Archives for August 2024

Redefining Flexibility: “Where Work-Life Balance Is the Rule, Not the Exception!”

In today’s fast-paced world, achieving work-life balance is more than a perk—it’s essential. At Bookminders, our foundational belief in work-life balance is encapsulated by our tagline, “Where Work-Life Balance Is the Rule, Not the Exception.” This philosophy guides our daily operations and strategic decisions, creating a supportive and flexible work environment that nurtures both personal and professional growth. This #VisionaryValues installment highlights how prioritizing our workforce’s well-being has fueled our growth and set new standards for workplaces in the accounting industry.

Intentionally Creating Space for Women in the Workforce

Creating opportunities for women in accounting was a foundational goal when Bookminders was established. From the outset, our culture was shaped by flexibility and support, designed to foster an environment where women could excel professionally without sacrificing their personal lives. Over the years, we expanded our employee-centric approach even further, providing unmatched work-life integration. Internal bi-annual surveys have repeatedly highlighted these aspects as the top benefits of working at Bookminders, distinguishing our company as a rare exception within the accounting industry. This employee feedback directly inspired our defining tagline: “Where work-life balance is the rule, not the exception!”

Enabling Real Flexibility Through Innovative Practices

At Bookminders, our commitment to work-life excellence is backed by tangible practices that allow our employees to seamlessly integrate their professional responsibilities with their personal lives. We pioneered remote working solutions long before it became a global trend, offering our team the technology, resources, and support needed to work effectively from their home offices.

This adaptability extends to scheduling, giving employees the autonomy to choose their client portfolio and working hours so they can tailor their workdays to fit life’s unpredictable demands. Our bespoke resources and continuous training ensure that each team member can work efficiently while remaining engaged and informed. These initiatives demonstrate our dedication to making work-life integration a practical reality for every member of our team.

Sustaining Engagement and Productivity

We believe in going beyond the basics to nurture our employees. Bookminders’ approach not only facilitates remote work but also enhances job satisfaction and productivity through a deeply ingrained culture of encouragement and inclusivity. The Team Advisors Mentoring program is a prime example of how we foster professional growth and community within our organization. Through this program, new hires and seasoned professionals alike receive guidance, enhancing their skills and fostering a supportive network. Regular virtual check-ins and accessible leadership ensure that each employee feels connected and valued, regardless of their physical location.

Resources like our mentorship program are crucial in maintaining high levels of engagement and motivation across our diverse team, leading to the lowest turnover rates and maximum job satisfaction. Our internal metrics reveal that employees at Bookminders are significantly more likely to stay with the company long-term, citing the supportive culture and genuine flexibility as key factors in their continued commitment to our organization.

Voices from Our Team: Personal Stories of Growth and Balance

Our staff frequently express how Bookminders’ unique work model has significantly improved their quality of life. One team member shared, “Being able to enjoy a truly meaningful career without losing out on time with family is an incredible feeling.” Another notes, “Bookminders has given me a tremendous amount of personal and professional freedom.”

Such comments are common at Bookminders, where the work environment is intentionally designed to support significant life events and daily family dynamics without compromising professional aspirations. One accountant remarked, “The flexibility at Bookminders has allowed me to further develop in my career in a nontraditional way. This isn’t just a job, it’s a lifestyle!” These and the many other employee comments confirm that Bookminders succeeds well in making staff feel appreciated, valued, prioritized, and supported.

A Future Committed to Work-Life Excellence

Our leadership team understands that Bookminders’ approach to work-life balance is a key driver of our success. We are committed to maintaining and enhancing these practices to ensure we continue to be a leader in promoting a healthy work-life dynamic within the accounting industry. As we look to the future, we aim to expand these opportunities, not only to meet the changing needs of our current team but also to continue setting new benchmarks for the industry. At Bookminders, we don’t just adapt to the future; we aim to define it, ensuring our team can thrive in all aspects of life.

Stay with us in the coming weeks as we unveil a new purpose statement and explore the exciting future that lies ahead for Bookminders. Discover how our unwavering commitment to innovation and employee-centric values will shape the next chapter of our journey and continue to set new standards in business! #VisionaryValues

Setting the Gold Standard in Bookkeeping: Recommended by CPAs

As Bookminders continues to set the standard for outsourced accounting, our commitment to maintaining the highest standards has not only benefited our direct clients but has also earned the trust of CPAs. This installment of our #VisionaryValues series explores why CPAs consistently recommend Bookminders as their preferred bookkeeping provider.

Successful organizations partner with trusted advisors and rely on them to provide guidance on important fiscal decisions. After a decade of proving its worth, Bookminders became known in the accounting industry as a top-notch bookkeeping service that complements the work of CPA firms. As our reputation spread, referrals from firms rolled in, leading to the adoption of our second tagline, “Recommended by CPAs.”

Forging A Win-Win Partnership

CPAs are stewards of financial integrity and provide guidance on important financial decisions. Their endorsement of Bookminders stems from our unwavering commitment to timeliness, quality, and reliability.

When CPAs receive financial statements from us, they are confident in the format, the standard of work, and the thoroughness, allowing them to proceed with audits and tax preparations efficiently. This reliability streamlines their processes and maximizes their productivity, enabling them to focus on delivering strategic financial guidance rather than double-checking basic data accuracy.

Why CPAs Partner with Bookminders:

Steadfast Quality: Our comprehensive procedures and rigorous quality controls ensure that client financial information is consistent and reliable. Auditors know exactly what to expect, which streamlines their year-end planning process.

Expert Team: Bookminders employs a team of degreed, seasoned accountants, many of whom are former CFOs, auditors, and industry specialists. CPAs respect the caliber of our staff as peers and colleagues, ensuring that their clients’ financial affairs are managed by experts.
Affordable Excellence: We provide access to top-tier accounting talents at a cost significantly lower than what it would take to hire similarly qualified in-house staff. This affordability makes high-quality bookkeeping accessible to CPAs’ clients, who might otherwise compromise on expertise due to budget constraints.

Efficient Year-End Close: Our well-organized, comprehensive year-end packages are highly valued by CPAs. The supporting documents and schedules included in every year-end package tie to the financial statement balances. CPAs can initiate audits and prepare tax returns without unnecessary delays, reducing the burden on both themselves and their clients.
Reliability = Productivity: CPAs know they can rely on the accuracy of the information Bookminders provides, thanks to our comprehensive Quality Assurance processes. This reliability means CPAs spend less time verifying data and more time focusing on high-level fiscal strategies for their clients.
Staying Ahead: Bookminders consistently remains abreast of changes in standards and rules, such as the latest lease accounting standard, ensuring that CPAs and their clients are always ahead of compliance issues and never playing catch-up. This leads to a client who is always audit-ready.
Shared Goals: Bookminders’ commitment to quality and collaboration enhances our services and supports the success CPAs and our mutual clients. We frequently refer new clients to our trusted CPA partners, fostering a network of collaboration and support that benefits everyone.

A Partnership for Success
The mantra “Recommended by CPAs” signifies more than our capability to deliver exceptional service – it represents a partnership built on mutual respect and shared goals. CPAs appreciate not only the quality of our work but also the integrity and foresight that Bookminders brings to every relationship.

Stay tuned next week as our #VisionaryValues series continues. We’ll delve into how our unique approach to work-life balance has set a new standard in the accounting industry.

Best Practices Produce the Best Results: “Timely. Accurate. Cost-Effective”

For over three decades, Bookminders has been a trusted partner to small businesses and nonprofit organizations, offering bookkeeping services that are consistently timely, accurate, and cost-effective. Soon after our founding, a CPA partner commented that, for the first time ever, our service fulfilled all three ideal qualities of a bookkeeping service by being accurate, fast, and affordable. All other services required sacrificing either speed or accuracy to be cost-effective.

As the years progressed, we consistently received similar feedback about our services. As a result, our first tagline evolved naturally and continues to encapsulate the essence of Bookminders’ value proposition, emphasizing the benefits and efficiencies our services bring to a diverse clientele.

Timely

In a dynamic economic environment, timely financial records are crucial for effective decision-making. This was true in 1991 and remains even more so today. From the start, Bookminders adapted and kept pace with best practices in all of its processes and procedures.

Frequent and comprehensive communication ensures clients always know where they stand, enabling them to make informed decisions swiftly. Our staff meets with clients weekly, providing an overall review of financial balances, AR/AP flow, and highlighting any exceptions. By working closely with clients, we craft partnerships that remain ahead of key reporting dates, preventing work from piling up or important deadlines from being missed. Nonprofits are confident board reports will be comprehensive, presented on-time, and crucial funding timelines met.

A Bookminders accountant meeting with her clients

Over Bookminders’ lifetime, technology has grown exponentially, and our remote-first model required us to stay ahead of the curve. Today, our cloud-based platform ensures access to financial data from anywhere our clients are, allowing organizations to monitor their financial health continuously. Automating repetitive tasks reduces errors and increases efficiency, ensuring that the financial package is completed on time, every time

Accurate

Accuracy in financial reporting is paramount to the success of any organization. From the early days, Bookminders developed the right resources and checks and balances required to deliver precise and reliable financials. Our team consists of only degreed and experienced accountants, including former CFOs, auditors, and controllers. They approach each client with a solutions-based mindset, demanding accuracy and resolution to inefficient or problematic processes.

Bookminders uses only proven accounting software that fully meets the needs of all clients and, while we support select application integrations, we never allow those to risk the integrity or accuracy of the file.

At month-end, every staff member audits their work, guided by a group of senior advisors. Our dedicated Quality Assurance team regularly reviews all files in minute detail, verifying all work is error-free and lives up to our high standards.

Ultimately, the audit-ready financials we provide to clients’ tax or auditing firms have been appraised several times over, resulting in minimal audit work, quick turnaround, and lower year-end costs.

Cost-Effective

Efficiency is a cornerstone of Bookminders’ service model. Unlike many other services, our approach drives down clients’ costs while boosting our employees’ compensation. Many organizations struggle with the high expenses and inefficiencies associated with in-house bookkeeping, such as high turnover, extensive training periods, and inconsistent financial reporting. Bookminders addresses these challenges by offering a cost-effective alternative that provides access to the top accounting professionals at a fraction of the cost of hiring in-house staff.

Our proprietary Volumetric Pricing model further enhances cost efficiency by combining the benefits of traditional pricing models while mitigating their drawbacks. This transparent approach bases fees on actual services provided, ensuring clients receive superior value without hidden costs. Our model creates an environment that incentivizes staff to keep client costs as low as possible. As client costs are streamlined and reduced, staff compensation increases, ensuring exceptional service, flexibility, and the lowest possible bookkeeping bill.

The Bookminders Promise

The tagline “Timely. Accurate. Cost-Effective.” is more than just a motto for Bookminders; it embodies a promise to provide exceptional value to our small business and nonprofit clients. By delivering timely updates, ensuring accurate records, and offering cost-effective solutions, Bookminders empowers organizations to focus on their core missions and achieve sustained success.

Join us next week as our #VisionaryValues series explores how our second mantra, “Recommended by CPAs” came to be. We’ll review how Bookminders became the premier partner to auditors seeking the most efficient, reliable bookkeeping partner for their clients while maximizing their own productivity.

Bookminders: From Concept to Trailblazer

At Bookminders, we’re not just about numbers; we’re about setting benchmarks and shaping futures. This Newsminders series, #VisionaryValues, explores our evolution over the last several decades to redefine outsourced accounting standards.

Forty years ago, our founder Tom Joseph launched Steele Financial Services, the precursor to Bookminders. Steele Financial Services was designed not only to solve a problem but to innovatively use technology to complement the life of its target employee – a college educated woman needing flexibility for her family. This laid the groundwork for what would become Bookminders, a pioneering concept that remains integral to our identity today.

Iterating into Bookminders

In 1984, the Joseph’s family business lost their bookkeeper. Tom, who had early exposure to Apple computers in his job at Westinghouse, bought an Apple IIc computer along with accounting software and formed Steele Financial Services. The original idea of having his uncle run the system was a failure, but Tom’s sister Diane was able to grasp the new technology and agreed to take on the role if she could work primarily from home. Tom and Diane transformed a lengthy process into one that took only a few hours, completed mostly from her home office. In an era before the internet, this was a radical concept. Despite this initial success, the idea was not scalable given the lack of internet infrastructure and led to the closure of Steele Financial Services.

Over the next seven years, Tom continued his career in factory automation, but the idea of Bookminders was never far from mind. A 60 Minutes segment featuring a manufacturing company that was highly successful using a piece-meal compensation model inspired him to think that a similar model could be used for his “bookminders.” He envisioned an environment that would leverage technology to offer meaningful, part-time accounting roles for women seeking an alternative to traditional full-time office jobs, all while providing affordable, high-quality bookkeeping for small businesses.

When Tom launched Bookminders in 1991, he enlisted the help of Diane’s twin sister, Lynne. Their first client, an architect in Shadyside, PA, was fortunately demanding and forced many refinements, which greatly improved the ease of navigating the financials. This commitment to continuous improvement became the foundation for Bookminders’ Quality Assurance program which attracted auditors eager to position their clients for success.

During a meeting with one such firm, a partner remarked that Bookminders’ approach sounded like the wave of the future. Tom replied, “We’re going to make it the wave of the present!” The employee-first focus, unique compensation model, timely and cost-effective financials, and commitment to quality poised the company for considerable growth over the next several decades, proving Tom’s vision correct.

An Innovative Concept Produces Continual, Sustainable Growth

In the decades that followed its founding, Bookminders expanded dramatically but sustainably. By consistently adopting and integrating cutting-edge technologies, Bookminders evolved from using floppy discs and a shared email account in the 90s to perfecting remote access with its customized, cloud-based platform. Recognized early on as one of Pittsburgh’s Fastest Growing Private Companies and a champion for home-based workers, the company set a new bar for work-life balance expectations in Pittsburgh’s accounting community.

Bookminders strong, employee-centric culture and remote opportunities attracted an influx of staff.

A focus on building resources tailored to non-profits and small to mid-size businesses, along with the opening of the Philadelphia office in 2006, led to Bookminders’ emergence as the premier outsourced bookkeeping service in Pennsylvania. Over the next decade, its innovative concept and in-demand services resulted in the launch of two additional locations: Southern New Jersey and Eastern Maryland. The strong, employee-centric culture and remote opportunities attracted an influx of staff. Finally, with an abundance of resources and growing demand, Bookminders expanded its footprint beyond the Eastern United States with a Central Texas location in 2022.

Beyond Taglines – Artifacts of Culture

With a solid workplace culture built around meeting the needs of our primarily female workforce, and high demand driven by innovation, excellence, and affordability, Bookminders has largely grown through word-of-mouth. This referral-based growth strategy has led to the use of only three key statements over the years that summarize our culture and value position:

Timely. Accurate. Cost-Effective.
Recommended by CPAs.
Where Work-Life Balance is the Rule, not the Exception!

These mantras are more than marketing phrases; they are descriptions of Bookminders’ philosophy and direct feedback from clients and referral partners. Over the next few weeks, our #VisionaryValues series will explore each in detail. Finally, we’ll conclude with a forward-looking purpose statement and exciting news about what’s next for Bookminders!

*Black & White Image: Siblings Tom Joseph and Lynne Schaefer, first published in Allegheny Business News, “Bookminders Filling Small Business Bookkeeping Niche”, February 1994, Vol. 9. No. 2