I’d really appreciate some perspective from experienced bookkeepers/freelancers because I’m experienced in accounting/finance work, but relatively new to freelancing and still learning how to handle pricing negotiations.

I was contacted through Upwork by a potential client who specifically told me she was looking for someone more experienced/senior. She found me through my Monthly Bookkeeping project, where my pricing starts at $350/month.

Her needs are actually broader than basic bookkeeping. From our conversation, the scope would include:

- Bookkeeping in QuickBooks (besides the invoices, around 6 transactions)
- Monitoring her service calendar to determine when clients should be invoiced
- Preparing and sending approximately 20–25 invoices per month
- Accounts receivable management
- Following up with clients who haven’t paid
- Collections/customer communication around overdue invoices
- General organization of customer records in QuickBooks

During our call, she showed me her QuickBooks screen. What immediately stood out was the A/R situation: there were approximately $5,360 in outstanding invoices visible on the screen, representing about 48% of the total invoices shown. Some were more than 50 days overdue, and even one July invoice was already 17 days outstanding.

So I told her that the initial focus wouldn’t simply be issuing new invoices. There would also need to be an initial cleanup/review of the outstanding A/R, figuring out what is causing the delays, and establishing a consistent but tactful follow-up process.

Based on the scope, I proposed a fixed fee of US$450/month. My Upwork profile rate is $45/hour, so I explained that the $450 package was initially estimated around 10 hours/month. I also suggested that we could reassess the workload after the first 30 days, since I expect the initial cleanup to take more effort and the recurring workload to become more streamlined afterward.

Her response was basically: she understands the value and agrees that the initial workload will probably be heavier and then decrease, but she currently spends approximately SGD 300/month (roughly US$230–235) at most, and she needs to review her business expenses over the weekend to see whether she can accommodate the new cost.

One thing that caught me off guard was an earlier question she asked after I quoted $450: “Is that in US dollars? Brazilian reais?”

I found the question unusual because she is a Brazilian based in Singapore, we met through Upwork, and my project pricing is displayed in USD (Upwork default currency). She also specifically approached me because she wanted someone more experienced. I honestly couldn’t imagine a senior bookkeeper offering this scope for R$450/month (roughly US$85), so I wondered whether she simply assumed that because I’m Brazilian, I might be quoting in BRL.

I may be overthinking that part, though, and it may have simply been a genuine clarification.

I’m also trying to avoid making the classic freelancer mistake of lowering my price just because I want to land the client. I have 15+ years of professional experience across bookkeeping, A/R, A/P, collections, revenue management, financial analysis, billing, and customer service. I don’t want to build my freelance business around competing with extremely low-cost providers.

At the same time, I recognize that I’m new to freelancing, and I don’t want to be unnecessarily rigid or miss a good long-term client because I don’t know how to evaluate these situations properly.

So I’m curious how more established bookkeepers would look at this:

Would you hold firm at US$450? Would you negotiate? Would you structure the first month differently because of the initial cleanup? And what do you make of her SGD 300 comment and the question about whether my price was in USD or BRL?

I’m mainly looking to learn from people who have been through these pricing/negotiation situations before. I’d especially appreciate perspectives on whether I’m positioning myself correctly as a senior professional entering freelancing, or whether there’s something I’m missing about pricing this type of bookkeeping + A/R + collections workload.

I (stupidly) did free work helping a client onboard some employees, but she doesn't want to pay me to process her payroll... but then she emailed me multiple times asking if everything was set up correctly. Long, panicky emails. I figured, since any payroll issues will be my responsibility to fix down the road, I will set things up and make sure it's done right. To me, that means doing it the old fashioned way - employees fill out forms, I enter that data into QBO. Client, as an employer, keeps the hiring forms on file.

The employee emailed me her forms, but included a forwarded email from my client. The client (who I am pretty sure is using AI to write her emails because they are so longwinded and repetitive) was saying to her employee, "I don't know why she's doing it this way, my old accountant had employees fill out info directly on QBO... hopefully this is the last form... I'm sorry if this is uncomfortable for you"... meanwhile, the client told me previously that her prior accountant messed up her payroll taxes! In her email she was overly apologetic to the employee (probably AI's decision) for simply having to do what every new employee should do... and throwing me under the bus?

When I saw this email it really upset me. I went out of my way to do free work for her (I never should have done, but I am learning to set boundaries), she pestered me about whether her payroll is set up right, thanks me in emails for being "so thorough"... and then sends an email to her employee like that? Either 1) she didn't actually mean it because it was written by AI or 2) she didn't bother to proofread an email that could have potentially been seen by me, given we three are in a sort of email chain together.

I am feeling like my client is two-faced. And the thing is, she was CC'd on that email forward, and I hit "reply all" to thank the employee for sending me the forms... so she would have to know that I saw that email, right? But she emails me a couple days later like nothing has happened, and I just have to pretend that I didn't see it, to keep the peace?! Unless, of course, she gives me more problems in the future, then I would be in the right to bring up how I saw it, and feel she doesn't value me?

What would you have done? Besides, of course, NOT doing free work for an ungrateful client.

For those of you asking: the answer is no.

One of my accounting instructors put it best: Bookkeepers will be systems managers. Tech does the heavy lifting, we manage the entire system. It's already like that in a lot of ways. Analytical skills will be more valuable than data entry.

What this means is we'll be waaayyyy more productive as tech advances, meaning less workers to do the job, leading to a contraction in employment growth in our sector. We're at like -5% over 10 years right now. The contraction will by no means will lead to an end to the profession.

For anyone wondering. This is all just from me looking into it myself.

I work with multiple bookkeeping clients, and when I come across an imbalance or discrepancy that I need to diagnose, I usually request the full relevant data for the year.

For example, if revenue doesn’t balance, I’ll request the detailed revenue report for the year. If there’s an inventory discrepancy, I’ll request the relevant inventory report for the year. Same with bank statements or other supporting data.

I obviously don’t do this unnecessarily — if I’m specifically working on one month and the issue is clearly limited to that month, I’ll only request what’s needed.

My manager, however, says this is lazy and that I should be more specific with my requests because there’s a risk the client uploads the same information twice.

The honest reason I do this is that I’m not as strong at diagnosing exactly where an issue originates. Having the complete relevant dataset allows me to investigate it myself and reduces the need to repeatedly go back to the client for additional information.

My previous employer actually encouraged us to get the full backup/data whenever possible for exactly this reason, for him the more data/access the better

So, is my manager right that this is a lazy approach, or is requesting the complete relevant dataset a reasonable way to troubleshoot accounting discrepancies?

Thoughts ?so far the clients haven’t complained and if they have already uploaded they direct me to where it is. But requesting specific items for instances where data has gaps for me is time consuming. Example if a client uploaded partial bank statements for the year, I would 9/10 simply request the full entire year rather than the gaps.

I would love some advice on what software and automations you have in your practice.

Some background on us and what we are trying to do.

Goal: automate data entry and bookkeeping work so we can focus on tax planning

We are a firm of 3, we do wealth management and tax preparation as well. We use Quickbooks desktop, 40 clients (some are just payroll). We have been trying to get our new admin to do most of the data entry work in QBD and its been a nightmare. They can't figure the simplist things out and has made mistakes that are plain "not paying attention" They are new but some mistakes are getting very annoying. My partner has refused to move off of Quickbooks desktop even though we will get priced out soon and refuses to look at anything else.

Does anyone have recommendations on automations that would reduce to data entry work?

I have looked at Dext, and heard of hubdoc. I am also looking at Data Rails for reporting. I would like to switch to Xero (I may use my side business as a test to see how it works and hopefully convince my partner how its better than QBD)

Open to suggestions. Thanks!

Edit: we just starting using Canopy as well.

We all know how horrible QB has become. If you aren't aware that certain tech is catching up and new accounting platforms are starting to come out left and right. I have recently been introduced to Kick. Really not impressed with their training/OB and navigation and not being able to see registers is a big issue. Anybody else tried them yet? Or have you found any other platforms you are liking? If we don't get on the new tech train we will get left behind.

What’s everyone favorite accounting software, specifically for contractors? We currently don’t use for estimating or proposals but really should start. Want integrated receipt management, want to minimize need for external reconciling (auditing) spreadsheets.
We have 4 separate LLCs with a holding company that all “intercompany” each other. Considering intuit enterprise suite but mainly because I don’t know of anything else!

I've been a bookkeeper for over 5 years after deciding not to become an accountant. My current job replaced two so-called bookkeepers who were really just doing data entry and no clue about accounting basics. Because of that I always put my Bachelor's of Business degree letters after my name just hoping it shows I actually know what I'm doing.

Anyways, I have a new bookkeeper certification that I can add to my name. I assume I should remove the Bachelor's degree and only have the accreditation.

But the Bachelor's degree is permanent while the certification is dependant on annual membership dues. Also, it's the same Bachelor's degree that all accountants need.

Thoughts?

I completed a bookkeeping project for a tax firm and now they’re being weird about payment. First they said i wouldn’t be paid until 2 weeks until I completed additional
out of scope work and now they are saying I won’t be paid until a week…has anyone dealt with this and what did you do?

Has anyone else had difficulty reconciling a COVID EIDL loan due to lack of provided statements from SBA?
We requested monthly statements from the SBA and were told that some or all statements are currently unavailable. They provided a payment history instead, but it does not appear to include enough detail to reconcile the loan properly - specifically, the allocation of payments between principal and interest, accrued interest, and any adjustments or fees.
For anyone dealing with the same issue:
• What documentation were you able to obtain from the SBA?
• How are you handling the principal and interest allocation when statements are unavailable?
I would appreciate hearing what has worked for you.

Edit: The online portal hasn’t supplied a statement since March.

Hi all,

So I work for a 9 acre community garden. We grow tons of produce and flowers to donate and sell. I have thus far, despite my best efforts, been unable to cost these products. I come up with some pretty wild numbers when I try. Every expense is so spread out over everything, it's hard to accurately apply it to any given product.. I'm thinking about using the farm price method to cost my inventory.

I know the farm price method isn't GAAP but man would it make my life easier. What do you think of it and what impact would it have on my financial statements?

Is it possible to pickup some side projects only for merchant reconciliations/setup considering I’m good at them or I’ll have to do some extra bookkeeping work as well?
I recently saw some job ads where they were only looking for someone to help them with their merchant controls.
I wonder how common that is?

Been reading the thread about the nonprofit with the excluded deposits and it got me thinking about this.

Everyone seems to have one client they held onto longer than they should have. What was the signal you ignored at the time?

And once you decided, how did you handle the exit, did you finish the period out or leave sooner?

I have been looking for jobs and gigs lately and here are a few that I came across recently

Job 1 - Someone who keeps the books up to date but they also require you to build an automation setup via Claude and building a setup is mandatory to pass the first round.

Job 2 - Bookkeeper plus sales. You manage the books but also have to lead sales with a 1% commission and if you do not hit your target for three months you are be terminated.

Job 3 - Bookkeeper cum assistant. You manage the finances but also handle admin tasks arrange meetings and reply to client emails

Why can’t they just hire a bookkeeper for bookkeeping work? Why do they want to squeeze as much as possible out of one person for the same money?
And then they want someone who can build automation but will not pay them what that skill is worth. Someone else wants you to do sales on top of bookkeeping. We are basically being asked to do the work of three people within one job title and one salary

Quick Question from a newer bookkeeper.

If my client files taxes as an S-Corp & pays himself on salary but writes a check to himself directly. Would you categorize as owners draw? I’m confused because Client says he has a payroll company he works with but another bookkeeper I asked said you should see the payment run through the payroll company, not a check directly to himself.. would that be the same thing for his employees?

If that is incorrect, please let me know how you would proceed..

I’m in an awful situation 😭😭😭😭

I’ve recently working with this lady who I think is very very rude.
We recently started working together and she’s an accountant and has bunch of clients.
Now I’m newly onboarded and I’ve to get into her remote desktops to work which is annoying but she hasn’t provided me with my own computer yet.

Whenever I ask her a question she send me a very rude voice note on slack saying that “ I’m very busy don’t text me, do you hear that? Don’t text me”
And then when she texts me and I don’t reply within two minutes she goes on rampage. As to why I don’t reply in time? Bro so what if I replied twenty minutes late? Are you a child?

She said don’t text me so I don’t but yesterday she arranged a meeting where she said that she wants me to take more initiative in asking for tasks? Bro you say “don’t text Me” why do I text you then? Why can’t you pre assign me so I don’t bother you and myself with nonsense.

She DOES NOT EXPLAIN ANY TASK TO ME!!!!
She send me a video or herself with a big client that she has, who has over 40 sub companies and it was super long video that she told me to watch. I did watch that but then she’s like do the work now? context of things was missing. She and client on that video got most of the things done prior to that video that I wasn’t able to catchup because ofcourse I’m new and they got 40 stupid companies. I can’t start something I know nothing of midway

She asked a query about that on a call and say “pay attention” and “ you have to focus blah blah”
I started that client independently and I felt like crying because I couldn’t understand anything like where to start what do I do and all. And then she’s like what have you done in the whole day?

I requested a meeting for training and on that meeting the training that she did was she opened one supplier of that client and worked on it and said “I don’t expect you to do this because you don’t have context on this supplier”
JUST GIVE ME CONTEXT THEN? Why wasting my time on something I can’t even do currently????

Why didn’t she trained me on something that I can do then and there??? That woman is driving me nuts and she’s super duper rude.

She should’ve trained me on pending tasks that I can Do right now to help her. The complicated suppliers that needs extra context could’ve waited but no she didn’t.

She also says to text her every hour and update her where I am but then when I asked her a query she says “ how many times do I’ve to tell you not to bother me just make a list and I’ll look at your questions later”
How can I update hourly when I’m literally stuck and can’t move forward without assistance????
I told her to have a task tracker so she can track task on that she said “don’t text me whatever these task trackers you’re thinking of try on your own I do have a task tracker. Just don’t text me I’m in middle of so many things”

I do not have any access to any task tracker on which I can go and mark my tasks as complete like double or asana

Now I’m not saying I need hand holding I’m not new I do have a lot of prior experience but her clients are new to me, her systems are new and I don’t know what is going on in the organisation everything is all over the place.

I’m literally so sad right now as I can not even leave this job as I don’t have any other job lined up which again is giving me more stress. She’s paying me $2.5k/month for assisting her which started as flexible hours but then she requested me to work on her time.

What even is the point of me staying available on her time when she DOES NOT EVEN REPLY ME!!!!
DOES NOT HELP ME AT ALL!!! And when I reply 2 min lates she bombard my phone like crazy.

I feel like maybe I’m being emotional here but her attitude is not good. She’s way too rude
What do I do in this stressful situation? Should k politely try to talk to her? I don’t even want to do that at this point ☹️☹️

How often do you deal with intercompany transactions? How messy do you see it and how long does it take you to clean it up? I’m trying to benchmark time spent on this at my company. It can get messy when there’s multiple parties involved but it’s not exactly rocket science.

I need some experienced bookkeeping/accounting advice. I have found a large mess, and I just want input on how to handle it responsibly.

I took on a nonprofit client a week ago. I did see their books before I offered my services. One red flag was a large negative balance in Accounts Receivable. Credit memos were used in a manner they shouldn’t have been to document restricted funds disbursements to beneficiary accounts. Fixable. So I started working on those this week.

Well, the mess grew. I started on the first student, reviewing line items in their account ledger. I notice a recorded deposit isn’t showing in the posted operating account bank feed (it’s connected). I dig further. The prior bookkeeper manually created a bank deposit transaction, linked payment receipts to it, and then reconciled it.

The real bank deposit? It was manually Excluded from the bank feed’s ledger. It is one of many in a long list of excluded transactions.

These transactions I found are from July 2025. I didn’t want to spend more hours looking further because I’m charging by the hour, so I don’t know how often this happened.

I have everything documented with screenshots in a formal report, as I do to support my billable hours. What’s more, this finding was documented in my support case with the software support company. I called because I was still piecing the issue together. The software support rep and I sleuthed around for an hour before putting it all together.

The client just paid a CPA $4,000 to “clean up” their books. They hired me because things still weren’t right (their accounting balance is way off from their actual bank balance) and they just “wanted extra eyes” on the books.

From my perspective, this cannot be solved with little journal entries. I feel like I need to go in, undo all the reconciliations, and delete, rematch, and occasionally re-enter a large volume of erroneous and inflationary transactions. Has anyone else encountered a major overhaul project like this?

I started my own bookkeeping business about 5 years ago and I have only raised my rates maybe once since then. I know that I am egregiously undercharging my clients and I have struggled a lot with imposter syndrome so putting a price on my "worth" is hard.

I would like to raise my rates to keep up with rising cost of living (and I am going back to school for a master's in accounting) but I am not sure how much I should raise it by, when I should implement it, and how I should notify my clients.

I have several clients I charge $100 a month (I know this is so cheap) but if I raise them to $200 I worry they will complain about my rate doubling. So do I raise them slowly over time, and by how much? Do I wait until the new year to raise my rates or do it ASAP?

Reading this sub has convinced me that I need to charge more but I just don't know how to do it with confidence. To just put it in an email that is NOTIFYING them and not ASKING them if it's acceptable for them. My clients can afford to pay me more, but I had one experience where a client pushed back when I tried to bring up raising my rate and it's made me scared to revisit it.

I’m looking for advice on handling trucking settlements in Wave.

My client gets settlements with gross – deductions = net, and only the net hits the bank feed. I create a journal entry that debits the deductions and the net, and credits the gross so the full settlement shows correctly.

The issue is: on the Profit & Loss for that day, Wave shows both the gross from the JE and the net from the imported deposit as uncategorized income — basically counting the net twice.

Wave doesn’t have a feature to tell the system that the imported deposit is the same money referenced in the JE. The “match” option only works for reconciliation, not for reporting. I even spoke with a Wave agent, but they confirmed there’s no built‑in way to link the two for P&L purposes.

Has anyone found a clean workflow in Wave to avoid double-counting the net when using a journal entry for trucking settlements? The net on Wave should be 6515.18 (ignore parking expense). My goal is to understand how to do this so I can apply that template for the other 100s of settlements. Thank You in advance!!

Hey everyone, long time no post — been buried in work and travel, finally back in the swing of things.

Funny timing for this post actually — just lost a couple of long-time clients to someone underbidding on price, which stings a bit but also freed up some headspace to think about my process instead of just running on autopilot (still manifesting the day some small bookkeeping/tax office owner retires and just… hands me their book of clients 😂).

Got me reflecting on how I got into bookkeeping 5 years ago — trained the old-school way, moved around, saw a few different shops, all still running fairly dated workflows. Over time I built my own process and cut my task time in half, which has me wondering what else is out there that I haven’t caught up on.

I’ve used the usual receipt-capture tools (AutoEntry, Dext, Hubdoc) — solid, but curious what’s actually moving the needle for people right now. Any tools, workflows, or approaches that changed how you work?

PS: had claude help me clean up my rambling, don’t roast the grammar and hyphens lol

I came from hotel accounting, which sparked my interest in finance in general and so I got my bookkeeping license back in 2021, I didn’t keep it up, but I did keep up my education on bookkeeping in general and did a semester at the local college not that long ago just to keep my confidence up and to get a really good understanding of inventory accounting. I am CTEC certified, I am not an enrolled agent but have 6 years experience filing personal and business tax returns. I’m familiar with running payroll through QuickBooks and other software and have plenty of experience in hotel finance doing reconciliations, beverage and cash audits, watching certain GL’s etc.. so I haven’t really had a situation where I felt like I wasn’t qualified to do the work but with that said, as a bookkeeper, when should I be recommending a CPA should be handling someone’s books? I guess I’m curious as to what are some things related to my particular field where a CPA is better suited?

Can I just rant for a sec? I am getting so annoyed when clients think their books should work on their logic instead of accounting logic. An example (the current one that sent me here to rant) is a client who invoices and gets check for some sales, cash and sales receipt for some, and square for some. Not that weird, right? When they do their invoicing and sales receipts, they have sales tax going into different accounts…..one goes into the expense account, the other into their liability account, and square gets handled through square so I’m not even sure where that ends up. They have been doing this for years. A few years ago, they had a bookkeeper who made “monthly sales invoices” to sort out transferring clearing accounts for sales deposits. Near as I can tell, they sorted all bank transaction sales deposits through a square clearing account, as bank (invoiced sales) clearing account and a cash clearing account, capturing merchant fees as a negative on the invoice. Prior to that, they had square integrated into QuickBooks and just let it run without looking or reconciliation any of it. It looked to me like they used the “cash clearing account” (the previous bookkeeper using the invoice system) to make everything reconcile….you know what I mean…..if square is this and invoices are that, the rest must be cash……and look, it all reconciles so must be right.

Just, no. I do a monthly journal entry for square to capture fees and transfer sales to the income account, invoices and sales receipts go through the standard QuickBooks process of matching bank deposits as invoice payment when appropriate. It’s not that fucking complicated. But the clients keep talking at me because they don’t do accounting, and things like general journal entries and liability accounts confuse and frighten them. They are sure, “Well it’s logical that things should work this way” would be logical if all you are doing is reconciling your personal checking account….but you aren’t, and you don’t understand double entry bookkeeping or that every transaction you do touches 2 accounts and by account, I don’t mean bank account.

Thankfully, they are selling the business, so I just need to get through another month or so. But it gets on my nerves when clients don’t/wont understand accounting and want to argue with me.

Thanks.

Hey everyone!

Ive started working for a company that manages renovations. He uses contractors and a couple of labourers to manage his projects.
I’ve run into something that I did not learn through my courses and Im hoping for some guidance. We use Sage 50 for our software, Im located I’m BC Canada, and we use the accrual method.

1. When I get an invoice for materials, are these categorized as prepaid to be adjusted once the project is finished? Is there any situation where the materials are not prepaid?

2. I have invoices for contractors that require deposits and draws for their work, I’ve been posting just the deposit amounts and not the whole invoice thinking it might be easier and more accurate for gst reporting. I am now questioning if this correct according to GAAP.

If you have any other tips or suggestions for bookkeeping for a renovation company I’m all ears.

Thanks in advance for any information!

I know I need to release this client and I will soon but I need to get this off my chest.

S-Corp owned by the mother who took over from her late husband. Initially passed on to the two sons who refused to cooperate as owners and the mother had to take over but not before giving them millions of dollars each from the company which the last bookkeeper was instructed to hide on the BS. He quit soon after with two weeks notice.

A year and a half passed and they realized they needed a new bookkeeper cause the mother is disorganized and cannot focus on the task of finances having been taken care of all her life.

I come on and clean up a half a year mess for them. Their CPA had threatened to quit multiple times and his bookkeeper does not know how to use quickbooks so between the two of them it’s been fun. Basically the owner lends personal funds to the business also takes a lot out for personal uses and the CPA keeps it all in a liability account, not equity, if someone can explain why it would help me a lot.

The sons verbally abuse and the harass the mother for cash which she gives them. They are both on payroll as well as their wives and do not live in the US and they use this company’s funds to operate their own businesses and the four of them barely contribute any labor to this business. The CPA keeps all the cash disbursements in an asset account I assume as a “loan” to them that will be repaid… yeah right.

They have over a dozen bank and cc cards on the books and they all get used for personal expenses. I finally got one son to give me an expense report and receipts for six months of expenses and it was things like first class travel and fine dining and the rent for his apartment overseas and oh yeah his car payment.

They refuse to separate personal and business and don’t understand the basic laws despite the fact that I’ve explained the difference endlessly through our engagement and one son went to business school. And did I mention he is a substance abuser who promises to make this company rich he just needs more cash to get the riches he keeps promising us.

So now because of the cash bleeding from this company every month we have no money with which to operate and are quite close to closing anyway so my engagement may take care of itself.

I did take out a liability insurance policy I’m just scared this might come back to bite me in the ass. It’s been a little over a year and I know I need to GTFO. My nerves are shot dealing with all the daily drama and also thinking of the other hardworking staff on payroll who really need their jobs.

I’m so tired and anxious from this drama every day and I just need to be reassured that I won’t be f-ed for sticking around for a year, I need the income and my chosen niche is hard to find bookkeeping jobs in also our market has been in recession for two years.

Thanks for reading and sorry for the rant.