Oct 3, 2014
If Has Just Happened to you please stop listening and call Sharie 206-361-3950 or email her Sharie@FastEasyAccounting.com and get help now!
Every Day Hundreds of construction company owners across the country and around the world are arriving to work with a full work load of projects that "Absolutely, Positively Must Get Done Today" only to find their bookkeeper is gone and now you have a full blown emergency accounting situation!
The Next Slap In The Face All Too Often Is Embezzlement!
The Bookkeeper Has Disappeared - Quit! Found a better job! Moved and left no forwarding address! Evaporated! Abducted by Aliens! Replaced you with a more important contractor! Gave up bookkeeping to go live in the Bahama Islands! Or perhaps they simply retired on the money hey embezzled from your company! Click here to read The Most Common Signs Of Embezzlement And What To Do About It!
All You Know Is Paperwork - Is rising faster than the great
flood that carried Noah's Ark along for forty days and forty nights
and your business is about to go out of control and end up like a
train crashing through a stone wall!
At This Point You Need - Someone to step in and take control of the
situation ASAP! NOW! RIGHT NOW! You need Fast Easy Accounting
Emergency Bookkeeping Services Call Sharie 206-361-3950, email
Sharie@FastEasyAccounting.com and she will get your business on the
right track!
Now Lets Figure Out - What happened that caused you to be here in the first place. This situation reminds of several clients who have experienced similar situations and one client in particular comes to mind that should help bring some clarity and understanding to the situation. The names have been changed and enough details left out to protect everyone's identity. The main characters are Fred and his lovely supportive wife Wilma.
Here Is Fred's Story - He started his construction business doing a few light handyman type projects, building a few fences, updating kitchens and baths, building decks, gazebos and finishing out the basement areas of split-level houses built in the 1970's and 1980's.
Wilma Started Doing - The bookkeeping to help Fred save money on contractors bookkeeping services fees and very quickly she found she hated every minute of it. Contractors Bookkeeping Services are not easy as it looks and it is only a small part of the overall accounting required to operate and grow and successful construction company. Just like framing walls is important; however, it is only part of the carpentry skills required to build a house.
Nobody Told Wilma - And she did not know enough about it to ask about why all accounting is made up of two parts and that Bookkeeping has to be done with both parts in balance at the same time. Performing Contractors Bookkeeping Services without proper training in regular accounting followed up with extensive training in construction accounting is like doing Chinese math in the dark...it can be done, but it is not easy!
· Internal Accounting - The part that provides information for the Business Process Management System and generates reports for business owners to read and make decisions about what jobs are profitable and what jobs are not and the reasons why it is that way.
· External Accounting - The part that provides information to Process Payroll and fill out Monthly and Quarterly Tax Returns and the Annual Tax Return and to fill out Bank Loan Applications.
· And Worst Part Is - She had no idea that Construction Accounting is the hardest bookkeeping of all! It is like herding balloons on a windy day, while wearing a blindfold, with no shoes and socks, in a parking lot, in the summer, at high-noon, with the sun beating down, and the temperature is 109 degrees and rising!
After A Few Months - The bank started bouncing Fred's checks. He tried to explain the situation to the bank how he was going to be paid a large sum of money as soon as he finished the job he was on and his story fell on deaf ears...the bank said unless he had a line of credit they had no choice but to bounce those checks and add those pesky $35.00 bounced check fees and the bad news was more NSF checks were due anytime.
To Add Insult To Injury - Not only did the bank charge hundreds of dollars in bounced check fees but the stores and suppliers that accepted his checks did the same. All of this made a bad cash flow situation worse.
Fred Used A Few Bad Words - And shouted at Wilma blaming her for the bounced checks. He "forgot" she was not hard of hearing". Wilma responded equally loud and angry suggesting he could perform a certain impossible "Circus Acts On Himself" and said "I Quit, you $@!&*#$ go find yourself a bookkeeper!"
Fred And Wilma Met With Us - And a dozen other bookkeeping services. Wilma had worked with QuickBooks so she understood what we were saying and wanted to hire us on the spot. Fred did not understand anything about QuickBooks and kept saying "Bookkeeping is just pushing a few keys on the keyboard; how hard can that be?" In the end Fred decided all of the bookkeeping services were way too expensive.
Fred Searched Craigslist And Found A Cheap Bookkeeper - That charged less than half what any other bookkeeping services firms quoted and here were the results after six months:
· The cheap bookkeeper managed all the money for the business
· The cheap bookkeeper filled out several new credit card applications for Fred to use as "Working Capital"
· When the credit cards came she gave Fred some and kept some for her personal use
· A number of checks were written to "dummy accounts" in QuickBooks and the checks were deposited into a bank account controlled by the Cheap Bookkeeper.
· The cheap bookkeeper kept enough money in the bank to avoid bouncing checks
· None of the bank or credit card accounts were ever reconciled by The cheap bookkeeper
· In the end a little more than $100,000.00 had left the company in the form of cash, credit card debt, unfiled and unpaid sales tax payments, unfiled and unpaid payroll tax payments and unauthorized charges on his supplier charge accounts
· This was not the worst we had ever seen but it was in
definitely in the top fifty
Fred Decided To Come Back - To us because he remembered from our
first meeting I had emphasized five things:
· We never, ever touch your money! You get paid from your customers, you put the money in the bank and you pay your bills when you are good and ready.
· We do all the bookkeeping, process payroll, fill out the tax forms, we will sit ith you and help you understand what bills you owe; however, we will not make any decisions on who gets paid, how or when.
What we will do is make it as easy as possible for you pay everything online or with paper checks. (At our first meeting Fred insisted on having someone else to manage his money, now he understood why it is never a good idea for a contractor with less than $10M in annual revenue because small construction company owner's cannot afford the professional accounting staff and process to reduce theft and now he loves the idea of only he or Wilma controls the money!)
· We believe it is in your best interest to: "Trust But Verify" Which means trust us that we are doing what is best for you and verify that we are by having someone else prepare your Annual Tax Return that way they will review what we are doing and give you an independent report.
· We believe all construction business owners need a Board of Advisors to guide them in achieving their definition of success.
· We believe all construction companies need a Business Process Management System in place in order to Optimize their profits.
Fred's Story Has A Happy Ending - After several years of planning his work and working his plan and paying attention to the Five Key Indicators his construction company has turned around and is doing very well and Fred is a much wiser man today than he was when we first met.
I hope this podcast helps you understand that outsourcing your contractors bookkeeping services to us is about more than just “doing the bookkeeping”; it is about taking holistic approach to your entire construction company and helping support you as a contractor and as a person.
We understand the good, bad and the ugly about owning and operating construction companies because we have had several of them and we sincerely care about you and your construction company!
That is all I have for now and if you have listened this far please do me the honor of commenting and rating podcast www.FastEasyAccounting.com/podcast Tell me what you liked, did not like, tell it as you see it because your feedback is crucial and I thank you in advance.
We Remove Contractor's Unique Paperwork Frustrations
For Construction Company Owners who do not need the full power of QuickBooks for contractors and want 24/7 online access we offer Xero Accounting Online and we have custom setup for construction companies.
I hope this podcast helps you understand that outsourcing your contractors bookkeeping services to us is about more than just “doing the bookkeeping”; it is about taking holistic approach to your entire construction company and helping support you as a contractor and as a person.
We understand the good, bad and the ugly about owning and operating construction companies because we have had several of them and we sincerely care about you and your construction company!
That is all I have for now and if you have listened this far please do me the honor of commenting and rating podcast www.FastEasyAccounting.com/podcast Tell me what you liked, did not like, tell it as you see it because your feedback is crucial and I thank you in advance.
You Deserve To Be Wealthy, Because You Bring Value To Other People's Lives!
I trust this will be of value to you and your feedback is always welcome at www.FastEasyAccounting.com/podcast
This is one more example of how Fast Easy Accounting is helping construction company owners across the USA including Alaska and Hawaii put more money in the bank to operate and grow your construction company. Construction accounting is not rocket science; it is a lot harder than that and a lot more valuable to construction contractors like you so stop missing out and call Sharie 206-361-3950 or email sharie@fasteasyaccounting.com
Thinking About Outsourcing Your Contractors Bookkeeping Services?
Click On The Link Below:
Need Help Now?
Call Sharie 206-361-3950
In closing, I want to caution you that we may or may not be a good fit for your contracting company. This guide will help you learn what to look for in outsourced construction accounting.
Thank you very much and I hope you understand we really do care
about you and all contractors regardless of whether or not you ever
hire our services.
Bye for now until our next episode here on the Contractors Success
MAP Podcast.
Warm Regards,
Randal DeHart | Contractors Accountant