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Bookkeeping

Updated on September 26, 2012

The blackest art?

I don't use MYOB. I have other software, having seized a one-year-free deal without knowing what it meant.

I now pay for updates each year that cost more than the original program.

Worse, I chose a version to handle five staff, who all had to go when my No. 1 client ditched me retrospectively.

But that's another story.

My data can't fit into a lesser version, so I'm trapped.

Worst of all, I don't use the damn thing!

The Black Art of Bookkeeping

I hate bookkeeping and I hate Business Activity Statements.

I hate them so much I used to think about going back to corporate life - and that's saying something.

Then I read The E Myth by Michael E. Gerber.

His Chapter 4, Adolescence: Getting Some Help, spoke of the joys of hiring a bookkeeper.

So I did.

Suddenly, reams of receipts and hours of begging software for mercy were replaced by a prim, efficient gentlemen who visited quarterly for two years.

I washed my hands of the whole filthy affair and concentrated with glee on my main game.

This worked fine, until Mr Prim* made a $10,000 error which didn't come to light until too late.

The feasting occasioned by my huge tax return (and all the delights it promised) was replaced by an icy, empty feeling very much like a broken heart.

Mr Prim and I have long since parted company.

The moral, of course, is that you can't abandon whole tracts of your business without running big risks.

You must keep at least a fingerhold of understanding and control in every area.

If you can't, you may not be cut out for this caper.

I see this, but I still hate bookkeeping and its software.

Invitations to courses?

Binned.

Online tutorials?

Unopened.

It's pathological!

So, this is a lens in which I ask for your advice, opinions and stories.

How do YOU handle the black art of bookkeeping?

working

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