083: How A Bookkeeper Can Help You Prepare for Tax Season

1. Get the help you need.

You can’t always be the expert. A bookkeeper is the expert in helping you prepare for tax season, as well as keeping you informed on your financial situation all year round. You can’t do everything, and this is the perfect job to delegate to someone who is trained to do it.

2. Hiring a bookkeeper is the first step in getting your taxes prepared.

They’ll keep you accountable. They’ll make sure you have receipts, invoices from clients, make sure you are on top of payroll and have all your documentation. They aren’t your CPA but they will make sure your CPA has everything he/she needs for tax season.

3. Nobody wants to be surprised, and looking at your finances more often creates a sense of calm rather than anxiety.

When you stay informed, you’re not just hoping the numbers look okay, or waiting until the end of the year and crossing your fingers that everything is fine. Staying informed gives you peace of mind because you’re very aware of how everything is running financially.

Tricia Sciortino on Instagram and LinkedIn

Lisa Zeeveld on Instagram and LinkedIn

BELAY’s Accounting service

(01:33) Lisa talks about her first job as a receptionist at a nail salon.

(03:44) How did Lisa first figure out how to navigate taxes in a small business.

(06:14) What are some of the common fears business owners have about taxes, and how can they get rid of those fears?

(12:09) How can bookkeepers alleviate those fears and take things off your plate when it comes to taxes?

(15:11) As the CFO of BELAY, how does Lisa’s team leverage bookkeepers for success?

(18:29) “Nobody wants to be surprised. Looking at your financials more often creates a sense of calm rather than anxiety.”

(21:50) This week’s download: Go download our “Best Practices for Small Business Taxes” resource for our tips on tax season.

Lisa Zeeveld:

You are not your business. You need to learn how to delegate. You need to learn how to get out of the way. Hire phenomenal people to run your business so you can have a personal life, and so all this makes more sense to you. But working with a bookkeeper can help you have that freedom in your personal finances as well, and I don’t want to miss that piece because that’s big.

Speaker :

Welcome to One Next Step, the most practical business podcast in the world, helping you get more done, grow your business and lead your team with confidence with tips and tools you didn’t get in business school. Here are your hosts, Tricia Sciortino and Lisa Zeeveld.

Tricia Sciortino:

Welcome to One Next Step, the practical business podcast that helps you run your business so it stops running you. I’m Tricia, and today we’ll pick my co-host LZ’s brain all about how you can better prepare your business for tax season. As many of you know, LZ is the CFO of BELAY and has so much wisdom to bring to this topic. She’s going to help us understand some of the stressors that most business owners face when approaching the tax season and how having a bookkeeper on your team can help you better prepare. So, hi LZ.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Hey, hey, hey. I love it when we do these masterclasses. It’s so fun.

Tricia Sciortino:

Well, and before we even talk about all the mastery, let’s go back. I was just asking you… We were talking about what would be a fun fact for you to share. And we decided, “Hey, let’s talk about what was your first job?”

Lisa Zeeveld:

Oh, my gosh. I know. This is crazy and silly all at the same time. So my first job, I was a receptionist for a nail salon. And still today I can remember, I would have to answer the phone and say, “Thank you for calling Lucille’s Chic Nail Boutique. This is Lisa speaking. How can I help you?” And I was-

Tricia Sciortino:

That’s like a tongue twister, almost a little bit.

Lisa Zeeveld:

I know. I know. And we had those big appointment books. I think some people still use them, but these big, big pages and you would take the pencil and write it down. And this is before getting your nails done was super, super popular. And so it was mostly middle aged to older women who came in, and I would run and get their coffee for them and bring it to their little station or whatever. But yeah, I was a receptionist for a nail salon. There you go.

Tricia Sciortino:

I like it. I like it. Now you’re a patron.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Oh, yes.

Tricia Sciortino:

Now you’re a patron. I like it.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. And probably know way too much about nail salons now because of that.

Tricia Sciortino:

Yeah. It might have spoiled you, I don’t know, especially back then.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah, yeah, totally back then. Everybody was getting acrylics, there was no gel polish, none of this. You could sit underneath the dryer and be totally dry before you walked out. You’d walk out and your hands would be in the air because you couldn’t touch anything for at least another hour.

Tricia Sciortino:

Oh yeah.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah, it was pretty fun, pretty fun stuff.

Tricia Sciortino:

Well, I like it. I like it.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah, yeah.

Tricia Sciortino:

So let’s try and seamlessly transition from nail salons to taxes. I mean there’s no easy way to do that, so let’s just call a spade a spade at this point.

Lisa Zeeveld:

No easy way. No.

Tricia Sciortino:

No.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Hey, but it does show you is that I know a lot about small businesses because my first job was with a small business, and I understand the pain points of small business. So there you go, T.

Tricia Sciortino:

Perfect.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Just seamlessly tied them together.

Tricia Sciortino:

Thanks for doing my job today for me again. Okay. So we’re here to talk about tax season, which we know stresses a lot of people out. Gosh. I mean, I know some small business owners, dare I even say, who haven’t filed taxes for a year, shame, shame.

Lisa Zeeveld:

I know. I know.

Tricia Sciortino:

Because it’s so overwhelming and daunting, they don’t even want to of touch it. So we’ll just start at the top of the list. I mean, how did you first figure out how to navigate taxes in a small business?

Lisa Zeeveld:

Well, I mean, I think it comes a lot from my experience. So my mom was a bookkeeper for a small business, and so just kind of growing up, I was in that environment all the time. I saw what she did. As I sort of transitioned into my own professional career, it was first working for small businesses. And I understood the pain points of those and how it’s scary for most of us, if you’re not an entrepreneur, maybe you’re just a business leader. And so you’re thinking about your personal taxes, sometimes it can be scary. It’s definitely daunting, right?

Tricia Sciortino:

Mm-hmm

Lisa Zeeveld:

Because there’s all this legality that goes into it. Part of us are super afraid that what if we do our taxes wrong and then the IRS comes after us? And so it’s just, I feel like it’s almost shrouded in mystery. Taxes are just very mysterious.

Tricia Sciortino:

And ever changing, right?

Lisa Zeeveld:

Ever changing.

Tricia Sciortino:

I mean, gosh, ever changing.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. Public policy, what a beautiful thing. So you just never know. And so I think what people do is they get frozen, and they don’t do anything instead of finding experts who can help them. And so for me, that is where I think every small business leader, truthfully, every single person needs to lean into the professional. I think the out of the box solutions are fantastic if you are very simple, if your life is simple, if your business is simple. But y’all, I hate to break it to you, no business is simple. And you try to do it yourself, you’re going to be missing out on opportunities to save money, because those professionals, to your point T, they know when the laws change. And they have a whole bunch of clients and so they know it works and what doesn’t work. So there you go.

Tricia Sciortino:

There you go. So get the help you need. You can’t always be the expert.

Lisa Zeeveld:

No.

Tricia Sciortino:

That is my take away from that answer right there.

Lisa Zeeveld:

I think that’s your motto.

Tricia Sciortino:

I mean, right? Absolutely, absolutely.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Find the expert. Find the expert.

Tricia Sciortino:

Yeah. So I feel like you touched on it a little bit, but can we marinate a little bit more on the common fears or the common dreads that maybe business owners have? And then we can talk about how to squash them for them.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. I mean, I’m going to be really transparent. Number one, I think the fear or the unknown comes from business owners want to keep as much revenue as possible. There you go, mic drop. I just said it.

Tricia Sciortino:

Nobody wants to pay taxes to the government.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Nobody wants to pay taxes. Nobody does. Nobody does. And you have a friend, we all have a friend who says, “Oh my gosh, I have the best CPA and I didn’t pay any taxes.” Or, “Did you know you can totally write off that family vacation to your business?” And so what ends up happening is number one, they don’t want to pay taxes. They want to keep as much revenue as possible.

Tricia Sciortino:

So they avoid it altogether.

Lisa Zeeveld:

So they totally totally avoid it. They also get worried that if they push the limit to far on some of those deductions and they don’t understand the tax code, that that’s kind of where you get in trouble with. Like, “I don’t want the IRS representative to be knocking on my door and saying that I did it wrong.” And so that’s part of it. Also, I think people get a little afraid to go to a CPA with finances because they don’t maybe look like you think your peer’s looks. And what I mean by that is we always think everybody else is more successful than we are.

Lisa Zeeveld:

And so you’re looking at your friend, and you’re looking at their business, and maybe they take a lot of vacations, or maybe they bought a new car, or they’re talking about this big new client they got. You’re like, “Oh, great. Here I’m going to take my finances, which are a hot mess, to this CPA or to somebody else to look at and I’m going to be the screw up. I’m going to be the one that didn’t make enough money this year. I’m going to be the one who maybe pays too much in expenses. I’ve already done something wrong, and I don’t want to expose it to an expert who might make me feel bad.” And so they just would rather keep the cards super close to their chest than be vulnerable and say, “I don’t know everything. Here it is. And if I did screw it up, can you help me?”

Tricia Sciortino:

Help me fix it for next time.

Lisa Zeeveld:

So I think those are the three things that really stop people from using an expert.

Tricia Sciortino:

And I feel like we’ve heard that from our bookkeeping services leadership that we have clients that come to us to hire BELAY for bookkeeping services who say very similar things, that say, “I was shamefully embarrassed to bring on a bookkeeper because my books are such a mess. I delayed doing it because I was embarrassed.” But then got to the point where they realized, “I mean, but I can’t not do it. I mean, I can’t avoid it. So I’m going to do the right thing.” And so I guess absolutely same thing for taxes as well, if you feel like you don’t have it done right.

Lisa Zeeveld:

No, because you’ll hear everybody goes, “Take a picture of every single receipt.” Right? And so you were trying so hard to keep your business afloat, or maybe you’re just trying so hard to keep up with all the new business you have. So business is thriving, and you’re drowning, and you need more help. You need a VA and you need a bookkeeper. You need help in your business. Or maybe it’s the opposite, and you’re just struggling to find new business. And so your time is being focused on other things. And so you have a shoebox of receipts or a glove box, or some other crazy method that you’ve been having, because you’re just not thinking about it because you don’t have that help. And so I think that no matter how messy things seem, it’s not ever going to get any better if you don’t ask for help.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Very much like thinking about your personal health, going to the doctor. If you don’t feel well, that’s not going to get any better, especially if you need an antibiotic, if you have a broken bone. You have to go to an expert and say, “Help me out.” You can’t ignore it, because it just doesn’t go away. And the IRS, if you are a person who is fearful of maybe what might be, doing it wrong and would the IRS be mad at me or any of those kinds of things, they get a lot more mad at you if you don’t file your taxes. So there you go.

Tricia Sciortino:

Something’s better than nothing.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Something is better than nothing.

Tricia Sciortino:

Yes.

Lisa Zeeveld:

And they really are on your side. I know that’s hard to really imagine, but they are on your side. They have a lot of bigger fist to fry. They just want you to turn something in, give it your best attempt to do it, like I said, hiring a professional. And if something’s not right, they’re going to reach out to you first via a letter and say, “Hey, this doesn’t seem right.” They’re not going to knock on your door first. That’s last resort.

Tricia Sciortino:

Yeah, yeah.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Absolutely, absolutely.

Tricia Sciortino:

If you are anything like me, then keeping up with the daily tasks of AR, AP and account reconciliation are not your favorite things, but you also know how necessary and important it is. The good news is it doesn’t have to be your thing anymore. BELAY can help.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Numbers are totally my thing, Trisha. And thankfully numbers are BELAY bookkeepers’ thing too. Our sponsor BELAY believes you deserve top notch bookkeepers to produce balance sheets, pay bills, reconcile bank and credit card statements, and monthly reports to keep you up to date on the numbers of your organization. Whether you’re a church, nonprofit or a business, they have the right people ready to help. Talk to their team today, and never lose sleep over your financials again. Get started by visiting belaysolutions.com/services/bookkeepers today.

Tricia Sciortino:

So let’s talk a little bit about how a bookkeeper can alleviate maybe fears for business owners by helping get them straight and keep them straight, especially when it comes to taxes.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah, yeah. Well, first and foremost, it’s going to save you time. That’s what we were talking about. You’re a business owner, and your job is to more than likely run the business and find new business, helping to hire people, bringing people on, depending upon the size of your business. And you’re just not an expert in bookkeeping, all things finance, and probably your spouse isn’t either. Nor is your next door neighbor, your friend. I mean, we all start out. We create a business trying to find ways to do it the most economical way. And in the beginning first few months, sure. You’re not sure how you’re doing this all. And it’s okay to lean into people. Over time though, you need the right people, because it saves you time.

Lisa Zeeveld:

So I would say using a bookkeeper to help you prepare for tax season is the first and most important thing you can do, because they’re going to keep you accountable. They’re going to make sure that you have those receipts. They’re going to make sure that you have the invoices for the folks that you are paying, part of your expenses. They’re going to make sure payroll is right and that you have all the documentation for that. You’ve been filing those quarterly reports for payroll. They’re also going to make sure that everything is prepared for your CPA. Your bookkeeper is not your CPA. Your bookkeeper’s not going to do your taxes. And sometimes there’s a little bit of confusion about different roles in an organization on the finance team, but your bookkeeper is the one who’s going to be doing the day to day activities financially for your business. And they’re going to make sure all the record keeping is up to date, accuracy and reporting.

Lisa Zeeveld:

And then they’re going to start helping you understand some of those expenses we talked about, what categories on your general ledger can we put them in? So that when your CPA goes to file your taxes, they’re able to get some of those tax benefits. Again, it changes all the time, but if you are hosting an event for your team members, “Hey, let’s be able to take advantage of that from a tax perspective.” If you just maybe put it in meals, your CPA’s not going to know the type of meal that is. So let’s categorize that in the right spot so that you can get the most benefits from that.

Lisa Zeeveld:

And that starts day one. There’s no better time to start than January 1st with a new plan, shaking off the old ways maybe you thought of doing things and getting help so that they can… Even now, January 1st, we can always file an extension for your taxes. But you could start January 1st with a brand new bookkeeper and they could make sure that when you file your taxes, that you’re in the best situation you’ve ever been in. It’s not too late.

Tricia Sciortino:

Awesome. Yes. That’s great advice, great tips, to just get started, even if you’re late to the party.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Right. Yeah, absolutely.

Tricia Sciortino:

So as the CFO of BELAY, which is a larger size organization, talk little bit about how you and your team leverage bookkeeping and bookkeepers to alleviate stress and help prepare us for financial success.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Well, I mean, like you said, we’ve grown over the years, so we have a awesome team. I love my team. But if I go back to when we were smaller too, I mean, it was truly the record keeping. It is having an expert, like our director of finance in the beginning, who’d say, “You know what? I think we need to really make sure that we’re taking advantage of meals and entertainment for clients. I really need to make sure that we are returning all of the receipts. If you file an expense report and don’t have a receipt for that expense, it gets rejected, because we need to make sure that we have it.”

Tricia Sciortino:

She does. She rejects me.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Reject. Reject.

Tricia Sciortino:

I’ve been trained to copy and take pictures and submit all of my receipts.

Lisa Zeeveld:

I know. I know. And we don’t even care what the threshold is. If you buy something for $2 and 18 cents, you better have a receipt for it.

Tricia Sciortino:

There’d better be a receipt submitted weekly with notes. With notes, yes. Processes.

Lisa Zeeveld:

And notes is really, really important too. Because again, just in case you’ve put it in the wrong category, we’re able to go back and say, “No, this is where it should be.” So I would say first and foremost now, and 10 years ago, it was having somebody who was, again, keeping accountable, having the right team to do that and making sure that financials got done on a monthly basis. There’s a lot of folks, I know leaders out there. This is a true story. I know leaders, owners of businesses, who only look at their financials quarterly. It shocks me. And seriously, I’m not even making that up. I could throw out names, but I don’t want to embarrass anybody, that look at it quarter or look at it every other month. Because what they’ve told me is that they can’t stomach looking at it monthly because of how it goes up and down.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Now we’re not here to talk about financials, but that’s a poor practice, but our bookkeepers make sure that we have those financial reports that are coming in and that everything is tied out. All of our bank reconciliations are tied out. They’re bringing things to our attention too, as far as fees. They’re the ones who are going, “Hey, I noticed that you were paying $200 in credit card fees, because we haven’t been paying off this balance. If we want to continue to do that, maybe we look for a different credit card, or should we actually start paying these things off so we have less interest to pay for?” So they’re really categorizing everything to the best of our ability.

Lisa Zeeveld:

I think as we have continued to grow, now we’re meeting with our CPAs more and more frequently. And it’s bringing our director in to really have those conversations with me to make sure that we’re not surprised at the end of the year. And I think that that’s key too. I think that goes into that fear of being surprised when you get a big tax bill. More than likely, if you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve received a big tax bill, probably year one or year two before you knew that you needed to have more experts on your team. And so by meeting with them quarterly, we’re able to kind of get ahead of any sort of large tax bills that are coming or just overall tax planning.

Tricia Sciortino:

Yeah. Nobody wants to be surprised. So I think having good processes and visibility into your financials just actually creates more calm than it would nerves, in my opinion, so that you’re not waiting a quarter and crossing your fingers and hoping the numbers look okay or waiting till an end of a year and hoping they look okay. I mean, I actually have peace of mind and sleep really well at night looking at them monthly from you and your team, because then I’m very clear and aware of how we’re doing, and that gives me more peace than anything.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. And if you are a privately owned company, I’ll say it in two different scenarios. Perhaps you’re privately owned and you’re the only owner. It’s really important to understand how the business affects you personally. So you’re going to have business taxes and personal taxes. And as the head of finance and we were privately owned by a family, being able to be part of those meetings helped as well from a company perspective, knowing what we were going to owe, but also helped our owners understand how it was going to affect them personally. If that’s not the case for your business and maybe you have a partner and you’re not comfortable sharing personal things, I do think it’s still important to have your bookkeeper work with your personal CPA, if they’re not the same person, to kind of understand what’s happening in the business. Because to your point, I do like surprises, but not the kind of surprise where I owe somebody money.

Tricia Sciortino:

Only the good ones.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Only the good ones. Yes. You want to buy me a present? I’m all over it, but don’t tell me I owe you money. So having your personal CPA very aware of what’s happening in your business will help, because there’s two different types of taxes here, right? So we’re talking about hiring a bookkeeper for your business during tax season and how helpful that is to have it all wrapped up. But it’s also helpful to have a bookkeeper in your business because of what it gives you: peace of mind and rest on your personal side.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Because you are not only your business. I’m going to say that one more time. Because I know there’s a business owner out there who’s thinking, “My life is my business.” That is not the case. You are not your business. You need to learn how to delegate. You need to learn how to get out of the way. Hire phenomenal people to run your business, so you can have a personal life and so all this makes more sense to you. But working with a bookkeeper can help you have that freedom in your personal finances as well. And I don’t want to miss that piece because that’s big.

Tricia Sciortino:

That is perfection. That is an excellent, excellent tip. I love it. Thank you so much. This conversation has been really, really helpful. I hope our listeners are taking lots of copious notes. And since it’s been so helpful, I would love for you to hang around a little longer after this interview to answer one more question about the first things to delegate to your bookkeeper to set you up for success in tax season. And listeners, guys, you won’t want to miss it. To hear that clip, subscribe to our email list and we’ll send you a link to our bonus content, or visit onenextsteppodcast.com where you can find a link in our show notes.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Absolutely. Well, guys, as always, we have a one next step for you to take. This week, go download our Best Practices for Small Business Taxes. It’s a resource on our tips for tax season.

Tricia Sciortino:

Thank you for joining us today. Join us next week for more practical tips and actionable tools to advance your business one step at a time.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Start by making today count.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Don’t miss next week’s special episode – the first of a two-part masterclass in which Amy Appleton, our Director of Marketing at BELAY and I will be talking about the basics of delegation, why it’s so important, when you know it’s time to start delegating, and how to get started. Here’s a quick preview.

Amy Appleton:

If you are sending so many emails and they are all starting with, “Sorry for the delay.”

Lisa Zeeveld:

I think that just hurt some people, hearing that.

Amy Appleton:

I’m sorry, everyone listening, if this is your week of, “Sorry for the delay.”, but it usually just means that you’re trying to do too much and there are probably some things that you could easily adjust and give to someone else in order to free you up to do the things that are most important for you to do.

Speaker:

Thanks for listening to One Next Step. Be sure to subscribe on Apple podcasts or follow us on Spotify, then join on us next time for more practical business tips and tools to help you get more done, grow your business and lead your team with confidence. For more episodes, show notes and helpful resources, visit onenextsteppodcast.com.