Where accounting makes "cents"

  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...

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.

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 ...

The fastest way I know your bookkeeper is unqualified? (Queue suspenseful music) The balance sheet doesn’t make sense — and they can’t explain it. Tell me if these statements sound familiar: “It’s close enough.” “QuickBooks does that.” “We’ll fix it at year-end.” “That’s how it’s always been” “The CPA will fix it at year-end” “It doesn’t affect the P&L” Those aren’t explanations. They’re cover stories. When I open your file and see: • retained earnings moving with no rationale • loans that don’t amortize • cash that doesn’t reconcile • equity used as a junk drawer I don’t see “messy bookkeeping.” I see untested financial data and untested data is how: • fraud hides • taxes get misstated • owners make bad decisions with confidence Bottom line: If the balance sheet can’t survive basic questioning, the bookkeeper can’t survive scrutiny.