Where accounting makes "cents"

When I look at employer posts that are recruiting for a staff bookkeeper, most of the job descriptions listed make me cringe and fear for the company. When positions list that the responsibilities will include, processing all payroll and payroll tax returns, filing out sales tax returns, processing accounts payable checks and reconciling the bank statements and recording customer payments, and also must work independently - 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐧 80% 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐝. These situations involve management leaving the finances and running the operations to someone else and hoping the employee will be ethical and do right by the company. Go ahead and hire the staff person but expect fraud.  Do you want to know how to avoid this from happening? DM me today to learn more!

  𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐞… There’s no shortage of schemes that bookkeepers perpetrate against their small business employers, but most schemes are simple and can be the largest dollar value loss a small business experiences. Some of the more popular embezzlement schemes are:  Cashing customer checks  Overbilling customers  Employee Reimbursement padding  Theft of cash deposits  Theft of supplies / inventory  Fake employees / payroll When there are no internal controls and the bookkeeper is responsible for writing checks, making deposits, processing payroll and reconciliation of the bank account, the business becomes susceptible to being defrauded. 𝑰𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒓𝒐𝒑 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒏𝒌 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒆𝒓’𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒌 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒅 𝒃?...

  𝐈𝐟 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐱 𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦. While smaller projects can simply be billed with an invoice, larger projects usually require a progress billing application on an AIA G702 & G703. These pay apps give a summary of contract value, previous billed, current billed, retainage withheld and current amount due. It also tells how much remains to bill, how much has been paid and details scope of work with change orders. A large portion of my day includes reviewing subcontractor pay apps for accuracy and often fixing and returning the pay app for revisions. 5 Common payment application problems are: 1.      Pay apps sent in after the monthly due date 2.      Overbilling for future expenses 3.      Excluding supporting documents 4.  ...

  Know thy Bookkeeper – Here’s a Fraud Flag for Thought… Fraud can occur at any point in your business life cycle. Think about how your bookkeeper touches your funds, products and records and ask the following questions: 1. Are your accounting records a mess? 2. Does your bookkeeper refuse to delegate? 3. Does your bookkeeper seem to have a lifestyle inconsistent with their salary? 4. Has your bookkeeper asked to be a signer on your bank accounts? 5. Does your bookkeeper ask for approval when making transfers? Many business owners don’t bring in a qualified accounting professional because they want to save money, so they leave the bookkeeper to run the business without adequate supervision, specialized skills and no separation of duties. Most people are honest but some are not! Have you met a long-time bookkeeper that is complacent and hates doing their job so they do the bare minimum? Well I have and most times I cannot advise business owners on how to save money because of cases ...