Realtor · Walnut Creek, CA · Member since 2017 · 39 posts · 18 votes
Hey BP!
I've read articles on the forums here about the importance of hiring a bookkeeper if you're like me and dread spending valuable time doing accounting. What I'm curious to know is, how safe is it to grant bookkeepers your personal account access? I link applicable bank accounts to programs like Stessa, so I'm guessing I would need to grant them access to my credit card and bank accounts so that they can reconcile and check entries that are automated, or add/modify entries when needed. Any advice on how to set this up safely?
Contractor · Nashville, TN · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
4y
They will need access to your accounting software but that is all. The liability is much too great to give just anyone access to your bank accounts. It would take years for them to earn that trust. The best thing to do is to download the statements yourself and save them on a Google drive folder or wherever you have shareable files, and they will use the statements that you uploaded to reconcile
Accountant · NY · Member since 2019 · 99 posts · 69 votes
4y
@Benjamin Lenz as a bookkeeper i ask for read only access. Which is exactly what it sounds, I can see but can't touch your money. You are correct, I ask for that access, so I can see statements and check images. Sure you can do what Allan recommended, but in my experience business owners don't have the time to do this. And it slows my work down by about a week. Also, make sure you are reading the fine print of where you store your data. I would never ever, ever give full access to your accounts. The key is the read only access, which most banks have for free. Let me know if you have any questions. Happy to answer them.
@Benjamin Lenz as a bookkeeper i ask for read only access. Which is exactly what it sounds, I can see but can't touch your money. You are correct, I ask for that access, so I can see statements and check images. Sure you can do what Allan recommended, but in my experience business owners don't have the time to do this. And it slows my work down by about a week. Also, make sure you are reading the fine print of where you store your data. I would never ever, ever give full access to your accounts. The key is the read only access, which most banks have for free. Let me know if you have any questions. Happy to answer them.