Bookkeeping Help
Where do you keep your books? In a nook? Or in a box? On a spreadsheet? Or with your socks? Apologies to Dr. Seuss.
When I talk to small business owners about bookkeeping, almost no one ever says, “yes, that’s my favorite part!” Small business owners are experts at whatever they do: making sandwiches, cutting hair, providing therapy, machining parts, selling antiques, or welding metal. Unless you are an accounting business, accounting is seldom a skill business owners have. As often happens, when an owner has to wear many hats, this makes for some scary approaches to financial management.
To make matters more complex (at least at first) paper ledgers and spreadsheets have given way to online bookkeeping software such as Quicken or QuickBooks. These bookkeeping systems often have to “talk to” a bank and a point of sale system too.
Claudia Allen at the Southeast Idaho Small Business Development Center can help you make bookkeeping less complicated and more powerful for your business. Allen is a Certified QuickBooks professional and has over a decade of experience helping small business with all kinds of bookkeeping stumpers. Her help is completely free.
For new businesses, Allen can help you decide what type of bookkeeping product you will need. Since the SBDC is taxpayer funded, we cannot take any incentives, so Allen is free to advise you on exactly what will help you most. After settling on the type of bookkeeping system that fits your business needs, she will help you set up a chart of accounts. This is how you will categorize your expenses and income.
Once you have a chart of accounts set up, she will help you connect with your bank account and make sure you can add other functions as needed such as invoicing and payroll. She will then walk you through the first few months of working with your bookkeeping system, and she will make sure you are aware of all the required tax deadlines and reporting.
For existing businesses, Allen can help convert your desktop software system to an online version. Many bookkeeping software companies are no longer supporting desktop software. She can show you how to make proper journal entries, check to see you are reconciling correctly, and help when something just plain goes wrong. Our goal is to teach others how to manage their books, so they can use this good information to better understand the financial health of the business and keep an eye on day to day cash flow.
One of Claudia’s clients, Marlette McClain wrote, “When I took over the finances of our business, they were a mess. Then I met Claudia. She got me up to speed on QuickBooks Online and helped me get our finances organized into proper categories. Our business turned a nice profit this year, our bills and taxes are all paid on time, and in short our doors will remain open!”
There is no need to keep struggling with messy books or fear opening your spreadsheets. The only investment you need to make is time with our SBDC expert. Once you work with Claudia, she invests in you too! You can check in with her anytime. She has clients she has been helping for years.
The Small Business Development Center is tax payer funded to provide no-cost consulting and low-cost training to help business owners grow and thrive. Success happens when people understand all aspects of a running a business. If your business needs help with any aspect of business ownership/management, take advantage of our free consulting and training by Contacting the Idaho Small Business Development Center today to begin working with a consultant.
About Ann Swanson
Ann Swanson is the regional director of the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at the ISU
College of Business. Reach out at 208-282-4402 or swanann@isu.edu for an appointment. Services are no cost.
