Bookkeepers On Fire with Deb & Donna

🚨 Hiring contractors overseas? Don’t overcomplicate it. We just broke it down on Bookkeepers on Fire and here’s the 🔥 truth:✅ Contractor ≠ Employee – If they’re outside the U.S., they’re not subject to U.S. payroll taxes. 📝 W-8BEN is Your Friend – Have it on file, don’t send it anywhere. Just keep it for your records.🌍 Simple, Not Scary – Unless you’re setting up payroll in another country (👀 Canada anyone?), don’t make it harder than it needs to be.Sometimes the biggest bookkeeping “headaches” are actually just paperwork in disguise. 😉✍️👉 Would you ever hire a contractor outside the U.S.? Why or why not?🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire CommunityBookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.🔥Donate with Venmo🔥    🔥Donate with PayPal🔥

🚨 Nine years of messy books later… and guess what? They finally called a bookkeeper. 🙃When clients come in with chaos, here’s the deal:✨ Fresh Books, Fresh Start – Don’t dig through a decade of dust. Get what’s needed for the tax return and move forward. 💸 Charge What It’s Worth – Cleanups aren’t charity. Minimums matter. Yes, even $10K+ for the mess they created. 📝 ROI Reality Check – No one cares if that 2016 repair was “office supplies.” The IRS just wants the return filed.👉 Bookkeepers: Don’t sell yourself short. Clients waited nine years — they can wait for the invoice too. 💥🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire CommunityBookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.🔥Donate with Venmo🔥    🔥Donate with PayPal🔥#BookkeepersOnFire #MessyBooks #ValuePricing

🔥 Bookkeepers, let’s get real... do we really need to sit around waiting for bank statements before entering transactions? Spoiler alert: nope. Business keeps moving, and so should you. 🚀Here’s the spicy takeaway from our latest Bookkeepers on Fire episode:✨ 3 Hot Truths About Reconciling:💻 Enter First, Reconcile Later → Don’t let missing statements slow your workflow. Keep the books rolling.🏦 Bank Feeds Rule → If balances match, statements start to look like yesterday’s news.🌟 Old School is Over → Statements are turning into nothing more than a dusty touchpoint for the curious accountant.⚡ Keep it moving. Keep it accurate. Keep it fiery.🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire CommunityBookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.🔥Donate with Venmo🔥    🔥Donate with PayPal🔥 #BookkeepersOnFire #AlwaysBePosting #AccountingHumor

🚨 Just landed your “first client”? Hold up… not so fast. 🚨Here’s the real deal from our latest Bookkeepers on Fire episode 🎙️👇✨ 3 Hot Truths:💸 Prospect ≠ Client → Until there’s 💵 on the table (and a signed engagement letter), you’ve got a maybe, not a client.🍔 Fries Still Cost Extra → Minimum pricing is non-negotiable. You don’t get a discount just because you don’t eat the fries.🤖 Transactions vs. Transformation → Are you a keystroke-counter (AI bait) or the advisor who changes lives?🎧 Catch the full episode where we spill the sarcasm and the strategy → #BookkeepersOnFire🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire CommunityBookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.🔥Donate with Venmo🔥    🔥Donate with PayPal🔥

Bookkeepers are DONE playing small. 🔥In our latest Bookkeepers on Fire episode, Deb and Donna sat down with Matt Tait of Decimal – a “recovering attorney” turned multi-business founder who's blowing up the traditional firm model and turning bookkeeping into a scalable, lifestyle-friendly business opportunity.Here’s a taste of what we got into 👇💥 Stop building yourself a job. Most firm owners stay stuck “doing the work” instead of building a business. Matt breaks down why founders should NOT be the ones in the GL…and what to focus on instead.🧠 Cleanups, pricing & boundaries (aka: stop bleeding profit). From NOT selling cleanups first, to pricing in relationships (emails, meetings, Slack chaos), Matt shares how Decimal avoids the margin-killing traps most firms fall into.🚀 Franchising bookkeeping as an operating system. Decimal isn’t just tech + offshore staff. It’s a full blueprint: vertical specialization, community, Philippines-based team support, and AI at the “tip of the spear” so franchisees can actually grow…not drown.If you’re a bookkeeper or accountant who’s tired of being “just the back office” and ready to think like an entrepreneur, this convo is for you.🔥 Subscribe to the : Bookkeepers On Fire NewsletterBookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.🔥Donate with Venmo🔥    🔥Donate with PayPal🔥

💸 Cash + Coaches = Chaos?Sometimes bookkeeping questions aren’t about how to record… but why the heck it happened in the first place.Here’s the hot take from this week’s Bookkeepers on Fire 🎙️🔥:🚨 Red Flags Everywhere – Paying a “business coach” in cash? No invoice? No W9? Yeah… sketchy.💼 Bookkeepers ≠ Police – Our job is to record, advise, and guide. Not cuff clients for bad decision.💡 Transform, Don’t Tattle – The win is coaching clients toward smarter choices (not letting them spiral into IRS nightmares).👉 Bottom line: You record the transaction, you flag the concern, and you keep the sparkle of professionalism alive. ✨🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire CommunityBookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.🔥Donate with Venmo🔥    🔥Donate with PayPal🔥#BookkeepersOnFire #CashIsn’tKing #BookkeepingWithAttitude

💡 Ever thought you needed a QuickBooks mentor to finally “get it”?Here’s the truth (with a little tough love): nobody can make you learn. You’ve got to do the work. But the right communities can absolutely change the game.✨ Here’s the real scoop:🚀 F1 was my first mentor → yup, that little help key taught me more than I ever expected.🎥 YouTube University FTW → Hector Garcia & Veronica Wasek mentored me for years before they even knew I existed.🤝 Communities beat gurus → you’ll learn faster (and cheaper) by surrounding yourself with people who share knowledge than by paying someone to spoon-feed you.👉 So stop hunting for shortcuts. Dive in, get your hands messy, ask questions in the right groups, and teach as you learn. That’s how you level up.🔥 Question for you: Who’s been your “accidental mentor”?🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire CommunityBookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.🔥Donate with Venmo🔥    🔥Donate with PayPal🔥

🚨 Stop scrolling. Let’s talk about why you’re stuck in analysis paralysis instead of building your business.Too many new bookkeepers are:🤯 Comparing prices to $200 “McBookkeeping” shops (spoiler: it’s a race to the bottom)📝 Counting transactions instead of transforming clients’ businesses (transactional = cheap, transformative = premium 💎)🌐 Obsessing over websites instead of landing actual clients (newsflash: your first five don’t care about your homepage 🚫)💡 The truth? You’re not competing with bargain-bin vendors. You’re building something bigger. Premium. Impactful. You.🔥 Stop waiting. Stop copying. Start transforming.🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire CommunityBookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.🔥Donate with Venmo🔥    🔥Donate with PayPal🔥

Bookkeepers on Fire is LIT today 🔥I got to sit down with the legendary Randy Crabtree — partner at Tri-Merit, creator of Bridging the Gap Conference, host of The Unique CPA podcast, and powerful mental health + anti-burnout advocate in our profession.Here’s your sneak peek into this 🔥 convo:💥 Burnout is NOT a badge of honor – Randy shares how a stroke completely reshaped his career and why he’s on a mission to help accountants & bookkeepers stop glorifying 80-hour weeks, constant dings, and “I have to answer every email right now” culture.🤝 Big firms, small firms – we need each other – From outcome-based pricing to deep processes and KPIs, Randy breaks down how larger and smaller firms can actually learn from each other instead of staying in separate worlds.🧠💪 Mental health, movement & community are strategy – From hotel gyms and home workouts to Pilates and daily walks, we talked about how caring for your body fuels your brain — and why conferences, road shows, and communities like Ask a CPA, Bookkeeping Buds, and Bookkeepers on Fire are lifelines, not luxuries.If you’re a bookkeeper or accountant who’s done with burnout and ready to lead with heart, power, and purpose… this episode is for you. 🔥Bridging The Gap Conference: https://www.btgconference.com/Tri-Merit: https://tri-merit.com/The Unique CPA Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-unique-cpa/id1484824707🔥 Subscribe to the : Bookkeepers On Fire NewsletterBookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.🔥Donate with Venmo🔥    🔥Donate with PayPal🔥

🚨 Ever had an insurance provider, mortgage broker, or workers comp auditor throw around the word “audited” like it’s free candy? 🍬 Spoiler alert: it’s not the same thing we mean in accounting.Here’s the real talk:🔹 Audited ≠ Audited – Capital “A” audit means third-party, deep dive, $15K+ bill 💸 … small “a” audit means “does this look okay?” 👀🔹 Push Back – When they demand “audited” statements, ask them who’s paying. (Hint: not you, unless they’ve got $15,000 burning a hole in their pocket) 🔥🔹 Clarity Wins – Most of the time, they just want standardized financials. Send your year-end statements ✅ and call it a day.👉 Next time someone tosses the word audit at you, remember: definitions matter.Would you pay $15K just to make your insurance agent happy? 😂🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire CommunityBookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.🔥Donate with Venmo🔥    🔥Donate with PayPal🔥

💸 Favorite clients can still fail… and it’s not your fault. Sometimes, tough love is the best kind of bookkeeping.🔥 Here’s the hard truth we don’t like to admit:☕ Starbucks ≠ Sales. If your client spends more than they sell, no spreadsheet magic can fix it.💳 Loans for payroll? That’s not strategy, that’s survival mode (with interest).🚪 No sales, no business. A website doesn’t pay the bills—customers do.At the end of the day, you can love your client… but you can’t fund their denial. Sometimes, letting go is the real act of service.👉 Bookkeepers, have you ever had to give a client the “tough mom” talk?🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire CommunityBookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.🔥Donate with Venmo🔥    🔥Donate with PayPal🔥

🎓 School told us confidence comes with a degree. 😅 Reality handed us dusty ledgers, 100° fields in business suits, and office supply “theories” that no one uses.Here’s what we actually learned:📚 Theory is nice… until you’re sweating through your blazer counting grain silos in Bakersfield.🤯 Confidence tanks fast when your shiny diploma doesn’t match real-world chaos (spoiler: it never does).🚀 Real growth happens when you mess up, fix it, and keep showing up. No permission slips required.🔥 So, are you still riding the stagecoach of “education only”… or are you piloting the supersonic jet of experience + guts?🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire CommunityBookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.🔥Donate with Venmo🔥    🔥Donate with PayPal🔥

🔥 Elite? Please. Let’s set the record straight.Being a top-tier bookkeeper isn’t about some fancy title. It’s about how you show up.Here’s the truth 👇💪 Confidence Counts → Stop acting like a vendor. Walk in as the expert you are.💸 Costly ≠ Expensive → You’re not “too expensive.” You’re an investment. Cheap mistakes cost way more.⚡ Deliver or Don’t → Bold promises mean nothing if you can’t deliver. Do the work. Every. Single. Time.✨ You don’t need permission to call yourself an expert. You just need the guts to own it.🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire CommunityBookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.🔥Donate with Venmo🔥    🔥Donate with PayPal🔥#BookkeepersOnFire #ValueNotCost #ExpertMindset

💥 Business owners writing checks to “Cash”? Let’s talk about the chaos that follows. Because what you think saves hassle actually invites headaches (and maybe an IRS fan club).Here’s the breakdown:💸 No shortcuts → Writing “Cash” doesn’t erase 1099 obligations. The IRS still wants its slice.🤯 Chaos guaranteed → Try explaining “mystery cash” when applying for a loan. Spoiler: banks don’t buy shenanigans.🧾 Bookkeepers aren’t magicians → If you hand us “Cash,” don’t expect it to vanish. It ends up in Owner Distribution. Period.👉 Sometimes the right thing costs more upfront—but it costs way less than the wrong thing later.🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire CommunityBookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.🔥Donate with Venmo🔥    🔥Donate with PayPal🔥#Bookkeeping #SmallBusiness #TaxTruths #BookkeepersOnFire

🚧 Contractor or Coworker? That is the very expensive question. Before you hand out reimbursements like party favors, you might want to tune into this one 👀💥 Here's what we unpack:🧾 Why every penny you pay a contractor—including that “harmless” mileage reimbursement—could blow up your 1099s🧨 The one word that can turn your independent contractor into a full-blown employee (hello, audit 🧑‍⚖️)📬 Why “just send an invoice” might be your new favorite phrase🔗 Listen now before the IRS does.🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire CommunityBookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.🔥Donate with Venmo🔥    🔥Donate with PayPal🔥 #BookkeepersOnFire #ContractorLife #1099Drama #AuditThis #QuickBooksQueen #SpicyAccounting #BookkeepingTruthBombs