I'm off to meet a potential new client this afternoon. They run a nursery in the third sector. It sounds interesting. It seems that their previous admin assistant was doing the bookkeeping and payroll and didnt really know what she was doing. They are now panicing as the accounts are due to be submitted and they don't make sense.
They want me to go in an try to find the mistakes. Has anyone done much of this before? I've not looked at anything yet but at the back of my mind I wonder whether it's easier to rebuild the accounts rather than finding the errors.
It sounds interesting, something a bit different at least.
I might be stating the obvious but whether it's better recreating depends on the mess and the amount of work. If it looks like, say, a days work then to me it's a no-brainer and I'd recreate the figures.
If you try to fix, I'll bet you a fiver that you won't feel comfortable that you haven't missed something.
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Tony
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I found myself in the same positition with a few of my clients that had been doing the bookkeeping themselves (incorrectly). In most cases I opted for reprocessing everything from scratch. I charge fixed monthly fees so I charged them the monthly fee times the number of months to reprocess retrospectively. It's not your fault that the information was not processed correctly so you should not be penalised financially.
Also it wouldn't be easy to spot the mistakes if the accounts have not been done following best practice. And since you are reviewing the accounts you would probably be held responsible for any mistake that you do not spot. I would rather be responsible for my own mistakes, not other people's.
Hope everything goes well.
Fabs
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Boomerang Bookkeeping
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Just to be controversial, I'd say this is a software question. I'd rather not key everything in again even if only half of the entries are right. Donna said the other day to try not to use delete on sage, so if it were a similar system then you're probably best starting over.
Another pair of eyes though should make the job more than twice as quick and give more certainty.
Well, an eventful meeting. I almost offered to do it for free because my heart went out to them. They run a community nursery and seem to have taken someone on to do admin at one point. She said she could do the books, but has made a pigs ear of them. They're trying to sort it out, but don't really know where to start. They have virtually no systems in place.
Most of the records they do keep are manually but not really analysed. They don't do bank recs. It's going to be a challenge, but one I think I'll enjoy.
My plan is really to sort out the mess, then work with them to put proper systems in place.
sounds like the sort of job I love. Envy you Kris. Sure this one will turn out to be a fun assignment for all the right reasons.
On the matter of would I rebuild... Definitely.
I've done it before even with clients who believe that their books are absolutely squeaky clean.
On the downside, where it's done through choice rather than necessity I take the hit not charging the client for my time (seems unfair to charge them for something that they've already paid (often quite handsomly) for).
On the up side, by the time that I've finished I know the clients business which gives me plenty of opportunity to recoupe my loss leader going forwards. And of course it also means that I've got full records (or at least the last couple of years worth) in VT rather than just opening balances which to my mind are about as much use in many cases as a chocolate teapot.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
