Hi everyone!
I'm Kassie, I posted an intro on the main forum. I live in Colorado. I've been a bookkeeper/office manager for 8 years, was laid off, and I'm now trying to get my own bookkeeping business off the ground. I did bookkeeping & payroll for 2 small engineering companies, in Quickbooks, so I feel comfortable running books for small, uncomplicated companies. I also did bookkeeping remotely for one 'direct sell' company for almost 2 years. Since I'd like to do bookkeeping as a contractor now and not an employee, and mostly from home, I figure that qualifies as a Virtual Bookkeeper, sorta!
I have a potential client that I am meeting with next week. She's a real estate agent, lives in my neighbor, has an office very close, has a partner that she works with. I mentioned that I was looking to contract to realtors to keep track of their expenses, bills and income, and she said 'oh, I could use someone like that'. So I would assume she doesn't have a system in place yet.
My question, or maybe ramblings? is how to set everything up. If she is just putting all expenses on a personal credit card, and paying by personal check, then I would just put together an excel spreadsheet to track it all.
Otherwise, if I'll be reconciling a company CC and bank statement, I'll set her up in Quickbooks (I have a licensed copy of 2007 to start with). Just expenses - marketing, office rent, mileage??, phones, any staging or cleaning costs for the houses, any outside people to pay (like me)... and income - the comission check. Pay all the bills, cut checks to her for draws. Then I can give her monthly or weekly reports so she can see where her money is going, etc. I don't think she'll want complicated reports, just how much money is left? and how much they need to get through the year (expenses).
I plan to charge her hourly, instead of a lump sum, so that when she's in the busy season and making money (and creating expenses and paperwork), I'll be working more and making money. Slow season we'll both bite our nails and wait it out...
So, what do you all think? Sound like I'm on the right page so far? Any Bookkeepers with RE clients?
Wish me luck!!
New Here! and question on Bookkeeping for RE agents
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