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Implementing the Accounting System

A large corporation’s accounting system is developed and maintained by the CFO (Chief FinancialOfficer), managed by a Controller, and performed by Senior and Junior Accountants and administrative assistants.

An accounting firm’s accounting system is developed and maintained by the Partner(s), managed by a Manager, and performed by Senior and Junior Accountants.

A small business’s accounting system is developed and maintained by the company’s accounting firm, managed by the firm’s Manager, and performed by the firm’s Senior and Junior Accountants or the business owner’s bookkeeper.

Who Should Perform the Bookkeeping?

There are three people who can perform the bookkeeping for a small business:

  1. Owner
  2. Employee
  3. Independent contractor (bookkeeper or accountant)

Note: Accountants are defined as individuals who possess accounting degrees. Accountants can perform bookkeeping but should not or prefer not to. Accountants generally earn a higher income performing accounting work or services and they obtained their degree to perform accounting, not bookkeeping.

A small business owner should not perform their own bookkeeping. They make better use of their time working on their business and not working in their business. The owner should delegate their bookkeeping to a trained, certified, and experienced employee or independent contractor bookkeeper.

To determine whether to delegate their bookkeeping to an employee, bookkeeper or accountant, a business owner should perform a cost-benefit analysis. A cost-benefit analysis is a process a business owner uses to analyze decisions. The owner sums the benefits of a situation or action and then subtracts the costs associated with taking that action.

If the business owner chooses to have an employee perform their bookkeeping, the owner should ensure the employee is trained, certified, experienced, supported, and supervised.

Intuit has a reputation for developing DIY (Do-it-yourself) applications such as Mint for personal budgeting, QuickBooks for bookkeeping, and TurboTax for tax preparation. Therefore, many small business owners believe Intuit developed QuickBooks to replace their accountants. Thus, many QuickBooks Users do not have bookkeeping training, certification, experience, support, and supervision.

Intuit developed QuickBooks to enable small businesses to perform their bookkeeping with assistance from their accountants. This is the relationship small business owners and accountants should develop.

Many small businesses have the following responsibilities:

  • Bookkeeping
  • Payroll
  • Merchant Account
  • Accounting
  • Business Performance Analysis
  • Tax Preparation

Intuit is QuickBooks Online Ecosystem provides the following tools to assist small business owners and accountants in completing these responsibilities:

  • Bookkeeping – QuickBooks Online,
  • Payroll – QuickBooks Online Payroll
  • Merchant Account – QuickBooks Payments
  • Accounting – QuickBooks Online Accountant
  • Business Performance Analysis – Fathom (QuickBooks Online third-party app)
  • Tax Preparation – Intuit ProConnect Tax Online

The person responsible for completing these responsibilities should be:

  • Bookkeeping – small business employee or independent contractor bookkeeper
  • Payroll – small business employee or independent contractor bookkeeper
  • Merchant Account – small business employee or independent contractor bookkeeper
  • Accounting – accountant
  • Business Performance Analysis – accountant
  • Tax Preparation – accountant or tax preparer

Consortia was developed based on this model. Therefore, we provide the following services:

  • eCommerce website setup, hosting, maintenance, training, and support
  • Bookkeeping setup, training, certification, support, and supervision
  • Payroll setup, training, certification, support, and supervision
  • QuickBooks Online Ecosystem setup, training, certification, support, and supervision
  • Accounting
  • Business performance analysis
  • Tax planning and preparation