So Why Do You NOT Do Your Own Book Keeping?

dirt diggler

I don't understand why some of you all would rather have your wives, mothers, and sisters taking care of your book keeping.

I'm not criticizing it - I just am trying to understand the reason why, that is all.


Book keeping - hell, accounting - is really not that hard. People just tend to think it is. I think the name must sound intimidating. Even taxes are really not as complicated (in all seriousness). It just takes a little time to seriously try to learn it all.

I'm not saying that everyone should prepare their own taxes. But learn about taxes - you'll be amazed at how much better/more you might become at planning your business. In the least, you'll be able to bounce ideas off of your accountant and understand his reasoning. I have found that accountants - just in my experience - are rather overly conservative in their ideas (understandably so) and that's fine. You often have to really find things out for yourself. The accountant more or less should be a kwik-source stop to bounce an idea off of.



Book keeping ... and record keeping ... if you just keep up with it religiously, (and you should) - this really doesn't take much time. I do not have or use Quickbooks.

I don't understand the fear of "putting numbers in the wrong places."


How difficult is it to enter a number where it should belong? How difficult is it to review and double check records every so often to eliminate human errors.

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rbsremodeling

For me it is not the fear or lack of knowledge. It is simply priorities and choices.

I do not wish to do my books, I do review reports every 30-90 days and yearly reports. But I choose not to do the daily entry.

I think it is boring and time consuming and a waste of my energy that could be spent doing other things I am better at or prefer to do.

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GregS

It costs me less to have someone who knows more about it, do it for me. Especially with the accountant in the same office who can keep track of what is happening and let me know about upcoming issues. I've yet to pay taxes in 6 years.

JTMcC

My wifes background is working with customers on the phone and in person, and keeping close track of large amounts of money. So it's easy for her.
Plus keeping my little office in shape doesn't take very many of her hours per week which free's her time for Mom duties. She's good at it and enjoys it and is in this thing with me so why in the world not.
Our office is in our home.

That's my story and I'm stickin to it.

JTMcC

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woodbutchr

I have yet to trust anybody to do my books the way I want them done. Kinda like they say, if you want something done right, do it yourself.
I'm trying Quickbooks for the first time this year, it is alot of info that ya have to enter to keep it up to date but we'll see.

Tiger

When I incorporated I hired an accountant. I met with her to ask about "setting up books". She said "Forget books, bring me check stubs". So I brought her check stubs & she did my quarterlies & annual. Then I got QB & give her reports, so I'll say I do the "books" & they do the taxes.

BMAN

cuz i dot like to do them.

WisePainter

Looks like there are a few answers saying the same thing just in different ways.
Unanimous nevertheless.

You are the only one that spends time counting beans, the rest of us are out working.

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Mellison

This is just a simple difference of opinion.
For me, I have Paychex handle payroll, local and federal taxes, all associated forms and payments as well as unemployment insurance.
Every quarter I have my accountant handle my sales tax and at the end of the year he handles my year end taxes.
I do not have, nor would not like to find the time to handle these things. That being said I can certainly understand why someone would like to take the bull by the horns and handle every aspect of their business.
As I said, it is just a matter of opinion.

BSmart

My wife enters all of my stuff in quickbooks, but we use it more for reports more than anything. I agree, the tax stuff isn't really that hard but I would rather focus on stuff that I am really good at instead

DavidC

Our payroll service files all of the necessary forms on time, something I have been known to overlook in the past. At that point it is definately less expensive to have someone do it.

For the bookkeeping, I prefer not to do it. But another partner (wife) handles it so it's still in house. I do reveiw the numbers on a regular basis and this year we are trying out QB. We have been using Domebooks over 20 years. These are super simple, even I was able to use them when I did do that end of it. We are not sure it meets our needs as we grow however.

Overall my goal is to develope a stand alone business. (I think more of extra time off as I approach retirement age) It seems contradictory to me to build a business to grow while keeping an iron grip on all aspects of it. There are 3 D's to getting anything accomplished. Do it, Delegate it or Drop it. I delegate the bookeeping and payroll.

Good Luck
Dave

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Tinstaafl

I'd rather not keep my books, but a couple of bad experiences with having others do it convinced me to make the time. And it absolutely cannot be denied that when you do, you have a much better sense day to day of exactly where you stand.

Or tread water. <gasp>

reveivl

I have the math skills, but I also know myself, and given a choice in the evening of catching up the books or almost anything else (dishes, housework) I know I would live in a tidy house. It also means there is someone on my side if it comes down to an argument with the tax man.

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Cdat

You have time to do your own books? Lucky You.

chris klee

my boss, the president of the company does the books. he sucks at it. he has not idea how much money we have, what is owed to us, what bills are paid, ect. a month ago he bounced a bunch of checks cause he wrote a check to a sub with out looking at the account to see if the money was really there, or just there that day. and of course, he says we cant afford to pay some one to do it. i dont think we can afford to not have some one do it.
the other reason is he goes over the amex and visa bills. he only sells jobs, so the only thing on his credit card is the occasional lunch and fuel. so why is his amex 3k a month?
he had some one do the books once, and he got on my bosses balls about all the spending and such, so he got rid of him.
i even offered to do it. like mentioned, its not hard, and it would only take me about half a day every week. i was told i am too busy. i didnt know that.
imo, sometimes its better to have an outsider do the books to keep everyone in check.

Niner

I've looked on this forums Share a Form page several times and have yet to find a simple profit/ loss statement and outlined expenses for end of year use. Something I can give my tax lady. Can any of you help?

LNG24

Take your pick: http://www.google.com/search?q=profi...e=utf8&oe=utf8

Now for the original question; I have been using Quickbooks Pro for years. I also use quicken for personal stuff. When I was working in the field, I had others enter the info and I ran the reports. Now that I am more in the office and less in the field, I do a lot of it myself, but what it comes down to is delegating. You can not get anywhere by doing everything. So you either delegate the work (front end stuff) to someone else or the bookkeeping (back end stuff) to someone else.

MALCO.New.York

With less than 10, No 20! Employees........Waste of Mulah!

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Wolfgang

I do my own. I can keep better track of job/material costs, billing, etc.. Probably spend 3 hours/week on it including payroll. I like knowing where my final numbers lay at the end of each job so if I need to I can adjust future bids due to material price hikes. I want every job to stand on its own; no "robbing Peter to pay Paul". I keep my supplier accounts paid in full every 3 weeks.

I also keep separate accounts, (mainly savings type), for Christmas bonuses, equipment maintenance, etc.. All I can say is that it works for me.

DavidC

Maybe.

Perform on your strengths and hire for your weakness. I've already proven to myself that I can mess up with the payroll and filing timely. The total cost of having it done is less than an hour's billable time per week, and is built into our pricing as part of our costs. Weighed against possible billable time or even more valuable peace of mind, I'll delegate.

Good Luck
Dave

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