In ONE WEEK, QuickBooks® Made Easy™ for Nonprofits presents the “Advanced Nonprofit QBO Mini-Seriesa Go-Go“!
December 10-12, 2024
Last year was a hit, so we’re doing it again! Why, you ask? Top nonprofit trainers and industry experts cover SIX of the most challenging issues facing nonprofits – and the name alone should tell you it is going to be a good time, but you can catch a glimpse HERE:
Have you ever wondered how a nonprofit QB file should really be set up? Session 1 is for you.
Do you have a messy, disorganized QB file that no longer does what you need it to, but you are overwhelmed with the idea of renovating it? I am absolutely thrilled to be a presenter for Session 2, which teaches you how to “flip the financial house” of QB and go from a bad design to a good one (taught in Session 1) and not have to sacrifice your historical data!
Revenue is pretty important, but it is so easy to get it wrong when tracking things like investment activity or restricted grants. FOUR sessions are available to help navigate those.
Take one or take them all, but it will be the best time you ever had in an accounting webinar….I promise🤝
It feels like all we have done since late 2022 is QB Migrations:
• Desktop to online • Online (retail or wholesale) to online (discounted) • Online to desktop
While I have been performing migrations and conversions since 2010 and believe I am among the first (if not the first) QB ProAdvisor to offer this as a standalone service, it was not commercially available by me until 2018 and then offered on a nationwide scale until 2022.
As of June 2024: My dedicated team and I have completed 3500+ successful migrations, and this means that for every 1 migration = we have helped save 1 nonprofit anywhere from $600 – $3000 per year (depending on subscription level) on just their software subscription alone!
It still blows my mind to see that in writing. I ran those analytics 3 times to be sure.
A great big THANK YOU to our strategic partners QuickBooks® Made Easy™ for Nonprofits and TechSoup for making it all possible, and of course to Intuit for offering a discounted subscription to nonprofits in the first place. We appreciate all you do!
BY THE WAY:
If your nonprofit organization still needs to take advantage of these savings, please consider the following options:
Thank you to TechSoup for TODAY’S f-r-e-e (that spells FREE!) webinar for anyone who:
• Ever thought about getting into #accounting • Would like to strengthen their #nonprofitaccounting skills • Has lost out on grant funding and wants to avoid making that mistake again!
📢 You may or may not hear much of #MyAccountantVoice other than answering questions in Q&A and chatting in Chat, but it is still the most fun you’ll ever have during an accounting webinar….I promise🤝
Learn from the best, and stop doing things the wrong, wrong, wrong way!
I say Part 2 because I am finally getting around to another live post in the series of things that can be disguised as other things – but you can catch up HERE: Disguised As ___, Part 1
This is mainly for my #smallbusiness and #soleproprietor friends and clients:
➡️ RECAP: all cashapp platforms have to report payments to the IRS beginning in 2022, and 1099s WILL get issued.
THIS is why I’ve been telling you to use these payment platforms ONLY for gifting, reimbursements, and buying goods – NOT for paying individuals for services rendered – AND to help me make sure we keep good records!
Otherwise, both your Accountant and Tax Preparer will hate you, you might miss out on deductions, and the IRS finds out and considers it taxable contract labor anyway, so it’s a lose/lose/lose trying to pay people who did work for you with cash apps.
I know, I know. It’s easier.
But I promise it’s more work later on everybody, especially you.
I won’t get started on the whole ‘cashless society’ business right now – but the only way cash is really cash anymore is if it is REALLY cash.
Just like the only way to keep a secret is to REALLY keep a secret (but I won’t start THAT here, either).
✅ Don’t wait until tax time when it’s too late, and make me use #MyAccountantVoice – talk to me now about what to do instead!
Do you remember my bright-eyed idealism in the Hitting Capacity post, when I talked about “just raising my capacity and keep right on doing all the things”?
Well, about that…..
I was just precious, wasn’t I?
Things have changed.
I have finally hit capacity and am no longer accepting new tax clients.
I know what you’re thinking.
I hate it, too.
The sad reality is that yes, I do a lot, but financial and tax professionals everywhere are overworked and under a lot of pressure and it is just not going to get easier any time soon. There are several reasons for this, but I would rather fast forward to the other takeaway of this post (aside from the fact that I am only serving existing clients at this time, but I hope to serve your referrals again in the future!) and that is this:
If you have an accountant, CFO, CPA, financial advisor, financial analyst, or tax planner/preparer/strategist in your life right now – please be as kind and as patient as you can! You might even get to keep them if you are organized, timely, and cooperative, too.
We barely have time to just do our jobs and have NO energy or patience left to deal with any nonsense, troublemakers, or clients who do not value us OR our time and expertise.
It has been a never-ending tax season since the 2020sh!tsh0w 2019 tax season, remember?
Seriously. We’re already exhausted. And it is only January.
If you can’t be those things, then at least don’t be an a-hole.
Everything you say yes to means you have to say no to something else, and vice versa.
It really IS ok to establish healthy boundaries, set realistic expectations, and politely decline opportunities for relationships that seem destined to fail. That is the only way to have availability and resources for good ones! This also applies to client partnerships.
Clients deserve the best service provider for their needs, even when it’s (gasp!!) not us (at least at that time). If I know right away that we are not a good fit, or that I won’t be able to deliver the service and attention they need and deserve, I have no problem with saying so and genuinely wishing them all the best in their search for the next service provider.
I will also have those straightforward discussions to try to salvage a challenging relationship before we have no choice but to break up. Sometimes I am the problem. Sometimes not. The only way to find out is to have that difficult conversation! No one likes them, but they are necessary and are healthy, if done right. They key is to not be so afraid of them that you procrastinate and create some real damage.
My reputation for being a tough and demanding taskmaster comes honestly enough, I admit – and I am not the only one!
It is becoming more common for professionals to understand and better provide more value for the clients who are a good match when they are more strategic about their partnerships. Clients are generally more satisfied, too, because then their pro really is good at what they are really good at!
Someone else was waaaaay ahead of all of us, though……
We DO kind of have to give at least a little damn, she clearly does not
QUESTION: What are some of the criteria you use to evaluate client or service provider relationships? What is something that is not a dealbreaker, but troublesome enough to cause concern or frustration and trigger a discussion?
Imagine you need heart surgery. Maybe not NOW, but soon. You know the longer you wait – the more complicated, expensive, and stressful it will be – so you schedule your procedure.
The day you are on the operating table, your trusted IT Tech walks in with a brand new shiny scalpel in hand…..
This is the smartest person you know. They have the best scalpel, they read the instruction manual and watched videos on how to use it, too. It is sharp enough to cut without a lot of manual muscle behind it, almost all by itself!
Do you let them perform your surgery that day?
Do you let your heart surgeon use that scalpel…..to rebuild your computer’s hard drive?
The answer to both of those should be NO – and financial operations should be considered the same way!
You wouldn’t cut costs on your heart surgeon, or try to do it yourself. Your organization is your livelihood, and your family’s future – why wouldn’t you hire a trusted professional?
Think about all of the times you wanted to be THAT GUY
Then come back to me
You’re welcome.
Now, I have to pull out #MyAccountantVoice to rant about something that is guaranteed to make me eye roll, occasionally bang my head against my desk, and even think about causing bodily injury to people (when I’m hangryOR after the 5th repeat of this same kind of conversation in the same day):
When I am hired for my professional expertise, by someone who admits they have no idea what they’re doing and have already made a hideous mess…..and then proceeds to challenge/debate/straight up argue every single answer I have.
They have hired me for this, it’s not like I am giving unsolicited advice.
Everything they already tried is not working AT ALL (and usually made things even worse).
Sometimes, the first few sentences in our exchange include “Now, I’m not an Accountant”…..and THIS is the one that causes questions…..
Then WHY are you pretending to be one? Why did you even apply for, much less accept that job? Why are you trying to convince me that you don’t need to change anything when you literally just told me you need help and contacted ME for the same answers you’re debating now?
Would you appreciate me pretending to be your surgeon because I can take out a splinter, or your hairstylist because I can use scissors?
Would you appreciate me coming to YOUR office or salon or shop and telling YOU how to do YOUR job?
If you do any of that, stop it right now. Just STOP IT.
Your friend’s mom’s coworker’s niece who thinks “they know QuickBooks®” (because they figured out how to record a deposit or write a check) is not an Accountant. We have 4-year degrees for that, plus countless hours of continuing education and refresher training on GAAP and both state and federal tax laws (that change constantly) AND years of practical professional experience…………
So please STOP IT with THAT, too.
But please DO NOT do it yourself
Basically, I am saying THIS to whoever needs to hear it today:
Please consider your Accountant, Financial Strategist, ProAdvisor, or Tax Analyst the same way you would your surgeon, stylist, or mechanic (to name a few). Hire a knowledgeable, experienced professional you can trust for tasks that really need one, and THEN FOLLOW THEIR ADVICE. I promise you, it usually costs more to fix or clean up the mess made by a pretender than it does for the right person to do it right in the first place, whatever it is.
And then don’t be that person anymore.
Rant officially over.
Question for other professional service providers – how do you handle it gracefully when this happens to you?
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