Why we won’t teach you bookkeeping.

or why you’re likely to mess up your own books.

As professional bookkeepers, we receive inquires from time to time from folks who want us to teach them to manage their own books— usually this is from folks starting out, or from folks with solo practices, people that don’t quite have the revenue to support hiring out their small business bookkeeping. We’re very happy to clean up someone’s books or setup squeaky clean new ones…but we don’t teach people how to do their own books, and there are some clear reasons why.

Most of our clients have existing books when they come to us, usually there’s some clean up or fixing to do before we slide into monthly accounting. I bet you can guess which books are in the worst shape?

Yep. The DIY books.

I understand why folks attempt to do it themselves. Often to save money. But more often these days it’s because most software has taught us that we can figure almost anything out with the right tools.

Canva lets anyone create graphics without understanding complex software or design principles. With Squarespace, you can build a website without needing to understand anything about code. The software handles the technical bits— the code and the principals of color theory— leaving you to the rest.

Now, as my partner, a professional designer will (vehemently) remind me, using Canva doesn’t save people from bad design. It doesn’t actually make anyone a graphic designer, it just helps you and me whip out graphics.

But bad design is mostly a qualitative issue. Bad bookkeeping? That’s hot water.

But since we’re all so used to learning various software, the software facilitating our ability to do all sorts of things that we don’t actually know how to do technically, it tracks that accounting software like Quickbooks or Xero also makes it easy for owners to do their own books?

Well…

Accounting software is a little different.

Here’s why:
Accounting software rests on a foundation of accounting principles.

It’s easy enough to do some of the basic functions of bookkeeping, say, categorizing expenses. Creating and sending invoices. Running a profit and loss report.

But reconciliation?
What the heck to do with an undeposited funds account?
How to properly record payroll expenses?
Amortization?

This is where things start to get sticky.

Modern tech has taught us that learning new things is largely a matter of learning software.

And so I see people approach bookkeeping as a matter of learning software, when in reality it’s a matter of learning accounting.

And the stakes are a little higher.

Say you decide to patch up the dings and scratches on your car yourself. Car body work is expensive, and when you’re mostly concerned with rust, aiming a can of spray paint at your bumper might look like shit, but the worst that happens is maybe some judgy neighbors.

But what if you notice some weird squeaky noises coming from the engine; or something not quite with the brakes? Not knowing much of anything about car engines, do you try and fix it yourself?

Bookkeeping is engine work.

Accurate reports signal like a check engine light. If you’re not getting the correct signals, you won’t know when your car is in danger of breaking down.

To be clear, we don’t teach bookkeeping not because it’s impossible to learn, or the esoteric knowledge of a secret society— financial knowledge, as managed by a collection of professions overpopulated with straight white men, suffers from intense gatekeeping. We don’t teach it because it takes some time and it’s more efficient and cost effective to learn via a course than individual tutoring.

For the money you might spend on training, it’ll be more cost effective, and you’ll receive far more value, by hiring it out. While keeping tidy books is a big part of our work, just as important is having a reliable sounding board and person to keep an eye on your financial systems.

If you’re ready to explore bookkeeping for your small business, we’d love to connect. More information and our contact form can be found here.

If you’re not quite there yet, you’ll want to check out our post about other options besides trying to wrangle professional accounting software yourself.