping so where to start doing bookkeeping for your clients I think I understand what he's asking like kind of generally like what do I even do to get started and the biggest piece of advice I have for you you is chronologically this is the first question I ask all of my clients so right now it's 2023 I ask everybody do you need help with 2022 or are we starting fresh in 2023 it's usually split 50 50. some people need cleanup for 2022 other people just want me to start fresh in 2023 but it makes the most sense to do your bookkeeping chronologically because you can't reconcile 2023 without finishing 2022 first so I always recommend people even if you come at me with hey I need three years of bookkeeping I would say okay let's start with 2019 let's get 2019 completely done and then we'll do 2020 2020 completely done and then we'll move on year after year progressively like that same thing if they are coming at you in 2023 let's say okay let's get January done first and then we'll move on to February and then we'll move on to March so first things first start doing your bookkeeping chronologically and then once you figure out where you're starting whether it's 2022 or January 2023 the process is the same you're going to follow the three-step process that I always talk about first you're going to categorize our transactions so you're going to need to see either their bank statements or you're going to need to connect their bank account to the bank feed in QuickBooks so if you're starting January 2023 once all the transactions are categorized bank statements credit card statements then you're going to reconcile the account so make sure the ending balance in QuickBooks is the same as the ending balance on the bank statement and then the third step profit and loss statement financial statements send your client their monthly financial statements it's usually just their monthly profit and loss so once you've categorize January you reconcile January to make sure there are no mistakes everything's accurate and then you send them the profit and loss from January then you move on to February and then you move on to March just do things chronologically okay the second question that this guy asked me what info do I need to know about their business after I get a client in order to do their bookkeeping so first of all you need to be invited to their QuickBooks account and inside their QuickBooks account they should have a couple pieces of information about their business obviously the name of their business address and lastly their Ein these are like the three bare minimum pieces of information that should be about the business inside of their QuickBooks so you need to be invited to their QuickBooks and I always talk about this you need their bank statements and their credit card statements their loan statements their bills of sale for assets their HUD statements if they're a real estate investor their loan origination documents if they have loans their amortization schedule for the loans paperwork paperwork paperwork documents statements make sure you get everything from the client because this is what's going to give you the answers so that you can make sure the bookkeeping is done correctly Okay the third question how a client can invite me to his QuickBooks account how a client can invite me to their QuickBooks account so this is what I talk about in all of my videos and this is what I was just talking about this is the information you need from them and this is part of the quoting process so as soon as I get a free consultation with somebody to give them a quote I always tell them I will email you immediately after this phone call and I will send you instructions on how to invite me to your QuickBooks but really simply there is a gear icon in the top right hand corner of the screen and then they just need to click on manage users and then they need to add your email address once they go to manage users click on the gear icon go to manage users and then enter in your email address as the accountant and I actually have a little PDF document that I send all of my prospective clients and the instructions are laid out in the PDF and I give them the specific email address they need if you want to see the PDF that I send people send me an email I'd be happy to share with you my email address is Zach at harrisburgbookkeeping.com Zach at harrisburgbookkeeping.com two o's two k's two e's send me an email and I will actually share with you the PDF document that I send all of my prospective clients with instructions on how to invite me to their QuickBooks account okay we have two more questions that I'm going to go over in this video the second question is what are the things I need to ask a client when doing their books I've already talked about getting their QuickBooks Online invitation and getting their bank statements and credit card statements but more specifically once you get into their QuickBooks once you start categorizing their transactions you're going to ask them questions every single week so I recommend log into the QuickBooks once a week every single week and categorize their transactions and you're going to have questions maybe they're writing checks and maybe you you might only see check number 184 you're not actually going to see an image of the check so you have no idea who they're paying or what was was the memo so anytime they write a check you might need to ask them hey you know what did you who did you pay and what did you buy this is why it's really nice to actually get online view only access to their bank account if you get that you can log into their bank account you can actually see images of the check so that's a big selling point I always try to get view only access to all of my clients bank accounts if they're sending wire transfers like you're obviously going to have no idea who did you pay with the wire transfer and then if there's deposits these are just examples if they're depositing ten thousand dollars into the checking account was that a loan was that a security deposit was that income do you want me to create a sales receipt was that paying off a particular invoice so some deposits you're going to need to ask them questions about and then and then even some credit card transactions like sometimes it's usually pretty obvious if they're paying their insurance company or if they're going to Home Depot if they're going to the gas station to get gas but even sometimes credit card transactions I have to ask hey you spend 105.67 at this particular store what exactly were you buying how do you want me to categorize that my biggest piece of advice for you is never guess if you don't know how to categorize something if you've never categorized it in the past then just ask your client this is all part of delivering A Plus customer service and you want to communicate effectively with your clients ask them questions that way you're not making any mistakes at the end of the month or at the end of the year whenever you send them their profit and loss statement their financial statements you want them to know that everything has been categorized correctly because you've already asked all of these questions on a weekly basis don't wait until the end of the year to ask them questions and if you don't know something don't be so afraid to ask them questions like I don't want to ask them a question because I don't want them to think I don't know how to do my job don't do that because if you make stuff up and if you guess and if you do things incorrectly it's going to create more problems down the road so just be honest be up front ask questions in the beginning and then it'll make things more accurate okay this is the last question how client can share info slash document so how can the client share information with you and their documents with you some clients are more worried about security than other clients probably the easiest way would just be to send me an email but some people don't like sending financial statements and banking information through email so the second best option would be some sort of like a Google drive or a Dropbox some sort of cloud where they can upload the documents you can log in and you can see the documents for themselves third option way less efficient than email and Google drive but they can mail you their bank statements or their documents if they don't feel comfortable using the internet and then the fourth option the least preferred method but the fourth and final option if they don't want to use the internet if they don't want to use the mail then tell them they can come to your office and drop off the documents in person if you're still operating out of your house or your home office or maybe you're in your parents basement that's not a big deal just be upfront with the client like hey I operate my business out of my house I actually don't accept clients coming to my house but we can meet at Starbucks or we can meet at the cafe down the road just be honest just be upfront with them but don't let this get in the way of doing their bookkeeping always have an alternative solution if you can't do email if you can't do Google Drive come up with a different method because you're trying to make your clients life and your clients bookkeeping as easy as possible so just

Channel: Bookkeeping Expert

Views: 1,161

Keywords: online bookkeeping, xero bookkeeping, book keeper, bookkeeping and accounting, bookkeeping services for small business, accounting and bookkeeping services, virtual bookkeeping, difference between accounting and bookkeeping, bookkeeping accounting, business bookkeeping, online bookkeeping services, bookkeeping business, bookkeeping jobs, bookkeeping jobs from home, social media for business, social media marketing strategy, social media plan, social media, social app

Id: V8dWbF6IONA

Length: 10min 38sec (638 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 20 2023