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Studio 512: Outsourced Accounting with Bookminders

Our team was back in the studio with Co-Host Rosie Newberry this past week. CEO Jessica Minkus and Director of Business Development Pamela Falkner Hartigan explored what makes outsourced accounting so attractive and what clients can expect when onboarding with Bookminders.

Visit Studio 512’s website or review the segment highlights:

Rosie asked why businesses and nonprofits choose to outsource accounting rather than hiring internally: Jessica explained that when factoring in the costs of salary and benefits, training, employee turnover, and limited access to expertise, outsourced accounting is often the stronger choice. “Leadership doesn’t have to manage the HR responsibilities of hiring an employee. They should get redundancy and an entire company of experts, not just one or two people. And, depending on the outsourced firm, there may be hosting as well meaning they take responsibility for security of the financial information.”

Pam described how Bookminders’ holistic approach to analyzing and building out client services has placed Bookminders above other outsourcing options: “At the very start of onboarding, we review each client’s process for efficiencies, design the accounting system, and manage it from start to finish.” She details the array of professionals that each client has access to: “They’ll have an onboarding accountant, an ongoing accountant, and a client relations manager all of whom are supported by the operations and management team.”

Jessica notes that Bookminders’ Quality Assurance department, led and staffed by senior staff, ensures that financials are accurate and complete. “We also continually review the file for process improvements to ensure that all clients receive a consistent, high-level of service. Not only do we manage clients’ financial info, we provide a secure, cloud-based platform so they can access their information from anywhere.”

Lastly, Rosie asked Pam what a prospective client can expect when they reach out to Bookminders: “They’ll talk to a member of our business development team. The conversation will be around whether a partnership would be mutually beneficial. If not, we often are able to refer them elsewhere.” If a client does move on to the next step, “Bookminders bills volumetrically. We will look at their activity and accounting needs to prepare the best possible estimate for our service, which is usually within a 10% variance.” After moving forward, the BD team facilitates a smooth handoff to the operations team. “That starts at the initial client meeting, throughout onboarding and even after.”

Outsourced accounting firms like Bookminders provide affordable access to many experts.
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Bookminders Appears on KXAN Studio 512

Bookminders’ Director of Business Development, Pamela Hartigan, joined NBC-KXAN Studio 512 Co-Host Rosie Newberry to talk about the company and the choice to enter the Austin market.

Visit Studio 512’s website or review the segment highlights:

When asked to describe Bookminders and our services, Pam replied, “Bookminders is an outsourced accounting service. We employ degreed accountants with a minimum of five years of expertise to do the work. We provide complete service where we do everything for clients including paying bills, preparing invoices, reconciling balance sheet accounts at month-end, and providing detailed reports. We also send a complete comprehensive package to the client’s CPA so they can do the taxes/audit. We fully resource all of our locations. There’s at least one Client Relations Manager for every office whom both staff and clients can connect with. Our internal operations and IT staff ensure Bookminder’s Cloud-based environment operates smoothly with practically no downtime.”

Pam detailed Bookminders’ client mix and emphasized that our nonprofit clients have complex accounting needs: “These firms do not want to manage the accounting process or the human resources involved with staff. With Bookminders, they receive a streamlined accounting process, financial controls, and quality assurance at a cost savings of hiring a part to a full-time employee. Clients are able to focus on growth while having access to highly skilled professionals.”

Rosie asked Pam how Bookminders finds its clients, to which Pam explained, “we don’t – our clients find us! Bookminders doesn’t solicit work, we make connections with CPA firms and they refer us to their clients. It’s a great partnership because we do not do taxes or audits, but the work that we do for our clients streamlines that process for the CPAs that do. By maintaining the highest standards and excellent service quality, we also get lots of referrals from our existing clients.”

When asked how Bookminders selected Austin as the latest office location, Pam stated: “This is Bookminders’ fifth office. We started out in Pittsburgh over 30 years ago and have grown organically since. Austin is frequently compared to Pittsburgh. There are many similarities between the two cities that made it seem like our services would be a natural fit here. Like Pittsburgh, Austin has tons of nonprofits, tech startups, and small to medium-sized businesses. Austin is known to be a friendly city that welcomed newcomers, which is the type of place we’ve always chosen for our offices. We felt confident that we could help small businesses and nonprofits in this area with the same excellent track records that we’ve established in our other markets.”

Clients are able to focus on growth while having access to highly skilled professionals.
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Does Work-Life Balance Impact Job Satisfaction?

According to a recent IMA survey, women in their twenties have the second highest job satisfaction rate while the rate is the lowest for women in their thirties. Job satisfaction sharply rises for women compared to men in their sixties. Is work-life balance a driving factor?

Women in their 30s are busier than ever balancing careers, families, and personal interests. Work-life balance is often hard to achieve, and may be a key reason for job dissatisfaction in this age group.

Figure 5 shows an age-range breakdown for the percentages of those who said they are very satisfied overall with their present job. Overall, about 23% said they were very satisfied with their job. Job satisfaction is relatively high for women in the 20-29 age group and for both men and women in the age 60-and-older group. The lowest overall satisfaction is reported by those in the 30-39 age group. (IMA: The Association of Accountants and Financial Professionals in Business 2015 U.S. Salary Survey www.imanet.org/salary_survey)

IMA Graph

Does improved work-life balance increase job satisfaction? We think so. At Bookminders, work-life balance is the rule, not the exception.

Our staff is comprised of highly skilled accounting professionals who typically work 20 to 35 hours per week. Employees enjoy a flexible schedule, access to training and support, and opportunities to work on challenging assignments. Internal surveys report high job satisfaction and roughly half of Bookminders’ seventy employees have been with the company for at least five years.

And we’re growing.

Please let us know if you are interested in employment at Bookminders. Qualified candidates are invited to an Open House to learn more about our work environment and meet our staff.

Bookminders provides timely, accurate and cost effective accounting services to small businesses and nonprofit organizations. Clients use Bookminders as an alternative to hiring in-house staff and benefit from cost savings, improved financial management, access to qualified staff and elimination of distractions due to turnover. Learn more about our services.

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Minimizing Exposure to Fraud – Part 2: Cash Receipts and Internal Controls

Small businesses and nonprofit organizations may have more exposure to fraud since they often do not have the resources or systems available for fraud prevention. The following recommendations can help organizations minimize exposure:

Cash Receipts Controls

  • Reconcile Point-Of-Sale Systems on a daily (or per shift) basis.
  • A cash deposit should be made for each closing to simplify the tracking of this cash.
  • Monitor the cash over/short account for variances between the cash deposit per the POS system and the actual deposit.
  • Review voids and coupons entered into the system.
  • Implement a policy of providing receipts for all cash purchases.
  • This will minimize the opportunity for employees to siphon funds from a cash business.
  • Monitor POS reports for cash refunds or credits.
  • Consider using a bank “lock box” if you receive a high volume of checks.
  • Checks are mailed directly to the bank for deposit.
  • Review receivables and pay attention to adjustments or credits that could indicate subverted payments.
  • Adhere to a numerical sequence for checks and also for invoices, cash receipts, purchase orders or other documentation.
  • Follow up on missing documents.

Employee Reimbursements

  • Eliminate petty cash accounts or keep petty cash balances to a minimum.
  • If petty cash accounts are used, perform frequent reconciliations of cash and receipts.
  • Do not provide employees with company credit/debit cards.
  • Employees should use personal credit cards for business expenses and be reimbursed for valid expense receipts.
  • Employees who use company credit cards are less likely to submit timely expense reports.
  • If reimbursement is needed sooner – Issue cash advances with a signed cash advance agreement that allows the employer to deduct the advance amount from the employee’s paycheck if receipts are not provided.

Separation of Duties

  • Make sure that appropriately authorized personnel are responsible for reviewing and approving all supporting documentation related to disbursements.
  • Make sure that the person responsible for reconciling bank accounts is not a check signer or preparer of deposits.

Employment Screening and Orientation

  • Thoroughly screen individuals and perform criminal background and credit checks before hiring.
  • Be wary of recruits who have falsified information about employment history or have poor credit.
  • Provide training to new and existing employees.
  • Make employees aware of internal control policies and let them see that the control processes are carried out consistently.
  • Perception of strong controls can be a deterrent.
  • Provide employees with an anonymous way to report fraud.
    Report acts of fraud to the appropriate law enforcement agencies.
  • Help ensure that other organizations do not hire people who have a history of fraud in positions where they have an opportunity to become repeat offenders.

Internal Audits & Financial Reviews

  • Perform internal audits on a periodic basis.
  • Having management staff or board members conduct a detailed analysis of bank account activity for a random period of time may uncover acts of fraud, but most importantly it sends a message to staff that procedures are in place to catch those who misappropriate funds.
  • Although cancelled checks may not be returned with bank statements, images of cleared checks can usually be viewed via the bank’s website and should be reviewed in order to identify inappropriate payees.
  • Reports can be provided in printed or PDF format in order to facilitate the review of this information.
  • Online access to check images, along with a PDF report of checks recorded in QuickBooks, make it possible for management and/or board members to review this information from anywhere.
  • Prepare budgets and review actual activity compared to budget for unusual variances.
  • Take action on reports of internal control weaknesses that may be provided by your auditors. Determine if there are ways that the organization can help reduce or eliminate these weaknesses.
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Minimizing Exposure to Fraud – Part 1: Checking Account Controls

Small businesses and nonprofit organizations may have more exposure to fraud since they often do not have the resources or systems available for fraud prevention. Fraud can occur when an employee is provided with the opportunity to handle cash or assets without a system of “checks and balances” in place. While there is no way to completely prevent fraud, there are ways to minimize the risk and increase the chance of detection.

When considering an organization’s vulnerability to fraud, it is important to keep the following in mind:

  • Financial statement audits do not detect fraud. Audit reports specifically state that they are not intended to detect fraud. Fraud may be discovered during a financial statement audit, but an audit is not an effective means of protecting your organization from fraud.
  • Banks do not guarantee signature verification. Although your bank may notice an unauthorized signature or missing signature(s) on a check, the volume of bank activity makes signature verification an unreliable method for protecting against fraud.

The following recommendations can help organizations minimize exposure:

Checking Account Controls

  • Do not delegate responsibility for check signing. CEOs and Executive Directors are ultimately responsible for the finances of an organization and should retain check signing authority.
  • Do not use signature stamps for checks.
  • Have all checks printed from QuickBooks (or your accounting system). Computer generated checks provide a level of assurance that the payee on the check matches that recorded in the system and reduces the risk of alteration.
  • Minimize handwritten checks. Although the bank reconciliation process verifies check amounts and numbers, it is not often possible to verify the payee.
  • Request that the bank return cancelled checks (or electronic images) with your bank statements and verify that the payee on a cleared check matches the payee in the accounting system.
  • Endorse checks for Deposit. Immediately upon receipt, use a stamp or endorse all checks received with “For Deposit Only” along with the company’s bank account number.
  • Have bank statements mailed to a separate address.
  • Open and review bank statements when received – before providing statements to accountant for reconciliation.
  • Limit access to bank account PIN numbers and avoid the use of debit cards. Providing employees with codes or software that enables them to transfer money essentially provides them with check signing authority.
  • Do not allow anyone to misrepresent themselves as you by giving them your password, or allowing them to sign your name. Allowing an employee to sign your name, even on credit card purchases, could compromise your legal recourse if fraud or embezzlement occurs.
  • Provide only original documents for posting and payment processing. Using original documents can prevent fraudulent alteration of document copies.
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Preparing for an Audit

Definition: An audit is an examination of an organization’s financial statements by an independent certified public accountant (CPA).

Who’s Required To Have An Audit: Nonprofits audit requirements vary by state. For example, Nonprofits with charitable contributions greater than $300,000 are required to submit audited financial statements to the Pennsylvania Bureau of Charitable Organizations within 135 days after the end of their fiscal year.

Preparation: To be well prepared for an audit, you should:

  1. Review the auditor’s prior year recommendations to ensure any significant weaknesses have been addressed. Also review the auditor’s prior year adjusting entries to see if any corresponding adjusting entries need to be made for the current year.
  2. Ask your auditors for a list of reports and documents they’ll need for the audit, which will probably require you to assemble:

    • Trial Balance and/or General Ledger Bank confirmation requests
    • Bank statements and reconciliations
    • Reconciliation of activity in balance sheet (and sometimes income statement) accounts
    • Board meeting minutes
    • Updates to internal control procedures
    • Grant acceptance letters
    • New contracts and leases
    • Bills for fixed asset additions
    • Lists of vendor bills and customer invoices (including outstanding A/P and A/R) to enable the auditor to select items for review or confirmation
    • Reports of transactions subsequent to year end up until the audit report date
    • Bank statements and reconciliations subsequent to year end up until the audit report date
    • Draft financial statements, footnote disclosures, and/or Statement of Functional Expenses
  3. Be prepared to discuss:

    • Changes in governance, management, ownership, and personnel
    • Changes in operations and technology
      Economic/industry developments and their impact on your operations
    • Estimates used in the financial statements, such as allowance for uncollectible accounts
    • Significant variances versus budget and prior year Non-compliance with credit agreement covenants

Regulatory or legal actions Independence: To maintain independence, your auditor is not allowed to prepare these documents. If your organization is unable to prepare the documents internally, then it may be prudent to hire outside an accountant (like Bookminders) to assist in the audit preparation.

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Inventory Tracking Can Be Simple

Managers often assume that they should maintain a “perpetual inventory system” to track inventory. That is not always necessary.

Certain small businesses do need detailed inventory tracking:

  1. Manufacturers need detailed cost accounting by product, shop floor production tracking, and accurate inventory counts.
  2. Retailers and Distributors need accurate inventory counts and good forecasting systems for precise ordering.

But, for most small businesses, the costs of maintaining a detailed inventory tracking system outweigh the benefits. This is especially true if:

  1. There are few items in inventory that can easily be reviewed periodically.
  2. The value of the inventory is low which does not justify the expense.

Maintaining a detailed inventory tracking system is labor intensive. It usually requires a full-time staff to track purchasing, receiving, production, sales and shipping.

To be useful, the system should be maintained on a real-time basis with up-to-the-minute information. If the inventory system is not up-to-date, then ordering is skewed and shortages and overstocks occur.

For companies whose inventory requirements are simple Bookminders suggests one of two simple methods to track inventory:

  1. Track all purchases as cost of goods sold and make a periodic entry to adjust to the actual inventory.
  2. Track all purchases as inventory and make a periodic entry to adjust to the actual inventory.

Inventory can be managed by physical controls, such as inventory tags and management oversight. Periodic physical inventory counts (monthly, quarterly, or annually) are always necessary.

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Do you need a budget?

Does your organization really need to prepare a budget? Yes, it does. Although it seems like a lot of work, a budget is an indispensable tool for converting your plans into a successful reality.

What is a budget? A budget is a forecast of expected income and expenses. It is organized in the same format as a financial statement and most commonly covers a 12-month period.

Why create a budget?

  1. Monitor performance—A budget is a yardstick to measure how your organization is performing.
  2. Cash management—A budget helps you determine how much cash you will have, how you will use it, and whether you have enough cash to achieve your financial goals.
  3. Prevent problems—A budget allows you to forsee problems and alter your plans to prevent those problems. Problems are far less costly to fix on paper than with actual dollars.
  4. Revenue forecasting—A budget forces you to think through how you will bring in revenue and what it will cost to generate that revenue.
  5. Expense management—A budget requires you to itemize your expenses and understand your real cost of doing business, which helps you make sound choices on expenditures.
  6. Securing financing—A budget (and a business plan) will be needed for banks and other lenders to give you a loan.
  7. Capital spending—A budget will help you understand whether or not you can afford to invest in new equipment or other assets.

How do I create a budget?

  1. Revisit previous budgets—If you have created a budget in the past, use it as a model and adjust the numbers as needed. If your organization is a new venture and has no past financial records, rely on your own experience and knowledge of the industry to estimate revenues and expenses.
  2. Review past history—You can export your Profit and Loss statements from QuickBooks to Excel to use as a starting point for the budget.
  3. Use a spreadsheet—A spreadsheet (like Excel) is the easiest way to prepare a budget and it can be imported into QuickBooks when it’s finished.
  4. Budget monthly—You can make a budget using any time intervals (weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual), but it’s usual to create a monthly budget so you can compare the actual results to the budget each month.
  5. Revenues—Revenues are the cornerstone of a budget. It’s crucial to estimate revenues as accurately as possible, based on past history.
  6. Fixed Costs—Some costs, such as rent and loan payments, are fixed (they don’t fluctuate regardless of revenue). Find your fixed costs from the pertinent loan, lease or other documents.
  7. Variable Costs—Some costs, like utilities and supplies, are variable (they fluctuate with the level of activity). Estimate the variable costs by adjusting past expenses for the forecasted changes in activity.
  8. Semi-variable costs—Costs such as salaries, wages and telephone expenses, have both variable and fixed components. For budgeting purposes, you may need to break semi-variable costs into two components. The fixed element represents the minimum cost of supplying your good or service. The variable element is that portion of the cost influenced by changes in activity.
  9. Personnel costs—Be sure to match the level of staff to the anticipated changes in revenues.
  10. The master budget—For organizations with several departments or work functions, the annual budget may be a master budget comprised of several separate but interconnected budgets.

Tips & Hints

  1. Start Early—The budget should be approved at least 1-2 months prior to the start of the new fiscal year. For this to happen, planning will need to start 3-6 months before the new fiscal year.
  2. Keep it simple—There is no need to list your expenses in great detail—accounting for supplies and utilities should be sufficient, without breaking it down into paper clips and light bulbs.
  3. Set Goals—Everything about the budget should point towards the strategic plan the organization has adopted.
  4. Be conservative—To be safe when budgeting, many organizations overestimate expenses and underestimate revenue, which builds in a margin for error.
  5.  Budget a cash reserve—Consider setting aside a cash reserve. Even though your budget will be tight, you will be glad you did this if there is a sudden economic downturn or a big unexpected expense.
  6. Show restraint but not rigidity—Your budget should help restrain you from unnecessary spending. But, if an opportunity arises, don’t ignore it because it isn’t in your budget. There are times to “bust” your budget to take advantage of valuable opportunities.
  7. Review your results every month—Too many organizations make up a budget every year and then stick it in a drawer and forget about it. Budgets only help your organization if you use them. Look over your actual results versus budget every month.
  8. Question expenses—Once you have all of your expenses detailed in your budget, reevaluate each one and look for ways to save.
  9. Watch your cash flow—Cash flow problems kill many small organizations. Watch your cash flow monthly to be sure you maintain sufficient cash.
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Payroll Services

You might be tempted to try to save money by processing your payroll in-house with software like QuickBooks Online Payroll. But, Bookminders always recommends that our clients outsource their payroll to a payroll service because there are significant risks to processing your own payroll. If you do your own payroll, you’ll be responsible for:

  1. Fixing your own problems.
  2. Fees and penalties if you file late or make mistakes.
  3. Calculating local taxes.
  4. Printing your reports.
  5. Purchasing regular updates of the tax tables.

The bottom line is that using a payroll service is usually less expensive in the long run for a small organization. A payroll service:

  1. 1. Provides telephone access to a local payroll representative who can fix problems.
  2. Guarantees on-time filing of payroll tax returns, which indemnifies you from late fees and penalties.
  3. Provides complete reports in a form that can be easily entered into your bookkeeping system.
  4. Makes sure you are in compliance with changing tax rules and government regulations.
  5. Provides other convenient services like direct deposit, 1099 preparation, pay-as-you-go worker’s compensation insurance, HR services, benefits administration and time tracking systems.

Even if you have only one or two employees, you should probably use a payroll service. Ask yourself, “is it worth my time to learn all the things I need to know about payroll taxes just to run a 2 person payroll?”

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Financial Record Security

You might think that your small organization is not a target for malicious hackers. But, a survey by the Small Business Technology Institute reported that more than half of all small businesses in the U.S. experienced a security breach in the past year. Here are the steps you should take to provide basic security for your financial records.

  1. Protect Your Systems—Equip all PCs and servers with a) an un-interruptible power supply to prevent corruption of data, b) virus detection software, adware/spyware detection and removal tools, and c) a firewall on all computers that connect to the Internet.
  2. Create Backups—Make regular backup copies of all your important data. Store a copy away from your office.
  3. Use Effective Passwords—Encourage non-obvious passwords and change them every three months. Use password protection for folders and files containing accounting information.
  4. Keep Software Up To Date—Without updates, your anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall software will not protect you against new cyber threats.
  5. Lock Your Records—Lock file cabinets and access to computers that contain financial information. Block all unauthorized access to the QuickBooks data file.
  6. Be Prepared For Emergencies—Create a contingency plan for your organization so you can recover if you experience an emergency. Test your plan annually.
  7. Use A Payroll Service—Use a payroll service and keep employee names and detailed payroll information separate from the accounting system.
  8. Audit Trail—Make sure that your accounting software’s audit trail is turned on, allowing unauthorized changes in data to be investigated.
  9. Computer Checks—Generate bill payment checks directly from the accounting system to reduce the risk of check alteration and duplicate bill payment.
  10.  Educate Your Staff About Security—Develop a “culture of security” in your employees and in your business. You might think that your small organization is not a target for malicious hackers.
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