A controller is very similar to an accountant. But in most cases, they have more responsibilities. Imagine a laser-focused bookkeeper in charge of building reports, monitoring purchasing decisions, collecting rent, paying bills, and so on.

When a bookkeeper “prepares” a financial statement, what are they actually doing? You might be under the common misconception that we’re just trying to make the report look nice. In reality, preparing a financial statement for accounting is an important process used to document transactions onto the final statement. Quickbooks should already be doing a…

If you aren’t well-versed in accounting, the word “audit” can sound pretty scary! Financial statements can be audited, but they aren’t always. What is an audit of a financial statement and why would you need one?

Looking to outsource your bookkeeping? For most, the whole point of outsourcing bookkeeping is to avoid having someone on salary. If you didn’t have to pay a full time employee for your bookkeeping, why wouldn’t you do that? Especially if you think you don’t have the volume that would require that salaried position. That is the problem outsourcing solves.

Looking to do QuickBooks work yourself rather than outsource it? Well, you’re going to need to know a few things first. For our purposes here, we’ll focus on real estate investors in the one to five units or deals range.

There are three groups of services that we provide here at Lionshare Bookkeeping, but one of them can sometimes be a mystery. Let’s look at those services, then dive deeper into what an outsourced controller actually does.

When you get right down to it, there are three basic levels of financial reporting. Level one is property or project manager reports, level two is accountant or controller reports, and level three is CFO reports. It’s best to figure out the first level before progressing on to the next.

Financial statements help you make smarter business decisions. In your business transactions, you will basically have three types of cashflow activities: financing, investing, and operating. A statement of cashflows shows all three together and helps you make balanced decisions and grow your business.

Let’s take a look at each of those three types of activities, then we’ll talk about balance and making smart decisions overall.

Part of the magic of professional services is that depending on the structure of your business, you may or may not be able to claim them as expenses that are tax deductible. With bookkeeping specifically, it really depends on whether you’re doing them for a business entity or on a personal basis.

Separation of duties has to do with separating out accounting roles so that you use everybody for what they’re best at, but not everyone has access to everything. If you don’t do it the right way, you’re exposing yourself to a lot of fraud and liability that you just don’t want.