Full transcription below

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Hey, business-minded mama. I’m so grateful that you are here and that you are ready to grow enough, authentic community and scale your impact. Hi, I’m Stephanie. Parenza the voice behind business-minded mama podcast, local and small business advocate and entrepreneur. I’ve created this community because I want to help business-minded mamas. Like you build your dream business by finding your authentic community and gaining control and clarity on the financial aspects of your business by managing your own books. Now let’s tap into your own potential.

Speaker 2 (00:43):

Hey, so full disclosure. I have kids in the background. I am setting at my desk, but they are running a muck downstairs. And can’t say they’re really listening to my advice. Advice of finding a quiet activity and giving me at least 10 minutes of silence. So I actually can hear them right now. So you will probably also hear them in the background. And I do apologize, but this is mom life right now until God-willing school starts. So today’s topic I wanted to talk about, uh, bookkeepers verse accountants. I think it would be beneficial for you to have a clear understanding of the differences between the two. And I’m hoping that this will help you to understand why I truly think that as an entrepreneur, you can take control of your books. You could be your bookkeeper as an entrepreneur because of some of these reasons.

Speaker 2 (01:53):

And then I, I do think it is crucial that you do hire an accountant to do some of these other things that we’ll go through. So I want to go through the tasks for each of these and hopes that you can have a better understanding of why I am doing what I’m doing by helping you get the tools and giving you some of the tips, uh, to do your own bookkeeping. So let’s get started bookkeepers. So bookkeepers, um, are very involved in the day to day transactions of the business. They’re going to be doing all the tracking of those financial transactions that are going through your bank account and your credit card accounts. Anything that you are running through your business, um, invoicing and receipts and paying bills and potentially payroll, any sort of a financial transaction that is happening. They’re going to be seeing that.

Speaker 2 (03:01):

And hopefully they’re, uh, if it’s not you, they’re looking at these things daily or weekly, if it is you once again, depending on the capacity and the availability that you have, are you looking at this daily, weekly, monthly? I definitely, um, I think I’ve told you before, for sure. Monthly, not don’t stretch it out any further. I do recommend at least weekly because then it’s fresh in your mind and you know exactly what’s going on. So if you are wanting to hire a bookkeeper or if you have a bookkeeper, hopefully you two are working together. You need to be working together often, so that you’re keeping up to those day to day transactions. So why I think it’s okay that you don’t have a bookkeeper as an entrepreneur. Why, why you can be the bookkeeper is because you should know what’s happening from day to day, right?

Speaker 2 (04:03):

You know what you’re spending money on, you know, where the money is coming from in your business. Correct. So until you have a bookkeeper that is really deeply involved in your business and can just understand, uh, the ins and outs of these transactions, you’re essentially already going to be doing that work. If that makes sense, you’re going to be working so closely together telling them what it is in order for them to input it. So, yes, at some point as your business grows, and maybe you have staff and you have so many other obligations, maybe then it makes sense for you to have a bookkeeper that just knows the ins and outs of your business. But as an entrepreneur, you probably don’t have enough transactions going through to justify that. Honestly, I think you can do this yourself. You are already involved because it is your business.

Speaker 2 (04:54):

You should already know the transactions that are flowing through. So I need to just teach you how to input those transactions. And so that’s what we’re going to work on here to this podcast. So bookkeeper very involved from in the day to day transactions should know all those ins and outs. It’s not required that they have an accounting degree or even an accounting background, to be real honest. Uh, there are people out there who are comfortable with numbers and who can teach them selves, how to do the books. And I know plenty of bookkeepers that just stumbled into this profession. So it’s not required that there’s any sort of degree or certification. There are certifications out there that can be done as a bookkeeper to just, um, give you better, you know, a creditation, but not a requirement. Accountants, accountants, um, have a degree in accounting or some or finance or something similar to that.

Speaker 2 (05:55):

They could also have the certification of CPA. Um, doesn’t mean that they have to, they are there to really analyze, um, the bigger picture things, the financial statements analyze, uh, you know, the annual, uh, financial statements, really, like I mentioned, the big picture. They may be preparing taxes for you, giving you tax advice, looking at your cashflow, really helping you in the big picture decision making. You will most likely only meet with your accountant annually or quarterly or really as needed. So these might be special projects or special reporting that you want to look at, or maybe there is something you want to do in your business. And so you just need their advice. Is, does that make sense, um, financially for your business? So bookkeeper day to day transactions diving deep into every single transaction and understanding that accountant is big picture looking at monthly financials, quarterly financials, or even just annual preparing your taxes.

Speaker 2 (07:05):

These are the two big differences. Now there is no reason why your accountant can’t be your bookkeeper and do both, both. I would not assume, well, actually you could, your bookkeeper could be doing your accounting. They could intermingle, but the accountant most likely has a degree and has the experience to really, um, give you that big picture and help you with those big financial decisions in your business, as well as preparing taxes or giving you that tax advice. I hope that this gives you a better understanding, a feature like I mentioned earlier, I am not here to help you be your own accountant. I do believe that you should outsource your tax says unless you have the skillset to do them yourself, outsource your taxes. I have an accountant or CPA that you can call. And because there are going to be times where you need their advice, especially when it comes to looking at the big picture and moving forward and growing a bookkeeping, we, and this podcast are going to work together to give you the knowledge and the tips and the tools to really take hold of this yourself so that you really, I really have a good understanding of what’s coming in and out.

Speaker 2 (08:29):

And someday, if it makes sense, you can outsource that 100%. But even if you decide to do that, I think it’s so important that you still take the time to really know all of the things that are flowing through your business so that you can make decisions as you progress in your business, as you want to grow, as you want to scale. And then you’re working side by side with your accountant and they can just give you a even better picture of what some of these decisions may look like, um, in your financial. So anyways, I hope this is helpful for you and I will be back here again later this week. Thanks.

Speaker 1 (09:08):

Did you like what you heard on today’s podcast or do you know a business minded mama that could benefit from hearing this, take a screenshot and share best with your community? And don’t forget to give me a review, want to chat more? Find me on Facebook and the business minded mama Facebook page or on Instagram at misses and SIS or through my website, www dot business-minded moma.com.