One of the biggest challenges in having an in-house bookkeeper is training them to deliver consistent results and reports you can trust and make intelligent decisions with day after day, year after year.

Having been involved with construction and construction accounting and bookkeeping for over thirty years I have seen a consistent pattern that turns ordinary decent, pleasant bookkeepers into disheveled, broken, mean, nasty arrogant trolls and that's on a good day when the sun is shining and the birds are singing!

Here is how it happens:

1. Someone is assigned the bookkeeping duties because they are not good at anything else, mild mannered, shy and not able to say no.

2. QuickBooks Setup - And choosing the correct QuickBooks Version is the most critical part of all because it is the foundation upon which your entire financial system is built. Put the wrong foundation under your business and it will not matter who is doing the bookkeeping because it will always be a mess and you will never get the reports you really need in order to operate and grow your business profitably. Your Board of Advisors and especially your banker will be unhappy; however, they may not say it outright, just that your loans, lines of credit and referral opportunities may be limited.

3. The contractor sees bookkeeping as overhead which costs money and therefore is a drain on profits so they get a cheap computer, tiny monitor, garbage printer, tiny desk and broken down chair that even the dog would not sit in and tell the bookkeeper this is all the company can afford.

4. Then they assign all kinds of additional tasks to the bookkeeper like running business and personal errands, pickup and deliver material and paperwork to the jobsite, make coffee, answer the phones, take out the trash and clean the bathroom. Anything and everything to get "value" out of the time and money that is being wasted on bookkeeping.

5. Contractors can miss a lot of deadlines but miss a payroll and you are out of business. The day that happens your staff is looking for a new job no matter what they tell you. You get real upset with your incompetent bookkeeper and they say: "I asked for timecards but they never arrived!" You tell the bookkeeper: "You should have figured out how to get them even if it meant using your car, your gas on your time and going to the jobsite and getting them, it's your fault! I depended on you to do your job!"

6. Here is where your bookkeeper starts growing an attitude thinking you don't understand how difficult the bookkeeping is let alone all the other stuff you want done. They are right you don't know and you don't care because you hired them to take care of the paperwork. In business you produce reasons or results and reasons don't count.

7. Next thing that happens is your vendors and suppliers don't get paid on time or worse yet you miss the 2% discount if paid by the 10th which in effect means you are paying 36% annual interest rate penalty and when you ask why the bookkeeper says they didn't have enough time to get the bills into QuickBooks. This starts another round of talks about how you work 10 - 12 hours a day if that what it takes to get the job done and if the bookkeeper really cared they would do the same and only get paid for 8 hours.

8. Now your bookkeeper gets angry and begins to realize what little they know about bookkeeping is far more than you know. They are suddenly the one-eyed man who is king on the island of the blind!

9. Next the payroll tax returns, sales tax returns, labor and industries tax returns, business and occupation tax returns, city licenses and liability insurance audits start slipping and the fines and penalties add up.

10. Next the bookkeeper starts testing the limits of your tolerance by coming in a few minutes late and leaving a few minutes early. Talking on their cell phone whenever they please. When you ask for a report they say: "I will get to it later" or "QuickBooks will not do that" or one of my favorites: "Can't you see I'm busy?"

11. You three responses; fight, flight replacement.

12. If you choose to fight and demand the report the bookkeeper may work a little harder to get it done or they may do what the cook in some restaurants do when you send a meal back to be "fixed", they get even. Instead of spitting in your food the bookkeeper will start taking shortcuts like using Journal Entries to input credit card charges which totally destroys Job Costing Reports.

13. If you choose flight your bookkeeper will evolve into a bad bookkeeper and train you like an organ grinder trains his monkey

14. If you choose replacement you can hire another in-house bookkeeper and repeat the process or you can save time, money and aggravation by outsourcing to a competent Construction Bookkeeping Service. The choice is yours just think about it before you allow bad bookkeepers to drive you insane!

In The Long Run We Are Less Expensive Cheap Bookkeeper

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• Fully functioning QuickBooks desktop version

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QuickBooks Expert Specializing In Construction Bookkeeping Services