Catch-up Work

 

Catch-up work involves performing our services on the prior periods of your company's books, whether they are prior years or prior months in the current year.  The fee structure for catch-up work benefits you when we process multiple months at the same time, because we save time and pass the savings on to you.

 

Task Descriptions

 

Entry or intermediate level bookkeeping tasks can be performed either by available staff with the client or arranged by the firm from its pool of independent contractors. 

 

In-firm Provident Bookkeeping's personnel usually perform full-charge bookkeeping or senior bookkeeping tasks.  These tasks generally include:

• Reconciliation of accounts, as needed, including:

  • Bank checking accounts

  • Bank savings accounts

  • Bank lines of credit

  • Credit card accounts

  • Installment loans (and correct allocation of interest and principal)

  • Accounts payable (correct any paid bills and notes payable)

  • Accounts receivable (correct any paid accounts and invoices)

  • Inventory (adjust book balance as necessary to physical counts)

  • Undeposited funds

  • Opening balance equity

  • Intercompany payable and receivable accounts

  • Payroll tax liabilities for both federal and state agencies

  • Sales tax liabilities

  • Loans to and from officers and shareholders or owners

  • Capital accounts and shareholder distributions

  • Retained earnings or capital accounts confirmed to agree to prior year ending balances for continuity

  • Interbank transfers (not classified to taxable sales or revenue)

  • Investor accounts, advances, repayments and accrued interest

• Detailed general ledger

• Prepare financial statements

  • Profit and loss statements (P & L statement)

  • Balance sheet

  • Cash flow statement

  • Job cost reports

  • Prior year comparative statements

  • Monthly trend financial statements

  • Monthly, quarterly, annually time frames

• Programming the sequence and priorities of the work to accomplish the client's goals

• Continuous estimation of effort as work progresses

• Communication and coaching of client staff and independent contractors, as needed

• Review and adjustment of bookkeeping transactions and reporting format, including items such as:

  • Income and revenue

  • Costs and expenses

  • Bank deposits vs. customer payments

  • Client retainer accounts and trust accounts (such as law firms)

  • Correct classification of bank loan proceeds

  • Establishment of liability and asset accounts for purchases of capital assets

  • Correct classification of operating or capitalized leases of autos and equipment

  • Correct estimation of depreciation expense for income tax planning and projection purposes

  • Correct classification of direct costs vs. operating expenses to determine true costs of goods sold or direct production gross margin

  • Correct classification of direct labor costs vs. administrative personnel, including fringe benefits and payroll tax burdens

  • Correct classification of owner compensation for disclosure on tax returns and workmen's compensation reporting to eliminate incorrect reports and overcharging for insurance coverage

• Supervision of tasks which were assigned to client staff

• Review of work product and supervision of task assignments for contracted staff

• Report to client on results of assignment, periodic review of progress, and explanation of results

• Review of financial statements with the client, the cost structure of the business, how to interpret the meaning of the results on the business, and what the reports imply about the business operations, its opportunities, challenges and profitability.

Compensation Structure

• Time-based compensation is most appropriate for assignments where the scope is undeterminable or expected to change as the work progresses. 

   

  The concept involves the condition that the work and compensation are both linked, so if the work changes the compensation changes accordingly. 

  • For basic clerical data entry of transactions, usually available from our independent contractor pool, generally ranging between $15 to $35 hourly, depending on levels of work, speed, accuracy, industry expertise and experience in both bookkeeping concepts and QuickBooks operation.  Requires moderate supervision and periodic review throughout the duration of the assignment.

  • For intermediate bookkeeping tasks, including classification of entries and cursory review and identification of possible difficulties for senior resolution, usually available from our independent contractor pool, usually generally ranging between $40 to $65 hourly, depending on levels of work, speed, accuracy, industry expertise and experience in both bookkeeping concepts and QuickBooks operations.  Requires light supervision and review and availability to answer questions during the assignment.

  • For full-charge bookkeeping and senior bookkeeping provided by Provident Bookkeeping's personnel, for crisis resolution tasks described above, ranging between $95 and $125 hourly, depending on the level of work involved.  Performs supervision and review on the work of lower level personnel.

• Fixed pricing compensation is most appropriate for assignments where the task description and scope of work is defined and expected to be consistent and predictable, and when we have an opportunity to process a number of months at the same time.  This is where the task duration is relatively fixed and the compensation also becomes fixed. 

Our fixed pricing estimates are usually arranged once we have had an opportunity to work on a few months of your work on an hourly basis to gain an understanding of what we can expect for the remaining months in the catch-up work period. 

 

The concept involves the condition that the work and compensation are both linked, so if the work changes the compensation changes accordingly.