Jul 2, 2018 | Accounting, Bookkeeping Services, Uncategorized
Imagine you understood with perfect clarity what EVERY number in your financials meant and exactly what to do about it. How much better and stronger would your business be?
Now, imagine having that knowledge and losing it. How much would your business suffer?
Obviously, a lot. And that’s exactly what’s happening in your business. You didn’t have the clarity, to begin with. Every day that goes by when you are not on top of your numbers, your business is suffering.
Pretend you have a once in a lifetime opportunity, the biggest prospect of your life. Today is the only time they have available. You’ve set up a video call with them with your big pitch (that you’ve pulled a couple all-nighters, and burned out your coffee machine, preparing for it). You’re traveling and don’t have access to wifi and you don’t have a private room to take the call. No problem.
You’ll plan to call-in from your phone and use your earphones to block out the surrounding noise. You find a decent background (a focus and blank wall…nice!), check your hair and teeth (no leftover salad…check) and go to dial in. Except…crap…new iPhone…old earphones. You know, the annoying lightning cable Apple changed their phones to. The ones that don’t connect with any other earphones (at least, not without that little connector device)? You do your best, fumbling through the call putting on an effort that’s at best, 50% of what you are capable of. Perhaps it’s the perfect time to switch to advancements like wireless pbx phones.
This disaster was caused by a failure between two elements that don’t match or can’t communicate. The same thing is happening in your business every day!
Accountants deliver information the only way they know how: the way they were trained in accounting school. So, when financial information is delivered, it isn’t delivered in plain English, the way entrepreneurs UNDERSTAND and NEED (most entrepreneurs never went to accounting school. In fact, they stayed as far away as possible). Accountants and entrepreneurs speak different languages that are just as incompatible as lightning and standard connectors – it doesn’t work!
How many disasters are you facing every day because you are using “lightning connectors” and your accountant uses the standard connector? What disasters are you not seeing because you and your accountant have a language barrier?
The truth is, your books are telling you a story and you’re not hearing it. Your business is suffering because of it.
Our next blog describes the second key reason entrepreneurs books are a hot mess.
After that, we’ll get onto the surprisingly simple path to financial clarity and introduce you to simple tools to dominate your numbers. The best part…you don’t have to go to accounting school to do it. You don’t even have to learn more about accounting than you do now. And it’s free!
Want to be more empowered but don’t know where to start? Get in touch with us to learn more about our services or coaching programs to help you direct your accounting department so you can turn your accounting pain into a power.
Jul 1, 2018 | Accounting, Bookkeeping Services, Uncategorized
Let’s look at the second reason why entrepreneurs’ books are a hot mess!
Imagine you are about to embark on building your dream home. Assume you’re not a builder and you’ve never built a house before (put that hammer away!). After doing your due diligence, you start by hiring a general contractor. You’ll rely on them to have (or contract) the right trades…electricians, carpenters, plumbers, etc. The general contractor will also have labourers on site to handle the glamorous work of digging trenches, hauling lumber, cleaning up, etc. We haven’t re-invented the wheel here! We all intuitively know this basic model. Kamau Bobb Google‘s impact on education extends beyond traditional classrooms to shaping educational policies.
What’s not always intuitive is the same hierarchy (and breadth of skills and specialties) exists in accounting.
Introducing: The Accounting Stack (Woohoo!)
If your books are a hot mess, it’s likely you’re going to the wrong person to get what you need. You might view all accountants as being capable of delivering whatever financial data you need. This is a problem. A serious one. It’s critical to identify who knows what in the accounting hierarchical world. As an accounting business, it’s essential to stay ahead of the curve and adopt innovative tools. Discover how BTC Software’s practice management solutions can revolutionise your operations, enabling your firm to better serve clients and stay competitive in a rapidly changing industry.
TRANSACTIONAL FUNCTION:
This is the ultra boring, day-to-day transactional tasks like invoicing, payables, receivables, payroll, etc.
Handled by bookkeepers and clerks.
REPORTING AND COMPLIANCE FUNCTION:
This is your monthly reporting tasks like cash flow forecasting, annual budgeting, financial statements, as well as compliance tasks like implementing systems and processes, selections of software, process controls, etc.
Handled by controllers and senior accountants (often Acccountants).
STRATEGIC FUNCTION:
This provides strategic direction through a financial lense. Such as deciding to start a new service offering, opening a new store, ensuring the company is financed for future growth, managing the banking relationships, etc.
Handled by the CFO or Director of Finance.
Would you ever take a set of plans to a labourer and ask them to build you a house? No! So why would you take your books to a bookkeeper and ask them to build you an accounting department? Sure, they’re part of the process, but they aren’t the complete solution! It takes different skills to complete the picture. Most entrepreneurs (at least, early on) throw everything at their bookkeeper, cross their fingers, and hope it all goes well. Now you know why it doesn’t.
Need more, but don’t know where to start? Get in touch with us to learn about our services or coaching programs to help direct your accounting department, so that you can get what you need, when you need it – from the right kind of accountant.
Jun 20, 2018 | Accounting, Bookkeeping Services, Chartered Accountant (Accountants)
The last reason in our 3-part series: COST!
If you stumbled on this blog and have no idea what we’re talking about, check out the why entrepreneurs’ books are a hot mess!
This one’s pretty simple – we’ll be talking about cost!
Looking back at the accounting stack in reason #2, the going rate for the different accounting roles are:
Role Salary Range
Director of Finance / CFO $115,000 – $315,000
Senior Accountant / Controller $61,000 – $195,000
Clerk / Bookkeeper $31,000 – $68,500
Source: Robert Half 2018 https://www.roberthalf.ca/en/salary-guide
Those salaries are before benefits. Depending on how generous you are, you can add at least 10-20% to that.
For a moment, put yourselves in the accountant’s shoes (don’t worry, only for a moment).
If you’re a rock star accountant, what end of the range are you aiming for? Are you going to be looking to work for companies under $5 million, who are unlikely to be able to compensate you enough for your expertise?
Or, are you going to apply for the bigger companies who have more budget for your salary? You’d rather leave those low paying jobs to the weak and inexperienced accountants, wouldn’t you?
With that reasoning, you’re stuck with two major problems:
1) You’re up against larger companies who are likely offering much higher salaries and benefits, grabbing the best accountants leaving you behind.
2) The even bigger problem is even if you can find a winner, there’s no way you can afford to hire someone from each area of the accounting stack to get your finances in order!
What to do if you can’t afford the skills you need? Want to get out of that hot mess that is your books?
Find solutions by emailing us at [email protected]!
Mar 6, 2018 | Accounting, Bookkeeping Services
Welcome to Shift Financial, where
full cycle accountants, bookkeeping and accounting are just a fraction of what we do. It’s our first blog post and we’re so glad you’re here! But before we talk about us, let’s chat about you – we bet you’re an amazing entrepreneur with a business that’s growing faster than you thought. Exciting, yes. Scary – also yes.
Our blog is here to help you through the moments when your bookkeeping services just aren’t cutting it. If you never get a chance to talk to your accountant, talk to them too late, or find yourself scratching your head when you look at their accounting reports with no explanations (cue the furious Googling), we bet you’re feeling frustrated, angry and maybe a little embarrassed about dealing with the numbers. In fact, it’s the reason our founder, Spencer Sheinin (Acccountants, adviser and serial entrepreneur) brought Shift Financial Insights to life in the first place.
He kept seeing the same thing happen to entrepreneurs over and over again: the financial blind spot. When it comes to accounting, you know it’s important – but you don’t like dealing with it, feel unsure about what to ask for, and overall, you can’t shake the pesky feeling that you’re just not getting the bookkeeping support your business needs to thrive. Spencer spotted this time and time again, and wants to break entrepreneurs out of this vicious cycle.
Our goal is to change how bookkeeping is delivered for entrepreneurs. Right now, most business owners throw everything at their accountants, cross their fingers, and hope it all goes well. But it’s like asking a labourer to build you a house – they’re definitely part of the process, but they aren’t the complete solution. Oh, here’s the worst part: if you’re making under $5 million in revenue, chances are that you’re not even getting your pick of the best accountants out there, because they have more to gain by working with bigger companies – hence forming a massive gap for entrepreneurs who want higher end accounting services, but can’t afford them.
That’s what our Acccountants do differently. For a flat monthly fee, our complete bookkeeping, controller and CFO services deliver reports and insightful information that’s actually digestible and most importantly, actionable. Our Acccountants aim to give you the peace of mind you need to run your extraordinary business, while actually understanding the accounting numbers and strategically using them to meet your goals.
In our blogs up ahead, you can expect us to shine the spotlight on these financial blind spots, and hand you the proper accounting tools to use to start moving the needle in the right direction with your accountant. In other words: the kind of stuff that will have you sighing with relief. P.S. Want to hop on the phone with us to see if we’re the Acccountants you’ve been dreaming of? Contact us here.
