Accountant.
It’s not that I’m bad with numbers, or that I’m not disciplined. I’ve just never been indoctrinated into the routines or structure of proper bookkeeping.
I have a trusted financial planner for my investments. I have a CPA to watch my taxes and monitor my Nevada-based business responsibilities. All this means I’m appropriately paying other professionals to do the things for which I have no aptitude. Just like I might hire an editor to handle de-breathing an audiobook file I narrated.
But it’s not that easy. My accountant charges me a pretty penny to “clean up” my mess every year, just so he can file my taxes. You see, I don’t use my online accounting software (XERO) until I absolutely HAVE to. Like…March of any given year.
Well, that’s not entirely true. I do use it to send out invoices. And once in a while, I get back in there to confirm I’ve been paid for the outstanding invoices. But seriously, that’s about it.
C’mon Dave! Would it be that hard to put a few more hours/year into keeping the books clean?!
My chart-of-accounts makes perfect sense to me, but my CPA just laughs and shakes his head at me. Since he uses QuickBooks, and I use XERO, he has to re-familiarize himself with XERO every year, THEN clean up my mess, THEN present me a fat bookkeeping bill. Ugh!
See? My inactivity and unwillingness to do more regular bookkeeping is really costing me hard dollars.
I’ve done some research, and asked some smart people, and thought real hard about switching to QuickBooks Online (QBO). They’re running a half-price sale for the next six months as part of CyberMonday. But after that, it reverts to the same price I’m paying for XERO ($30/mo).
Worth switching? Probably not. Worth being a better bookkeeper? The jury is still out.
Personally, I think my time is still better spend auditioning for that next big job, rather than doing anything more than just paying rudimentary attention to my books. As long as I’m sure I’m being paid for all the VO work I’ve done, I think that’s the minimal level of bookkeeping I can tolerate.
You? What’s your bookkeeping routine? What software are you using?
CourVO
