Questions
Straight answers, before you switch
How is the price set?
By transaction volume alone: how many lines move through your accounts in a month. Not your turnover, not your sector, not what we guess you can pay. It is the fairest measure because it is the actual work, so a low-margin business with lots of small sales is not subsidising a high-margin one with a few big invoices.
Do you bill by the hour?
No. Hourly billing punishes you for asking a question and rewards us for being slow, so we do not do it. The monthly fee is the fee, a phone call is free, and there is no clock running when you email.
Which software do you use?
Yours, usually — QuickBooks, Xero, Wave, whatever you are already on. If you are on a shoebox or a spreadsheet we move you onto something sensible as part of setting up, and we do that migration for you.
What if I do not need you?
We say so on the first call and set you up to do it yourself for nothing. It happens a few times a year. A client paying us for work they could do in an afternoon does not stay a happy one, so we would rather lose the fee and keep the goodwill.
When exactly are my books closed?
By the tenth of the following month, every month. It is the one promise the whole practice is built on. We have missed it twice in six years, and told the client both times before they noticed.
Can I switch to you mid-year?
Yes, and most people do. We take your history off your old bookkeeper or your old software, tie it out, and pick up from the current month. You do not have to wait for a year end to stop being behind.
Do you do the annual accounts too?
We can, or we hand a clean set of books to your accountant so their bill is smaller. Bookkeeping done properly all year is what makes the annual accounts cheap, whoever files them.
From the practice
Notes
- 16 SepWhat a set of books costs to keep
The work behind the fee, and why transaction volume is the only fair way to price it. - 03 SepWe closed by the tenth ninety-eight times out of a hundred
Six years of month-end closes, and the two we missed, with what went wrong each time. - 18 AugWhen you should fire your bookkeeper, maybe us
The businesses that should be doing their own books, and how to tell if you are one.