# what do you pay your bookkeeper?



## terzdesign (Mar 8, 2010)

I am in need of a bookkeeper but want to know what to expect as far as pay. In the past, my gf's mother has done it for free. She's too busy now. How do I go about finding a reliable one?


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## Stefano (Aug 5, 2013)

jcterzin said:


> I am in need of a bookkeeper but want to know what to expect as far as pay. In the past, my gf's mother has done it for free. She's too busy now. How do I go about finding a reliable one?


I've had good luck on Craig's List for professional services (under "Gigs" I think. Specify exactly what the job entails, number of hours/week, where the work is to be done, what experience and credentials you want them to have, and what's their rate. You can weed through the responses and follow up with the ones who are qualified (a lot of people will apply whether they are qualified or not). Also, I'd get an email address that expires in 30 days (can't remember where I found this but Google it) unless you want a lot of followup aggravation.


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## Viper Graphics (Mar 28, 2009)

jcterzin said:


> I am in need of a bookkeeper but want to know what to expect as far as pay. In the past, my gf's mother has done it for free. She's too busy now. How do I go about finding a reliable one?


Maybe she would not be too busy if you PAID her??? maybe time to get off the freebie wagon. Obviously she knows your business so ask her what she would charge. You don't work for free do you?


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## BidsMaven (Sep 23, 2011)

We have a part-time bookkeeper who we pay through Express Personnel. The arrangement is working out well. Express Personnel charges us $24.52/hour and of that amount our bookkeeper gets paid $17/hr. Express Personnel takes care of all the payroll stuff like social security, etc that we would otherwise have to deal with. She submits a time card to Express Personnel, we approve it, we get an invoice, and she gets paid.


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## terzdesign (Mar 8, 2010)

BidsMaven said:


> We have a part-time bookkeeper who we pay through Express Personnel. The arrangement is working out well. Express Personnel charges us $24.52/hour and of that amount our bookkeeper gets paid $17/hr. Express Personnel takes care of all the payroll stuff like social security, etc that we would otherwise have to deal with. She submits a time card to Express Personnel, we approve it, we get an invoice, and she gets paid.


Express personnel... I'll look into that. It's a company? Do you get to meet the bookkeeper?


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## Viper Graphics (Mar 28, 2009)

jcterzin said:


> Express personnel... I'll look into that. It's a company? Do you get to meet the bookkeeper?


I wouldn't hire anyone that is going to be keeping my books without meeting them in person. You need to interview your bookkeeper so that you can evaluate their knowledge and experience and have that discussion to agree to your financial and tax strategies going forward to protect you as well as keep the state and IRS off your tail. Some book keepers (I've heard) like to push the regs a little and some a lot to try to "help" you....if you like that risk ...go for it, otherwise you will want to know if this is a strategy your book keeper engages in or not.
Oh and did I say...meet and interview them in person. also ask for and verify references. Bottom line. you sign the tax form and are ultimately responsible and the tax man/lady are not to be fooled with.


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## jeradclough22 (Apr 16, 2011)

We have had good luck posting ads with our facebook account and then boosting for about $30 in a geographic location. Say - 10miles within your town. You should receive a lot of apps. Start the interview process and then hire. If it is a long term employee I would avoid one of the services as you don't want to overpay just because of payroll. Look into it - payroll is not that difficult


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## BidsMaven (Sep 23, 2011)

jcterzin said:


> Express personnel... I'll look into that. It's a company? Do you get to meet the bookkeeper?


I found a bookkeeper who I wanted to have do our bookkeeping on a part-time basis. She's really good but has just not gone to the trouble to set up a business of her own. At her suggestion, we contacted Express Personnel, which is a temp worker company. They set her up as an employee and my business up as a client. Now she just reports the hours she works to them, I approve her time sheet, and they invoice me for her work. So far the arrangement has worked out really well.

Here's the website for Express Personnel http://www.expresspros.com/


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## Fuzzyfreak (Sep 24, 2013)

jcterzin said:


> I am in need of a bookkeeper but want to know what to expect as far as pay. In the past, my gf's mother has done it for free. She's too busy now. How do I go about finding a reliable one?


Go to your local bar and find one, If you don't find one there, then learn math at your local community college, I don't have one for my company because it is very simple and straight forward, Make money and pay taxes on it. If you have aproblem filling out the boxes on the federal score sheet, find a cpa. not a bookkeeper. You pay the cpa what is required, or you learn not to pay people, not to run your business, it's not about the money, it's about a good night sleep, knowing you did things right every day doing business.


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## fdsales (Jul 1, 2007)

Really should have a CPA, tax law is very complicated now, and if your own equipment, then need to know depreciation rates, also corporate tax structure is much different than sole proprietor. I have an account guy (not CPA) that posts all my accounting into QuickBooks & creates monthly/quarterly profit/loss statements, as well as a general ledger, and I pay him $100/month. Then my CPA gets the year end Quick Books reports, crunches the numbers, computes depreciation, etc, and prepares & files both corporate & personal tax returns (since we're Sub S Corp, affects personal return also.) For her services, I pay aboout $650/year. So in all, I pay about $2,000/year for a company grossing about $450,000 per year. Sounds expensive, but had cut rate accounts previous, and got burned because they did not fully understand all the IRS tax regulations.....so you get what you pay for, and I get to direct my efforts on running my business, and not accounting.


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## johnchesley (Jan 26, 2008)

I have been in business 20 years and have never had a book keeper. I use Quickbooks and an accountant. The quickbooks subscription and accountant together end up costing less than 100.00 per week, and I know I'm covered with the Government. Also no payroll taxes to pay on a book keeper, no office or office furniture... etc. Works well for us.


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## NoXid (Apr 4, 2011)

I thought that by long accepted tradition that around February they just abscond to Belize with your funds and all is good ...


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## johnchesley (Jan 26, 2008)

Funny... I know 3 people that had book keepers embezzle huge amounts of money from them. Two of the three businesses did not survive it.


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## Fuzzyfreak (Sep 24, 2013)

It is hard to business, and if you need help to do it on the books, then find someone you trust to keep the books! Figure it out asap!


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## TUANISAPPAREL (Oct 14, 2012)

I pay $150 a month. At the end of every month I email my bank statements and credit card statement and she logs on remote and inputs it all.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using T-Shirt Forums


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## Broadcloak (Dec 6, 2012)

If you have the patience, attention to detail and some basic math skills, you can do your own books. I've been doing my own at my print shop and my clothing label for 6 years and 9 years respectively. I use Quickbooks 2011 still, but I'll finally be upgrading soon to a new version. I also use QB online payroll to do my payroll. Setting everything up correctly in Quickbooks takes some time and learning, but once it's running it works well for most bookkeeping tasks. You can easily add and import credit card accounts and separately import credit card payments or paypal payments and tax payments. 

For the last 2 years I've worked with a basic tax accountant for tax season and only paid about $500/year for accounting services. As business has grown nicely this year, I'll begin working with a new accountant that can help take care of my growing needs and I expect to pay about $1200 for my accounting needs over the next year.


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## Inspired Buffalo (Nov 10, 2013)

Do it myself.

I have spent hours making spreadsheets for every cost of my business. I have everything down to the penny.
I am very anal though and sometimes work 12 hrs a day between printing and keeping books.

Not for everybody


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## Broadcloak (Dec 6, 2012)

You can do it the old fashioned way and save money, but spend a ton of time. As a small business owner, your time is already stretched between production, design, pre-press, customer service, marketing, and all the other elements. Focus on the elements you're good at or enjoy and find resources to help where you're not as good.


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