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Sales Tax Expense

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  If your financial statements show “Sales Tax Expense” on the P&L — your books are wrong. Period. 🚩 This week I reviewed two different sets of financials from two different prospective clients. One prepared by a tax pro. One prepared internally by the business owner. Both had the same mistake. Sales tax is NOT an expense. ❎ You are not the customer. ✅ You are the collector. It is a liability you hold in trust for the state. When it shows up as an expense, it tells me: • No one understands the flow of sales tax • The liability account isn’t being reconciled • Payments are being dumped to the P&L • Compliance is being treated like guesswork • The reports cannot be trusted at face value Harsh? Yes. But incorrect books are harsher when the state comes calling. #bookkeeping #accounting #salestax #smallbusinessfinance #constructionaccounting #financialcontrols #diagnosticreview #accountant #business #businessowner #balancesheet #dataentry #consultant #cfe #...
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Clown Show of Accounting Advice

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There’s a full-blown clown show of financial advice marching through the small business world right now 🤡 Cheap offshore bookkeeping. ➖ Random Facebook group “experts.” ➖ Template-trained data entry masquerading as financial strategy. ➖ Tax tips from someone’s cousin’s neighbor’s podcast. And then people wonder why: • Job margins are wrong • Cash flow makes no sense • Sales tax is a mess • Loan packages fall apart • Fraud goes unnoticed • Profit disappears Cheap books are not a savings strategy — they’re a risk multiplier. Serious businesses deserve serious financial guidance.
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Regulating bookkeepers

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  Contractors — I’m curious: Would you trust an unlicensed electrician on a six-figure job? Why are we doing it with your financials? If I were to design a regulated path to bookkeeping for contractors, it would look like this (high level): 1️⃣ Mandatory Construction Accounting Education Before touching a GC’s books: Job cost accounting fundamentals Cost codes & cost types WIP & percent-complete vs completed contract Retainage (AR & AP) Change orders & contract values Labor burden & payroll allocations 2️⃣ Construction Competency Exam Demonstrate the ability to: Set up jobs correctly Post costs to the right job and cost code Reconcile job cost reports to the GL Identify margin fade early Explain why job profit ≠ cash in the bank 3️⃣ Supervised Field Experience No “learn as you go” on a live contractor: Required hours under a CPA/EA or construction-focused accounting firm Exposure to real job cost cleanups, not demo files 4️⃣ Clear Scope of...
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🚨 You just discovered your bookkeeper stole $20,000. Now what? 🚨

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Take a breath. Then do this in order 👇 Do NOT confront them (yet) - Confrontation triggers deletion of files, altered records, or sudden “resignations.” 🔒 Lock down access quietly Change bank, payroll, accounting, and app passwords. Preserve everything! 🧊 Freeze the evidence No deleting. No “cleaning up.” Treat this like a crime scene. 🔍 Assume it’s more than $20k What you found is usually the first thing—not the only thing. 🧠 Decide your goal before acting Restitution? Termination? Insurance? Legal action? Your next steps depend on this. 🛠 Fix the system—not just the person Fraud thrives where one person controls everything. Hard truth: Catching the theft isn’t the win. Making sure it can never happen again is. If you’re dealing with this right now—you’re not alone. Handle it correctly.
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👉 “If your clients outsource accounting to you… why won’t you outsource your accounting?”

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Someone DM'd me as asked to outsource my clients to a 3rd party white label accounting firm . When I said nope, the response was I should be sensitive because clients are outsourcing to me. I take offense to that statement because it is not the same.. My clients aren’t outsourcing judgment . They’re outsourcing execution + expertise . They hire me because: • I know their industry • I understand their workflows • I ask uncomfortable questions • I catch problems before they become expensive • My name is attached to the work White-label outsourcing removes exactly what my clients pay for: ❌ Context ❌ Accountability ❌ Industry nuance ❌ Direct access to the person responsible White-label outsourcing gives them: ❌ A mystery bookkeeper ❌ Zero context ❌ No ownership ❌ A game of financial telephone 🔥If scaling requires me to hide who’s actually doing the work, I’m not building a firm — I’m building plausible deniability . For my firm, transparency matters; clarity is part ...
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