Discussion:How do most of your clients arrive?
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Discussion Forum Index --> Business Growth Community --> How do most of your clients arrive?
| 25 September 2007 | |
| What I mean by that is, do most of your clients come with properly prepared charts of accounts, ending trial balances, and previous tax returns? Or do they show up with checkbooks, shoe boxes, and a big mess?
Thanks, Michael | |
Phil Moody (talk|edits) said: | 25 September 2007 |
| All of the above. | |
| 25 September 2007 | |
| That's what I was afraid of....
For the shoebox folks, I will just charge my hourly rate of $45 to get them to the point where they are stable and have the chart of accounts and baseline TB. Thanks, Michael | |
| 26 September 2007 | |
| The key word above is "properly" prepared charts of accounts (and may I add properly posted). I'd really rather have the shoebox and start from scratch than try to tease all the mistakes out of a computerized system such as QuickBooks or others. Both types get my bill. The one's that kill me are the ones that say "But I have (insert name of bookkeeping program), why should I pay you to redo it?" | |
| 27 September 2007 | |
| CrowJD,
I assume that you are talking about the people who use quickbooks to do their own front end work as opposed to other bookkeepers/accountants who do setup using quickbooks. I am using quickbooks, which is why I ask. I will assume that unless a client is new into business, they will at least have SOME kind of trial balance or financial statements for you to use as the beginning, right? I fear the guy who hasn't filed taxes for years and hasn't prepared a set of books in the same time. Thanks, Michael | |
Bottom Line (talk|edits) said: | 28 September 2007 |
| I also have all kinds. Some have me do their bookkeeping for them on a regular basis so the tax returns are easy. Others I call "box people". They have a checkbook (personal size) that they use to write all their checks, a stack of receipts and a stack of unopened bank statements. For these I get a retainer of at least $400 when they deliver the box. Then I sort everything and do an entire year's bookkeeping before I can start the tax return. These type of people never have any idea if they're making any money. They only know how much money is in the bank by calling the bank every day. You'll never be able to change them and they'll never get rich. | |
| September 28, 2007 | |
| How do they arrive? It depends on how desperate I am to get new business. If they look to be a total mess, I usually request such a big retainer that they balk and go away. | |
| September 30, 2007 | |
| I had a new client one day that stated he was a little behind on some payroll taxes and he brought in his QB data disc, well, his entries in QB zigged and zagged more than our former governor ever did,,, on this client it was simpler for me to rekey entries from his bank statements and invoices , rather than to try to figure out what they had done, as it turned out he owed the IRS over 100K in back payroll tax and owed all the state agencies he could think of , I made the mistake of only getting a small retainer, and have learned a 'life lesson', that is , if they don't mind oweing the govt, they sure as heck don't mind oweing you,,,,, p.s. his minimum wage secretary with no previous payroll experience was in charge of filing his payroll forms and AP, including taxes,,, | |
