“To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.”

– Tony Robbins

The advent of social media means that friends, families and even foes know what you are doing, what you say and where you are. There are times where you crave the ability to unplug the phone cord and disconnect from the world. But those days are no longer possible, communication has been revolutionized, there are more conversations flying at you than ever before.

A similar trend is happening in bookkeeping. Gone are the days of dropping off your files waving goodbye until next month. Things have changed, your bookkeeper is now pinging you online with questions, they are engaging you in anomalies and meeting with you from the comfort of their office, while one of your machines makes a screeching noise in the background.

This new type of engagement with your bookkeeper can be overwhelming. You want the information that your bookkeeper produces, because it makes your business better, but you would rather they just had all the answers without asking annoying accounting questions. It can lead to the entrepreneur who wants to grow their business seeing the person who they hired to help them as an annoyance or inhibiter to growth. Both parties are responsible for setting the parameters of the scheduled meetings and engagements, this ensures that meetings are concise and achieve resolutions to the issues at hand.

Having a quality conversation takes time and practice, but what it really takes is a minimum of two parties. The communication you have with your bookkeeper may be some of the most important conversations that you have while building your business. Therefore, you welcome regular communication with your bookkeeper, being available for them is critical. If you do not like something about your communication patterns with your bookkeeper, let them know and give them the chance to adjust to your preferences.

At GURU by Achen Henderson, we prioritize regularly scheduled meetings with your bookkeeper. We know that these meetings are important for several reasons:

  1. They give us a chance to collect the answers quickly and easily. We need to ensure your books are in great shape, increasing their usefulness to you.
  2. To run through talking points from the month, sticking points and any important issues.
  3. Give you a chance to update your preferences with us and ask us questions that you might not otherwise ask.

In dealing with hundreds of entrepreneurs over the years, we know that these regular conversations are the key that many entrepreneurs need to transition from being an employee of themselves to being a business owner. Avoiding these conversations results in problems that continue for months if not years on end. But it is not all on you.

A modern bookkeeper like the GURU Team at Achen Henderson should know how to make quality use of the brief time that they have your attention. There should not be multiple queries a day, instead any non-urgent questions should be consolidated in an easy-to-use question list, they should know when to call or when to instant message based on your preferences. The GURU Team understands that they are one aspect of your business and not all of it is important.

An ostrich may stick its head in the sand, but that does not mean things stop happening around it. Staying on top of what your numbers are saying to your bookkeeper allows you to get input from a professional you have hired for help. The GURU Team at Achen Henderson not only has a wealth of experience at crunching numbers, but also significant expertise when it comes to critical issues like tax planning to growth strategies. To get those answers, the question needs to be asked. Not answering them leads to increased confusion from your bookkeeper and a devaluing of the relationship.

The GURU Team at Achen Henderson sees itself not only as a growth driver of your business, but a stabilizer too. We want to remove the stress of day-to-day accounting and tax season by making sure there is enough money for payroll and ensuring that there is enough money left over for you. To do this we will communicate, we will engage with you and what we need in return is for you to engage with us. Transparency is incredibly important to us, we are here to share what we know, and your feedback is equally important. It is the difference between a fraudulent transaction being buried deep in between 1000s of other card swipes; it is the difference between you overpaying on your GST because you ignored the requests for documented proof.

Building a business is tough. Surrounding yourself with an accounting and business advisory team that is with you every step of the way is a huge step to working on your business and no longer working in it.

It is never too late to have a better relationship with your bookkeeper, I’d sure like to talk to you:

LET'S TALK.