90$ a month to high for a bookeeper,accountant, business advice ?

[Montez B.]

so this company contacted me and offer me unlimited access to a account to ask as many tax questions I want and they offering assistance with bookkeeping and doing my taxes with a app that I can monitor everything for my business, the price is 90$ a month for they service, do you think this is a deal ? Or it’s over priced and I can find cheaper ? And also I will have unlimited access to a business tax consultant, what are the best ways to keep your business and real estate properties in order? Or do I need services like this to avoid tax trouble, you think the 90$ a month is worth it ? Or if you have any recommendations to places that do the similar thing that’s cheaper please private message me about them so I can do my due diligence thank you I appreciate it and I love talking to you guys I learn something new from all of you everyday

[Account Closed]

The first thing you probably need to do is to get rid of all our LLC's. It is senseless to have multiple LLC's because they don't stop a Plaintiff from suing you and getting a judgement for your personal interest in each LLC. Yes, they cannot sue each LLC, but they can get your personal assets from each one. LLC's are a waste of time and money. Get rid of them, have one set of books for all your single family homes and for large apartment buildings you should only need a DBA and it is better to have a separate one for large apartment buildings.

There is a huge difference between a book keeper, accountant and CPA. You should be the bookkeeper. The bookkeeper is the person who creates the books and that consists of putting together (compiling) all your records. The bookkeeping is super simple. I created my own software, but you can use Quickbooks (I hate with a passion) or create your own Excel spreadsheet.

You (the bookkeeper) takes your checking account every month and you create only two columns (DEBITS and CREDITS). That is all you need.

It goes like this:

6/20/2021    Deposit           Rental Income        10,500
6/21/2021    Deposit           Washing Machine   100.25
6/22/2021   Acme Painting  Repairs                                 800

That is all you need with the exception you can have a column for check numbers and put a total on the bottom.

When you are finished your debits and credits should be exactly the same as your bank statement and that is how you keep your books accurate-to-the-penny.

Personally, I would never do business with an accountant because accountants don't have the stringent training a CPA has. When an accountant does your books he generally does not do your books in a fashion where he proves whether or not you are providing him with accurate and legal information. When a CPA does your books he is watching to make sure you are giving him the correct (legal) information and he will tell you when something is not right and he will tell you when you may get into a jam with the IRS. At least, my CPA does and he called me out several times and told me something was not going to fly with the IRS like when I purchased 3 appliances that cost me $21,000. My CPA certifies that my records are correct.

So that you are successful, you need to be a good bookkeeper and give your CPA records in an Excel format so your CPA can easily upload your records to his files. My company uses credit cards for almost everything we do because when using a credit card we get statements that back and prove what every purchase is for vs. using checks where they get lost and when my employees lose receipts all we have is bank statements with numbers and no receipts. At the end of the year we have about 18,000 credit card transactions. Imagine how much time it will take your CPA to enter each transaction into his database. So, we created our own database where we send our CPA the 18,000 records in an Excel Spreadsheet.

My CPA charges me $250 per hour, but 99% of the work is done by my CPA's secretary for a price I never checked on. Maybe, she gets $125 per hour and then my CPA only checks his secretary's work and then compiles the information somehow to create my documents for the IRS and other agencies. For each entity I own, I think I pay an average of $850 to $1800 every year with the exception that audits are billed at $250 per hour when meeting with auditors ad his office. I would rather be protected by a CPA any day.

In fact, when I first started my business in 1973, I hire an accountant. Two years later, I got his with fines and penalties for $30,000 due to my accountant's failure to report sales tax correctly. I was devastated, but I had just completed a $36,000 plumbing job that cost me only $7,000 to do and I used the $29,000 profit to pay the sales tax and penalties. Then, I switched to a CPA and never had one problem in 48 years.