Modern bookkeeping with personal support.
The Let’s Do the Books Way
Bookkeeping used to mean PDF bank statements with notes scribbled on them, followed by tedious scanning and emailing. Yikes. This is modern bookkeeping, tailored for online businesses.
Here’s how it works.
First, a short Zoom call with a member of our team.
We’ll spend 30-45 minutes setting you up in our service. All you’ll need is a list of the accounts you use in your business.
And don’t worry, we’re happy to work with your business finances exactly as they are today. Whatever you’ve done until now is just fine with us (we promise).
Next, we’ll bring your business financials up to date.
Whether today is January 20 or September 23, we’ll take your bookkeeping all the way back to January 1 of the current year. That way you won’t have any holes in your reports. Most bookkeepers would charge big additional fees for “catch-up” bookkeeping, but not us. Your $300 setup fee includes up to 12 months of historical bookkeeping.
We think it’s the best way to kick off a healthy, long-term bookkeeping relationship.
Then, we move into
maintenance and support mode.
Whenever there are new transactions in your business bank accounts, credit cards, or payment processors (like PayPal or Stripe), we’ll import those transactions and categorize them in our favorite bookkeeping software. We’ll also keep your key financial reports (the ones your tax pro will require) current, accurate, and available to you anytime.
We’ll also help you think through your business spending.
The most common question our clients ask us is “how much should I spend, on what, and when?” Each month we host a call where clients can come and discuss investments they’re considering in their business.
Whether you’re active or anonymous on these monthly Zoom calls, you’ll gain clarity and confidence as you hear an experienced cash flow coach guide business owners like you through their spending decisions. (By the way, these calls are recorded and posted to a private podcast feed for those who prefer not to attend live.)
Our founder, Mark, has been helping coaches manage their cash since 2014. He’s distilled the most important parts of his system into a 30-minute video series (yep…30 minutes covers it), and you’ll get access to those videos when you sign up for the service.
Personal support from a
small, caring team.
Once each month you’ll get an email from us asking you to review that month’s transactions and confirm that we’ve categorized them correctly (don’t worry–we’ll give clear instructions on how to do that). This quick monthly communication will take you 2-5 minutes and give you the peace of mind that comes with knowing your bookkeeping is accurate and current.
You’re also welcome to email us anytime during the month with questions about your bookkeeping.
And when tax time rolls around we’re happy to answer your tax professional’s questions about your reports. It’s all about making things smooth and easy for you.
Flexible Pricing Calculator
- One on one setup call.
- Guided cash flow planning.
- Accurate, on-demand reports.
Flexible pricing for your dynamic business
We know there’s no such thing as a “normal” month for self-employed folks like you and us. Some months the sales are rolling in, other months are quieter. That’s why we decided to make our pricing flexible.
When you join the service, you’ll pay a $300 setup that covers all the support we’ll give you during the onboarding process as well as up to 12 months of “catch-up” bookkeeping. After paying the initial fee, you’ll move on to our one-of-a-kind sliding scale fee model.
Our fee is 3% of your collected revenue for the previous calendar month, with a minimum of $30 and a maximum of $200.
Try out the Flexible Pricing Calculator to see what your bookkeeping fee would be in any given month, and check out our three-month example below.
Three months of flexible pricing
May
One client pays you $3,000.
Your fee would be $3,000 * 3% = $90.
June
No sales this month (maybe you’re preparing for next month’s launch).
Your fee would be the service minimum of $30.
July
Your marketing efforts pay off and your business earns $10,000.
Your fee would be the service maximum of $200.
Why do we do this?
We know what it’s like to get a new business off the ground. We also know that very successful businesses have “off” months.
We want our pricing to be friendly to entrepreneurs at all levels.
How can we do this?
Experience and systems. With over seven years of experience supporting coaches and freelancers, we know exactly how to deliver a great service without being a financial burden.
Frequently Asked Questions
Unfortunately, no. There are three reasons: 1) We’re not set up to work with multiple currencies. 2) Non-US banks typically don’t have the bookkeeping features we need. 3) We’re not familiar with reporting requirements in other countries.
Not yet. We haven’t adapted our bookkeeping processes to handle inventory accounting and physical products sales. (But it is something we’ve talked about. If you’re an online shop owner who wishes we could do your bookkeeping, let us know!)
You’ll pay $1 today so we have your information in our billing system. Once we review your intake form and confirm you’re a fit for the service, you’ll pay a one-time $300 fee that covers all the support we give during the onboarding process as well as up to 12 months of “catch-up” bookkeeping.
Your first ongoing charge will be on the 10th of the month after you join the service. We’ll calculate your previous month’s revenue and then charge the card on file 3% of that amount. Play with the Flexible Pricing Calculator (above) to make this crystal clear.
Yes, although it won’t be Quickbooks or Xero, both of which are overkill (and overpriced) for the typical coach or freelancer. We use a fantastic tool called You Need A Budget to manage our clients’ finances. It’s inexpensive (about $100 per year) and just right for your business (and ours).
Nope. We’ll take care of the setup during your initial Zoom call with our team, and then we’ll maintain everything for you as part of our service. If you’d like to use You Need A Budget to plan your spending in your business, we’ll show you how in our live monthly cash flow sessions (held via Zoom — we’ll send you a schedule).
No. We’re happy to meet you right where you are! Once you’re all settled into our service, we’ll ask you to work toward a clean separation of your business and personal finances. That means business transactions in business bank accounts, personal transactions in personal accounts. We can explain more during your initial Zoom call with a member of the team.
We don’t comment on the “deductibility” of any expense. We defer to your tax professional as the final authority on whether an expense “counts.” Our job is to help you track everything so you and your tax pro can make easy adjustments based on your specific tax strategy.
Our rule of thumb is: use a business bank account (or credit card) for any purchase you’re making with the intent to grow and support your business.
If your tax pro ends up saying certain expenses don’t “count,” we’ll adjust your business financials accordingly. No big deal.
We’ve categorized hundreds of thousands of transactions for coaches and freelancers, so we find it pretty easy to categorize your expenses and income. But we also confirm our work with you each month in one short email exchange. That way you (and we) know everything is 100% perfect.
In the early part of January we’ll complete your bookkeeping for the year, package up your reports and send them to you. You’ll forward them on to your tax professional. If they have any questions, you can connect them with us. Smooth.
You will need to move to You Need A Budget, but we’re happy to do that for you. During your onboarding call a member of the team will let you know what we need in order to make that migration simple.
We’ll package up your data in a simple spreadsheet, which will make it easy for your new bookkeeper to import it into Quickbooks, Xero, and many other accounting tools.
(Of course we hope you’ll stay. Our longest-running client started working with us over seven years ago. We’re proud of that, and we hope to work for you for years to come.)
Yes. Although most accounts are used to Quickbooks, the reports we provide will do the job. (At least they have for the last 7+ years.) If your accountant wants to make small adjustments to how we present the information, we’re happy to do it. This has rarely been necessary.
Check out this happy message we got from one of our clients sent us:
“Just met with my CPA to go over some tax things. He said he had no critique at all with how my financials were sent to him for taxes this year. He also said $200 is a steal for this quality of work.” – Jennie L
You can email us anytime at team@letsdothebooks.com. We also hope you’ll join the live monthly discussions (held on Zoom) where clients talk about investments they want to make in their business, as well as their business models, business plans, etc.
Click here to go to the registration page, enter a few details, and then schedule your welcome call with a member of our team. We’ll send you some orientation emails so you know what to expect from us. It’s that simple.
No, you don’t have to stop using your preferred tools for invoicing or processing your client payments.
If you use a tool we’ve never dealt with (which is unlikely), we’ll learn how to get the data we need from it so you can carry on as usual.
Ready to get started?
The button below will take you to our registration form. You’ll make a $1 deposit today, and then hear from a member of our team with your next steps. We’re excited to be your bookkeepers!