096: 90 Days to Financial Clarity in your Business

1. Bookkeepers can help entrepreneurs who are frustrated with managing expenses.

They’ll work with the business owner and make recommendations, so that person doesn’t have to be in the nitty gritty details of running their business. They’ll help delegate responsibility to each team to be responsible for their portion of the budget.

2. To save money, you have to know where it’s all going.

This is your chart of accounts. Bookkeepers can offer solutions by looking at your history, pain points, where you’re over budget, and make recommendations on where to cut back and how to save. All of this information comes from your chart of accounts.

3. Budgeting tells you where your money is going instead of wondering where it’s been.

It helps you look at the overall picture and make good decisions. Budgeting is just a guide, not something to be scared of or intimidated by. Working with your budget, a bookkeeper can tell you where you need to pump the brakes and where you can invest more.

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BELAY’s Accounting service

(03:09) Catherine talks about her favorite celebrity.

(05:28) Catherine shares her experience joining BELAY about 12 years ago

(09:33) How does Catherine help entrepreneurs save time?

(11:04) Affordable options for expense report software.

(11:57) How do bookkeepers help entrepreneurs save money?

(14:27) The value of budgeting.

(15:29) For someone who’s afraid of budgeting, what should they do to feel like they aren’t starting from scratch?

(18:05) How do bookkeepers help entrepreneurs wisely spend and manage money?

(21:24) One client experience, a big win, that stands out to Catherine over the last 11 years.

(25:15) You have to realize you can step out of your comfort zone and be led a little bit by someone who can help you with your money.

Catherine Bowman:

So the big win is that he has delegated off some of the tasks that he and his wife were doing together. He has put a team in place to handle finances, he’s let it go. We have a weekly call and week by week, I see him trust it a little bit more, a little bit more. So, to see his facial expression change week to week, he’s starting to breathe a little easier.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Welcome to One Next Step, the most practical business podcast in the world. You’re now one simple tip practical, tool, and small step away from growing your business. One Next Step is brought to you by BELAY, the incredible 100% remote organization, revolutionizing productivity with virtual assistants, bookkeepers, and social media managers. Accomplish more. Juggle less. Modern staffing from BELAY. And now to your hosts.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Welcome to One Next Step, the practical business podcast that helps you run your business, so it stops running you. I’m LZ, and with me as always is my great friend, Ryan. What’s up, Ryan?

Ryan Fitzgerald:

LZ, it’s so great to be with you today. I’m so excited about your conversation and to hear it here in a few minutes.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. Today I’m going to talk with Catherine Bowman, one of BELAY’s very own bookkeepers and one of the very first bookkeepers for BELAY. Yeah. Catherine has been around since the early days, and today she’ll be talking about her role as a BELAY bookkeeper. She’ll also explain most importantly, how bookkeepers help their clients save time, save money, and how they help wisely manage and spend their hard earned dollars.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Speaking of bookkeepers, LZ, great segue, I’d love to take a moment to tell our listeners about BELAY. With modern staffing from BELAY, businesses and leaders can focus on growth without the unnecessary overhead or learning curves associated with hiring and onboarding full-time employees. BELAY is the incredible 100% remote organization that is revolutionizing productivity with our virtual assistants, bookkeepers, and social media managers. Accomplish more. Juggle less. And get back to what only you can do, growing your business with modern staffing from BELAY. Now let’s dive into today’s conversation.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Hey Catherine, welcome to the One Next Step podcast.

Catherine Bowman:

Well, Hey Lisa, thanks for having me.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. I know this feels a little bit like a reunion, because you’ve been around for a long time. You have helped make BELAY, BELAY. How cool is that?

Catherine Bowman:

It really is. It’s been great to see all of the growth in progress and I’ve been around for 11 years.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Oh my gosh. Yeah. I know. What an incredible story, I know that we’ve touched on it before, but just how you were willing to give this company a chance. And so I so appreciate that and appreciate you jumping on today to really help our listeners understand what to look for in bookkeeping, how we can help. And so, I think this is going to be an amazing conversation. However, before we get into the nitty gritty and the nuts and bolts, because you’re going to just wow everybody.

Catherine Bowman:

Okay.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Let’s have a fun question. Okay. Are you up for this?

Catherine Bowman:

Yeah. Absolutely.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Okay, good. So it’s a pretty easy one. I’m not here to embarrass you, but what is favorite celebrity and why?

Catherine Bowman:

Oh, favorite celebrity and why? Okay, so don’t laugh, but I’m really not into celebrities. I never know who they are. And so I have this weird love of Pat Sajak from Wheel of Fortune.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Really?

Catherine Bowman:

Yes. I would say he’s my favorite celebrity. He is so witty and he’s got great one liners and it’s something. My son and I watch Wheel of Fortune every day, and I just think Pat Sajak is the man. One of my secret bucket list items is to go on Wheel of Fortune. I don’t have a celebrity for you necessarily, but game show host does that count?

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. Hear me a celebrity, that would be somebody, if you were to see him at Publix or out on the street, you’d want to take a picture with him. Right?

Catherine Bowman:

Absolutely.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. So to me that’s a celebrity and I love that. He would probably be so flattered right now to hear that. I love it.

Catherine Bowman:

He’s so funny. He’s got a dry sense of humor and I love his one liners. Big fan of Pat Sajak.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. I just imagine what a difficult job, because you don’t really know the personalities, they vary on Wheel of Fortune. Some people are dry, some people are funny. He has to know how to work that whole thing.

Catherine Bowman:

He does. He’s got a great personality for that role. I enjoy watching him every night. It’s good family friendly, fun.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. Does that mean that you are a great speller?

Catherine Bowman:

I feel like given the opportunity I would do well on Wheel of Fortune, but I say that I’d probably then go and embarrass myself.

Lisa Zeeveld:

No.

Catherine Bowman:

I beat my 12 year old, if that counts for anything.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yes. Yes, absolutely that counts. I realized when my kids got to be about what like 9, 10, that they started to get smarter than me. So the fact that you could be the 12 year old, kudos to you.

Catherine Bowman:

There you go. That’s right.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Well, we started out by talking how long you’ve been here at BELAY. I do think it’s worth going back to that story. Are you willing to share a little bit about how you joined us?

Catherine Bowman:

Sure. Sure. So about 12 years ago, went to lunch with some friends and they had heard of the initial startup of what at the time was just called MAG Bookkeeping. We’re talking about a friend who knew about it and just threw some mutual connections. I was in need of something to utilize my talents, but I had a new baby and I wanted to be a mom and I didn’t really know how to merge those two worlds of, I have a career, I have an accounting degree, but I have this beautiful, precious newborn and I want to be able to balance that. And so in talking, they explained how it would work and used the phrase, virtual bookkeeper and working from home.

Catherine Bowman:

I thought, “How weird is that? Is that really going to be a thing? But I have nothing to lose.” And so gave it a shot. In the beginning it was probably six or seven of us on a conference call because that’s what the company existed of. But man, initially got a few clients and started to see really how technology had changed. And we really could serve our clients virtually and had a few wins, got an actual first paycheck and thought, this is real.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Which was a handwritten check back in the day. It was a handwritten check by Shannon.

Catherine Bowman:

So that came in the mail and I thought, “This really is something, this is where the world is headed, it’s where I’m headed.” I think I thrived so much because I was also at peace in my personal life. I knew that I could serve my family and be a mom and then still feel like I had an individual say in the business world. It was such a good thing initially and then it just grew and grew and grew, multiple service lines and new name. The growth has been amazing to watch and to have been a part of it the whole time and to see it, witness it, and feel it. I tell my friends all the time when they complain about their jobs, “Every job has got something that’s difficult, but at the end of the day, I’m so thankful for mine because I don’t have that corporate drama and stress that a lot of people talk about.” It’s a real thing. It’s a real thing in the world, to not have that, it puts me at peace.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I’m trying to think and if my fingers could type fast enough. You said that the original calls are about five or six and I’m pretty sure that I was on with the five. Because that’s what I remember about those original calls because Tricia recruited me and I was one of the first virtual assistants and I just remember us getting on, it was Skype back in the day and then we had the free conference call number and we would all call in and we’d go around, it was like a little round robin and we’d talk about what we were doing at that time.

Catherine Bowman:

It’s like the Brady Bunch Squares.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yes.

Catherine Bowman:

Yes.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yes. Totally. And then I remember those first checks of Shannon, she was handwriting them and mailing them out. The funny thing is I actually didn’t get my first check.

Catherine Bowman:

Oh no.

Lisa Zeeveld:

She forgot to mail it to me. So I did not have this same experience you did, Catherine. where I actually got my first paycheck and I stuck around look at that.

Catherine Bowman:

They worked it out. They worked it out.

Lisa Zeeveld:

They worked it out.

Catherine Bowman:

Now, it comes every time on time, every month without fail.

Lisa Zeeveld:

I am the CFO now, so maybe some things have changed.

Catherine Bowman:

Thank you, Lisa.

Lisa Zeeveld:

I help the payment process work a little better. No, I love that and I love your commitment to BELAY and you just continuing to serve clients with excellence and like I said, your commitment to us. So I think that you’re going to add a lot value to those who are listening right now and who maybe have a bookkeeper, maybe have a CPA they’re leveraging and they’re throwing around the idea of going this fractional bookkeeping route and they just don’t know enough about it. And so thank you for joining us and really diving into that. So if you don’t mind, let’s start out with this of every entrepreneur wants to save time and of course they want to save money and they want to wisely manage and spend it. Most of them love to spend it from my experience here. So let’s walk through each of those and talk about how you and your clients handle it. So how do you help entrepreneurs save time? Let’s start there.

Catherine Bowman:

Well, I would say a lot of times it’s different for each one and it depends on what their pain points are. And so we work through that on a discovery call and figure out really what’s stressing them out. What is taking up more time than they should be spending on bookkeeping. But one of the ones that I hear most consistently is just that nitpicky expense reporting process that comes up on every single kickoff call. Clients are really frustrated with how to manage a team and how to communicate expenses and what they’re for. And so we work with clients initially, there’s a couple of different routes you can go with, some are free, some have a little subscription you can pay to certain websites.

Catherine Bowman:

I make recommendations based on really, how can you initially get that taken care of pretty quickly and efficiently? So that they’re not in the nitty gritty of that and it helps them delegate that out. If you can teach your team how to be responsible for their portion of the budget and they own that, then you’re not spending hours coding transactions. And so that’s one of the first ones we start with on their time management.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. Yeah. Do you have any suggestions? You mentioned a low entry cost or maybe something that’s free. Anyone come to mind? I know here at BELAY we use Expensify. That’s pretty an affordable option for that.

Catherine Bowman:

Expensify is very affordable. Concur Solutions is great, another really very great option that’s user friendly. I will tell you for some of my clients, we use good old fashioned Google Drive, and I import their chart of accounts with a dropdown box and they use that if they don’t need to capture receipts. So those are options that one’s free. Couple of different options that we use that take them away from paper receipts, where they’re having to send those over. We look at all of the ones and see what’s not working for you right now and see if we need to change that.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. Yeah. I love that we started with save time. So the next favorite one of mine is how do you help them save money?

Catherine Bowman:

Ooh, saving money. It’s one of my favorite things to focus on. I am extremely type A and I love a good Excel spreadsheet, so looking at the numbers. Sometimes churches think that they can’t cut costs. They just don’t see how they can make it possible, especially when personnel is a huge portion of their budget. And so what I tell them is in order to save money, we have to have accurate reports and we have to know where it’s going. So it’s really in the development of their chart of accounts. For example, one of my churches asked me, “Do we need to have a chart of account for printing?” I thought, Well, if your printing costs are more or less than the idea of purchasing a copier, then yes, we would need to know that.”

Catherine Bowman:

And so for me to be able to offer solutions really starts with having a great chart of accounts, so that I can look at the history and look for pain points in areas where we’re over budget and offer up suggestions for how to save. So initially we’ll do a chart of account review, make sure that your reports are telling you what you need to know that it’s valuable information.

Katie Kantukh:

I’m used to doing the bookkeeping and the scheduling and client calls and the actual deliverables. And to hand that over was kind of nerve-racking because my name’s on all of this and it felt a little bit like a leap of faith. I just trusted the process and Ari already proved me right, that he’s worthy of my complete trust. And he has made my business so much better and working like clockwork and just, I feel like my clients are taken better care of now that we have more than just one person on the line.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Their story can be your story too. And all it takes is one next step to get started. You shouldn’t have to do everything. And with a BELAY Virtual Assistant, you don’t have to. Visit belaysolutions.com today to start accomplishing more and juggling less.

Lisa Zeeveld:

You said one of my favorite words, which is budget. I find that’s a really simple way to save money is to create a budget, right? People talk about that personally, so why not have a budget for your business?

Catherine Bowman:

What I fail is myself included, we’re all so afraid of the word budget. It has such a negative connotation, like it’s going to restrain us, but I really believe it frees us. When we have a budget, we can tell our money where to go and not respond to where it’s been. We can actually analyze things and make good decisions, knowing what we expect to have come in and spend. Now it’s not something to live and breathe by and create anxiety for you, it’s really supposed to be a guide. And so analyzing a budget versus actual report is key. And so then you can determine where you need to pump the breaks or where you have freedom to invest in a certain ministry. So creating the budget, a lot of them don’t even know where to start. So we help them create budgets when we get started. That’s something I like to implement within 90 days of kickoff with a client is to have an established budget.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. Yeah. Do you use prior year financials to start with that budget template? For someone who’s maybe afraid of that idea, how do you give them something that maybe doesn’t feel like they’re having to start from scratch?

Catherine Bowman:

Yes. Going with a prior year financial information is a great way to start with a budget, but we always typically make adjustments. Of course the last few years are not typical, and so we have to adjust for that. We also have to communicate with the clients, “Have there been any major changes? Have you added on a new location? Have you lost a certain percentage of your personage or your membership?” Have conversations to communicate things that we know that we can implement and add to the data that we have. Has your student ministry grown and you’re actually going to do two VBS weekends? Some of the things those questions that we talk about, and that really comes just from getting to know their ministry, having them talk to us and communicate. So I start with prior year’s data, and then I start with, “Tell me what you know.” Really it’s a simple, “Tell me what you think is going to happen.” And we talk through those different scenarios.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. I think that’s key in easing some of that anxiety because I think that some people just don’t know what they don’t know and so showing them. And then when you have those detailed GL accounts, like you had talked about earlier, then they go, “What do you mean? I didn’t know I was spending this much on lunches for everybody.” Or “I didn’t know I was spending this much on printing.” Then you can start to build a budget that puts some boundaries on those costs. Whereas before you weren’t setting expectations for your team and they could maybe spend a little bit more than you intended them to, no fault of their own, they just didn’t have guidelines.

Catherine Bowman:

Lisa, one of my favorite things about the budget is they can take sections of it and delegate it out to staff members. That takes some of the weight off of our senior pastors, our executive pastors. They can give their student minister a certain portion of the budget and say, “This is yours and delegate that to them.” And then that person is responsible for managing it. It also internally gives their staff a sense of pride and they know that they’re trusted. And so it really implements their business even in a bigger way than financial. And so I really love a budget for so many things. I think it’s multifaceted for sure.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. Me and you both. Me and you both. I love it. I love when it comes budget season and I love reviewing financials monthly in comparison to that too. So that’s awesome. All right. So we talked about saving time. We talked about saving money. All right, now let’s talk about wisely managing and spending money. And so I think that we touched on a little bit about reviewing things, reviewing that budget, reviewing those expense reports. But I feel like it goes a little deeper than that. So you got any suggestions around how to wisely spend and manage money?

Catherine Bowman:

Starting with a budget, obviously we’ve already touched on that, that’s a great place to call. But what I have found and even in my personal life is if you don’t have a dedicated time set aside with your bookkeeper to really talk and analyze things, you’ll let it go a month, two months, a quarter and then the next thing you know, you’re almost at the end of the year. So one of the things I like to do with my clients is to have a scheduled conference call to where we dedicated communication time for not just the budget, but for all things financial. We look at debt and what’s the game plan to get that taken care of. Do you have an emergency fund? We analyze the balance sheet and the profit and loss statement.

Catherine Bowman:

And so I think that it all comes down to a dedicated time to focus on those items because we tend to put things that are sometimes not fun, sometimes not extremely interesting or can be tedious at times we put those to the back burner. And so to be wise with your money really means intentionality and a planned conversation where we’re going to address these things. I guess that’s in all things in life, whether it’s going on a workout or weight loss, all of the things that we have goals for, if we’re intentional with them, we will be able to make wise decisions.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. I love that intentionality and planning the time, because I know again, just from networking and friends, I’m always shocked to find out that we have business owners and I shouldn’t say BELAY, but there are business owners out there because BELAY, we don’t allow that with our clients. I say that jokingly. We encourage monthly reviews of financial statements. I’ve talked with folks before who are like, “I can’t, I have to do it every other month.” I’m like, “What do you mean you’re doing it every month or every quarter? What are you missing out on?” And so I love the idea that you’re stating, put it on your calendar, have a specific time to do it. Talk with your bookkeeper. Perhaps if you’ve got some complicated tax issues, set up time to talk to your CPA because that is not going to go away. The data is there, the money is there or the money is not there and it’s not going to make it any easier, the more you ignore it.

Catherine Bowman:

But I do understand how it can happen because these people that I work with, especially in churches, they’re so dynamic, their leadership skills are in other places. To be honest with you, they’re fantastic speakers and they engage with people when they’re going to lunches and they care for them. And so really this being a true focus, it can’t take up too much of their time. And so what I love is coming to those meetings where I’ve done the back work and I can do a 30 minute summary and they’re engaged. They focus on it. They’ve been intentional, but it didn’t take a week worth of work and they don’t have to dig through all of the nitpicky numbers. I record it and report it so that we can analyze it.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. I love that. I love that. Well, do you have, perhaps a client experience stands out to you over the past 11 years? What is something that you feel maybe was a big win, maybe somebody who was a little bit more reluctant to move on to a virtual bookkeeper or maybe somebody who was just ready to do it, but you had a better outcome than you expected?

Catherine Bowman:

It’s actually happening right now with a new client that I’ve just taken over early February, and this person, such a great leadership and his wife is involved in ministry with him. And so she is helping with all things admin, and as we know that can get a little bit difficult. He told me, “There’re receipts in my truck, she’s getting them out and coding them for me. She’s doing all.” Yeah, and I said, “Well, she’s much nicer than I would be.”

Lisa Zeeveld:

Right. Yeah.

Catherine Bowman:

And so the big win is honestly, we developed a 30, 60, 90 day plan and we came up with… Because if you get on your kickoff call, it can be very overwhelming for all of the things we want to do. And so you get this long list of initial action items and access and things to set up. I told him, I was like, “You’re not going to feel relief for 60 days. You’re actually going to feel a little bit of, we’re going to have some growing pains as we get to know each other and as I learned your ministry, but then after 60 days and we have processes and procedures developed, you’re going to sigh a big sigh of relief, because you’ll see it work in action. So bear with me.” So the big win is that he has delegated off some of the tasks that he and his wife were doing together and he has put a team in place to handle finances.

Catherine Bowman:

He’s let it go. Just walking through him and helping him trust the system and seeing it, we have a weekly call and week by week, I see him trust it a little bit more, a little bit more. Because he was hesitant, he thought, “Okay. Paid this first month fee, now what?”

Lisa Zeeveld:

Right.

Catherine Bowman:

To see his facial expression change week to week, and for him to know that we are headed really fast towards all of the things that we’ve set out in our 30, 60, 90, we are about halfway there. And so he’s starting to breathe a little easier.

Lisa Zeeveld:

I love that. I love that. I think it’s a good point to mention that he had somebody, his wife, who obviously he loves and trust tremendously that was helping. You’re able to get them to a place where there’s even more efficiency and there’s more transparency and it’s not burdening them either, but you’re relieving them from all that. And so I think that a lot of times that’s what happens in whether it’s ministry or in a for-profit business is we just think, “Let me look at the people around me, in my home and who has a skillset or maybe a friend’s got a skillset to do this.” That’s not always a good fit long term.

Catherine Bowman:

That’s right.

Lisa Zeeveld:

You’ve got to look outside for, I like to say some additional accountability, adding in that other layer of having somebody that’s not related to you or so close to the business or so close to the ministry, I think is a good thing.

Catherine Bowman:

We really had just a lot of people doing a little bit of everything. That’s really what was going on and I talked to him about, “Let’s define some clear role and decide who’s going to do what and they’re only going to do that.” And so you guys don’t have to text each other all day, “Did you do this or did I do this?” There’s not confusion. We’re really going to define who is your admin person? Who is your finance person? How does that relate to me? Who do I communicate to get at the end of the day tasks done more efficiently and faster? It’s been really neat to see it play out. We’re making progress. We’re not where we want to be, but we are well on our way.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Such a great reminder that you have to be willing to step out of your comfort zone and realize that you can save time, save money, and manage things much better, if you’re willing to delegate to a trusted source that has the prior experience and you’re willing to be led a little bit. Right? I think it’s a two-way street. Delegation’s a two-way street, you have to be willing to lead others, but you have to be willing to be led yourself.

Catherine Bowman:

That’s a great statement. I’m going to write that one down.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Good. Good. Well, one of the things that we like to do, Catherine, is we like to offer our listeners a bonus next step. It’s like a bonusode of this podcast. I feel like we’ve got maybe two more questions here. Would you be willing to stick around and maybe answer one more?

Catherine Bowman:

Yeah, for sure. Let’s do it.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Okay. Awesome. All right guys. Well, you heard it here, the conversation is so good with Catherine, so I definitely want you to stick around, you don’t want to miss it. In order to hear this clip, you must subscribe to our email list and we’re going to send you a link to our bonus content, or you can always visit onenextsteppodcast.com where you can find a link in our show notes.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

LZ, what a great conversation with Catherine. I was really impressed by her commitment to her bookkeeping clients and helping them succeed.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Agreed. Catherine is such a bookkeeping rock star, and we’re so grateful that she’s chosen to commit to BELAY for over a decade. As you know, every week we offer one next step for our listeners. Head on over to the show notes page for today’s episode to access the fantastic bookkeeping resource we have for you and take the first next step towards alleviating stress and elevating your business.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Well, thank you so much for tuning in for today’s One Next Step. To make sure you never miss an episode, subscribe on Apple Podcast or follow us on Spotify. And if you’re ready to start accomplishing more and juggling less, go to belaysolutions.com.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Join us next time for more practical business tips and tools to help you advance your business one step at a time. For more episodes, show notes, and helpful resources, visit onenextsteppodcast.com.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Join us next week for an amazing conversation with Harris III, a speaker, author, illusionist and entrepreneur who has a mission to help entrepreneurs transform from the story they feel stuck in to the life they want to live. Don’t miss this episode!

Harris III:

We think that imagination is something that we use as kids, and then as we get older, it starts to fade away. And it’s just not the case. We use our imaginations every day as adults to worry, to fear, especially in the context of change.And so I think that worry is a misuse of imagination. And part of the reason why that narrative work is so important is because it allows you to take agency over that storytelling process, to recognize how you’re misusing your imagination.