Bookkeeping FAQ

A bookkeeper records and organizes your day-to-day financial activity: categorizing transactions, reconciling bank and credit card accounts, tracking what you owe and what you’re owed, and producing monthly financial statements. The result is an accurate, current picture of your business that you can make decisions from — and that your CPA can file taxes from without an expensive cleanup first.

A bookkeeper maintains your financial records throughout the year. A CPA is licensed to prepare and file tax returns, represent you before the IRS, and provide formal tax and audit services. The two roles work together: good bookkeeping all year makes your CPA’s work faster, cheaper, and more accurate. Most small businesses need a bookkeeper monthly and a CPA annually.

Cost depends on transaction volume, how many accounts you have, and whether your books need cleanup before ongoing work starts. I bill hourly with a three-hour monthly minimum, which covers the reconciliation, review, and reporting that has to happen every month regardless of how quiet things were. Most small businesses land at or near that minimum. The first conversation is free and ends with a realistic estimate of the hours your books will take.

QuickBooks is a tool, not a bookkeeper. It will import transactions, but it doesn’t know that a purchase was a job expense rather than an owner draw, and it won’t catch a duplicate deposit or an unreconciled account. Most of the messy books I clean up were kept in QuickBooks by a busy owner doing their best. The software plus someone who knows how to use it is what produces reliable numbers.

It’s extremely common and it’s fixable. Catch-up bookkeeping reconstructs and reconciles your records from wherever you left off. The sooner it’s addressed the less it costs, since bank records and receipts get harder to retrieve over time — but being two years behind doesn’t disqualify you from anything.

No. I’m a bookkeeper, not a CPA, so I don’t prepare returns or give tax advice. I keep your books accurate and current so that your tax preparer has clean records to work from. If you don’t have a CPA yet, I’m glad to point you toward ones in the Chattanooga area.

Yes — I currently keep the books for a Christian camp outside Nashville and a nonprofit school here in Chattanooga. Nonprofit bookkeeping has requirements a small business doesn’t: restricted and unrestricted funds have to stay separate, contributions and grants need to be recorded so the designation is never lost, and program, administrative, and fundraising expenses have to remain distinguishable. Camps and schools add their own wrinkle, since income arrives seasonally through registration and tuition rather than evenly across the year. I produce statements a volunteer treasurer can present to a board, and keep records your Form 990 preparer can work from directly.

I’m based on Signal Mountain and work with businesses throughout the Chattanooga area, including Red Bank, Hixson, Lookout Mountain, Soddy-Daisy, and East Ridge. Bookkeeping is largely remote work, so distance is not a barrier — one of my current nonprofit clients is a camp outside Nashville, worked entirely remotely. If you are elsewhere in Tennessee, that is not a problem.

Typically read-only access to your business bank and credit card accounts, your existing accounting file if you have one, and a short conversation about how your business operates. From there I’ll tell you what shape your books are in and what it will take to get them current.

Straightforwardly. I review your existing records, identify anything that needs correcting, and take over from a clean starting point. You don’t need to have an awkward conversation first — many owners wait until the transition is arranged before giving notice.

It means honesty, stewardship, and doing careful work whether or not anyone is checking. Practically: I tell you the truth about what your numbers show, I don’t pad hours or add surprise fees, and I treat your business finances with the same care I’d want for my own. You don’t need to share my faith to work with me.