Reconciled is a great start, but it doesn’t necessarily mean everything has been accounted for correctly.

Clicking Match in Xero is only one small part of bookkeeping. Transactions can be allocated to the wrong accounts, GST can be treated incorrectly, payroll accounts may not balance, income or expenses can be duplicated, and historical issues can continue rolling forward without being obvious from the bank feed.

Good bookkeeping looks beyond whether the transactions have been matched. We reconcile the accounts properly, review what’s happening across the file and investigate when something doesn’t make sense.

Sometimes everything is absolutely fine. That’s exactly what we want to see.

Your accountant and bookkeeper generally do different jobs, and we love working alongside accountants.

Your accountant will usually focus on things like tax returns, financial statements and higher level tax and accounting matters. We look after the day to day bookkeeping that supports that work.

We’re in your books regularly, keeping things current and dealing with issues as they happen rather than waiting until year end.

We can also communicate directly with your accountant when needed, so you don’t have to play middleman between two professionals talking about things you may not completely understand.

A lot more than clicking Match.

Depending on your service, we may look after reconciliations, transaction coding, bills and receipts, payroll, BAS preparation and other day to day bookkeeping tasks.

But just as importantly, we’re paying attention to the file as a whole. We’re looking for things that don’t balance, unusual transactions, incorrect allocations, missing information and anything else that needs to be investigated.

The goal is simple: your bookkeeping is properly looked after, not just processed.

For our ongoing bookkeeping clients, we’re generally working in your file every week.

That’s intentional.

We don’t want to arrive at BAS time and try to work out what happened three months ago. Regular bookkeeping keeps things current, lets us ask questions while they’re still relevant and means we get to know what’s normal for your business.

It also means that when something unusual comes up, we already know your file and aren’t starting from scratch.

No.

Some clients want us to take everything possible off their plate. Others enjoy doing certain parts themselves and simply want a professional overseeing the file, completing reconciliations or handling the areas they’re not confident with.

We’ll work out who is responsible for what during onboarding so there are clear lines and nothing gets missed.

The important part is that the arrangement works and your books are being maintained properly.

That’s okay. A lot of clients come to us because they know something isn’t quite right but aren’t sure what the actual problem is.

We’ll first review the file and work out what needs attention. If there’s historical bookkeeping or clean up required, we’ll explain what we’ve found and what needs to happen before we move forward.

We’ve worked with everything from relatively small corrections through to businesses with thousands of outstanding transactions and significant historical issues.

You don’t need to diagnose the problem before contacting us. That’s part of our job.

Yes. Historical clean up and rectification is something we regularly undertake.

We commonly find issues such as duplicated transactions, incorrect coding, GST errors, unreconciled accounts, payroll discrepancies and historical transactions that were never dealt with properly.

We’ll review what’s actually happening first and let you know what needs to be corrected. Depending on what we find, we may also need to work with your accountant or discuss whether previously lodged information needs to be reviewed.

Absolutely.

We see your accountant as part of the same team.

Where appropriate and with the required authority, we can communicate directly with them, provide bookkeeping information they need and work through questions relating to your file.

It saves you from having to relay technical information between us and means everyone is working from the same information.

Yes. This is a big part of how we work.

Our clients regularly contact us when something comes up that they don’t understand or they’re unsure what to do next.

You’re not expected to figure everything out yourself or save every question until BAS time. If it relates to the bookkeeping we manage and we can help, ask us.

If something falls outside our scope or needs advice from your accountant or another professional, we’ll tell you that too.

We want to take bookkeeping off your plate, not give you another job.

We’ll handle the bookkeeping we’ve agreed to look after, but occasionally we’ll need information that only you can provide, such as a receipt, clarification about a transaction or context around something unusual.

The best relationships are collaborative. When we need something to keep your books moving, we ask. You give us what you can, and we get on with the job.

We’ll also set up simple processes during onboarding to make this as easy as possible.

Yes. Payroll and BAS can be included depending on what your business needs and the service we agree on.

We’ll discuss your current setup during the initial call and make sure your proposal reflects the actual bookkeeping support your business requires rather than bundling you into services you don’t need.

No. While we specialise in Xero and work in it every day, our team is experienced and qualified across a range of accounting and bookkeeping systems.

If you’re using another platform, that doesn’t automatically mean you need to change. We’ll look at your current setup, how your business operates and what you need from your bookkeeping before recommending anything.

If your existing system works well for your business, we’re happy to work with it. If we think there’s a better way to do things, we’ll talk you through why.

No.

We work with businesses at very different stages and sizes. The better question is whether professional bookkeeping makes sense for your business and whether we’re a good fit for each other.

Some clients have relatively simple bookkeeping and want the reassurance of having a professional looking after it. Others have employees, payroll, high transaction volumes and much more complex bookkeeping requirements.

We tailor the scope to what your business actually needs.

Our pricing depends on what you actually need us to look after.

A straightforward business where the owner still handles some of the bookkeeping is very different from a business with payroll, higher transaction volumes, BAS requirements or more complex accounts.

We’ll first understand your business and current setup, then recommend the level of bookkeeping support that makes sense and provide clear pricing before you decide whether to proceed.

We’ll start with a quick conversation about your business, how your bookkeeping is currently being handled and what has prompted you to reach out.

If it sounds like we could be a good fit, we’ll talk you through the next step and review your current setup where appropriate.

There’s no expectation that you already know what service or package you need. That’s what the initial conversation is for.

You’re definitely not the first.

Being behind doesn’t bother us, and neither does opening a file that needs work. What matters is getting a clear picture of what’s there, fixing what needs to be fixed and putting processes in place so you don’t end up in the same position again.

We’ll assess the historical work separately from your ongoing bookkeeping so you know what’s involved before we start.

You don’t need to know.

Some clients come to us knowing they have a problem. Others simply have a feeling that something isn’t quite right.

And some have perfectly reasonable books but no longer want to be responsible for maintaining them themselves.

We can look at how your bookkeeping is currently being handled and determine whether there are areas that need attention.

Finding out everything is in good shape is a good outcome too.

No, and this is an important difference in how we work.

For our ongoing bookkeeping clients, we’re generally in the file every week.

We believe bookkeeping works better when it happens alongside the business, not months afterwards. It keeps information current, makes discrepancies easier to investigate and means we actually get to know your business over time.

We don't want BAS time to be the first time anyone has properly looked at your books in three months.

We're probably not the right fit if you're only looking for someone to appear once a quarter, lodge the BAS and disappear again.

Our ongoing service is built around maintaining the underlying bookkeeping throughout the year so that when BAS time arrives, we're working from books we've already been involved with.

We're looking for ongoing relationships with business owners who value having their bookkeeping properly looked after.