What Will A Book Keeper Do For My Pet Sitting Business?

Have you ever wondered what a book keeper would do for your business? I know what my amazing one does for me, but I really wanted to get the message across to all the pet sitters out there in cyber land, so I asked my book keeper to compile a list of everything that book keepers do. Here is what she came up with:

A bookkeeper and a tax preparer share much in the way of basic training and knowledge however, their credentials and purpose are different. In the past, the IRS allowed anyone to prepare tax return as long as they disclosed who they were. It was up to the individual to screen them for expertise. Today the IRS requires tax preparers to be “enrolled agents”. They must prove to the IRS their skill by passing a test of their knowledge of the IRS reg’s. This allows the IRS to improve the quality and accountability of those holding themselves out to the public as tax experts. The tax code is extremely complex (literally thousands of pages of regulations) and while the majority of people have simple tax issues to address, some businesses and investment activities require an advanced understanding of tax regulations in order to give advise on the current tax treatment and future tax planning in order to avoid paying taxes unnecessarily. You will pay a lot more for that skill than you will a bookkeeper.

Put simply, you don’t want to pay for a neurosurgeon when a nurse/practitioner will do! A bookkeeper is more like the nurse/practitioner. For the day to day activity of financial transactions, a bookkeeper will do. Because tax season is short, most tax preparers will offer bookkeeping services during the rest of the year. The fees for those services should be considerably less than their tax fees and will probably be done by someone other than the tax preparer. They should be negotiated based on what they do for you and the credentials of other person doing the work. The choice is yours.

Some of the things that a bookkeeper can do for you include:

Financial Reporting:

Setting up the books for the company creating a chart of accounts ensuring to capture info needed for tax return
Preparing monthly financial reports for owner (balance sheet and income statement)

Maintain orderly files of all company documents reconcile all accounts to third party statements and sub-accounts

Accounts payable:

Pay your bills in a timely manor
Record payments from checks/credit card receipts according to type
Reconcile your bank statements to your company books
Reconcile your credit cards/vendor statements to company books
Collect W-9 forms from vendors as needed
Prepare/distribute vendor 1099’s at year end
Transmit 1099 copies/summary to IRS at year end

Accounts Receivable:

Bill your clients for service.
Collect/apply payments to client accounts
Charge client credit cards for services
Prepare monthly statements for clients
Make bank deposits

Payroll:

Collect/retain all required federal/state tax forms
Collect/retain employee time sheets for processing
Calculate payroll expense by employee
Calculate employee tax withholdings and employer tax liability
Print payroll checks or make direct deposits
Make timely tax deposits to tax authorities
Prepare payroll registers summarizing payroll expenses and taxes
Record payroll and tax expenses in financial records
File quarterly tax reports to federal/state/local authorities
Reconcile monthly and quarterly payroll expenses to quarterly tax reports
Prepare/distribute year end W-2’s to employees

Independent Contractors:

Obtain/retain W-9 forms from contractors
Receive billing statements of services provided in time period
Review statement for accuracy/compliance with terms of agreement
Pay contractor for services
Prepare/distribute 1099’s at year end as for all vendors

Cash Management:

Prepare cash flow projection based on scheduled payments/receipts
Notify owner of ca
sh balance and short term cash requirements as needed
Transfer or advice owner to transfer funds to/from checking/savings as needed

These as some of the tasks that may be performed by a bookkeeper. The owner should decide which items they have the skill and time to do themselves and which to delegate. When delegating a task to someone else, the owner should take care to review the work regularly and ask questions often to ensure they are satisfied that the records are correct. Any handling of cash activity by another should be closely supervised!

The bottom line is the more time an owner spends managing his business the more he will be able to grow the business. Any tasks that can be affordably delegated, should be.

As always, rarely do I ever talk and then leave you hanging. So… If you are not sure who to trust? Contact me at bella@jumpconsulting.net and I would be happy to hook you up with who I use! 🙂