If you do payroll or are a bookkeeper, can you paint me a picture?

[Familia]

I am once again brainstorming life after homeschooling!  

If you are a bookkeeper or do payroll, can you describe your education and job to me?  (I have a bachelors degree is a field that requires licensure that I do not have, can no longer obtain, and does not lend itself to other fields.  And, it is old.  Very old) 

How much education do you have and how did you obtain it?  Do you work freelance or do you work for a firm or solely for a specific business?  Full time or part time?  What are the good aspects of your work?  The frustrations? 

Feel free to PM.

Thanks so much!

[MEmama]

Payroll is pretty simple. I did it decades ago when I worked in HR and recently as part of my job as an office manager. Both times I just learned on the job; I was completely self taught in my recent job. Oh, we also did our own payroll ages ago when we owned a business; we taught ourselves as we went along. Quick Books is pretty self explanatory, but not all programs are as intuitive.

The taxes aren’t always so simple to figure out, but it’s doable. 

[Denise Still in Florida]

When my children were all grown and out of the house I tried to get back into the workforce but had not worked in years and my degree was very very old at that point. 

My long ago career had been in Contract Management so I had some long ago skills with accounting. Back when book keeping meant literally books of green lined paper and T-Accounts. 🙂

I decided to take the Tax Preparer class at H&R Block. I was able to take the preparer exam and get certified. I have worked at H&R Block as a seasonal employee for the last four years.  

I also returned to community college and earned an Accounting Technologies Certificate, and started tutoring Accounting and Economics.

I hope to keep expanding each year and end up opening my own Small Business Support business. 

 

[Sunshine State Sue]

33 minutes ago, Denise Still in Florida said:

I decided to take the Tax Preparer class at H&R Block. I was able to take the preparer exam and get certified. I have worked at H&R Block as a seasonal employee for the last four years. 

I have been volunteering with VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) for 5+ years as a tax preparer.  Sometimes I think about taking the H&R Block class and transitioning to getting paid to do taxes.  All the volunteers I know who have worked for H&R Block, Liberty, Jackson Hewitt, etc. give very negative reviews of the companies.  What has your experience been like?

Edited June 30, 2020 by Sue in St Pete

[Beth S]

I'm in this same boat, looking for part-time bookkeeping opportunities.
I have a 4 yr Accounting + Bus Admin degree.
I'm planning to use our social network to see if someone needs reliable help.

I'll be watching the responses here!  Thank you.

[Denise Still in Florida]

55 minutes ago, Sue in St Pete said:

I have been volunteering with VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) for 5+ years as a tax preparer.  Sometimes I think about taking the H&R Block class and transitioning to getting paid to do taxes.  All the volunteers I know who have worked for H&R Block, Liberty, Jackson Hewitt, etc. give very negative reviews of the companies.  What has your experience been like?

 

Be very cautious. Many people have a negative experience with the big preparer services. 

PROS:  excellent training and research resources. 

CONS:  Your first year is usually paid hourly at minimum wage, they will either give you next to no hours or ask you to work 12 hour shifts multiple days in a row.  My first year I worked 60 hr plus weeks, week after week. 

After first year your pay is commission based and you will probably see a huge drop in income. It takes a few years to build your certification levels high enough for the returns with top commission. You also need to build a base of clients that prefer to return to you each year. 

I had an excellent office for my first years while I was learning the ropes. The existing pros were willing to share their knowledge and experience. This is not universal. Some offices simply burn out the first years doing low pay work and do not help them build careers. So much depends on the attitude of the individual office.

There is a terrible retention rate for first year employees. Of my entire class of trainees four years ago only two of us are still working in this district. 

I worked for me because my office mates were fabulous and I really enjoy doing taxes. I love the nitty gritty research and usually take all the training that I can fit into my schedule. 

No one gets rich doing this, but if you like numbers and reading tax law and have a fortunate first placement it can be a very good seasonal job. 

 

 

[LucyStoner]

I do tax, specialized bookkeeping and managerial accounting in a specific niche, non-profits and a handful of entities that are government/NPO partnerships.

I am self employed.  

 Payroll is part of the job but mostly I have my clients use a full service payroll provider where staff can enter their timesheets and the service processes the federal and state quarterlies. I admin their payroll from one dashboard where I can see all of my clients.  
 

Education background: economics and business,  two certificates in non-profit management from the local university, the prep classes for getting my EA.  
 

Work background before this:  roughly a decade in non-profit management and fundraising.  
 

I stick to my niche which makes the job easier.  More specifically that NPO, I have a specific size and level of accounting services needed that I gear my business to.  My clients need more than they get from having an admin do all of their bookkeeping but don’t have the budget for a full time accountant on staff.  The basic bookkeeping stuff is usually automated or partially done by staff.  I set up systems and procedures, reconcile accounts and database to QBO, ensure accrual accounting is being used and support my clients with budgeting, reporting, grant compliance and audit prep.  

 I don’t work FT, but could if I wanted to.  I have considered getting my CPA but don’t find that studying for the CPA while homeschooling and working to be very reasonable.  Also, while I don’t earn as much as a CPA, I do bill a nice amount and I’m not sure I want to switch just into auditing.  
 

Downsides to how I work: invoicing my clients is a chore, I miss being involved in more programmatic roles at times, self employment means covering all my own benefits.  
 

upsides:  I don’t have to work FT, I don’t work in an office where there’s any politics or bullish!t, I can make a decent amount of money for part time work, I can grow it to full time or even to hiring others if I want to.  
 

I would start with a QBO certification class and see if there’s a bookkeeping certificate at the local college.  

My costs are minimal.  I have a laptop I bought for work. I have a membership at a co-working space.  I carry an insurance policy.  That plus a few supplies and the occasional continuing ed class are my only expenses.