Crisis resolution assignments usually involve the immediate requirement for effective solutions regarding mission critical functions in the bookkeeping area which may also seriously jeopardize the functionality of small business operations. These tasks require a seasoned professional approach to be able to quickly and accurately determine the problem and which solutions and strategies will work to effectively stop the danger condition from threatening the company’s well being.
Moreover, the assignment usually includes preventative measures to safeguard the company from a recurrence of the situation which brought the dangerous condition in the first place, policies to detect the possible factors which caused the situation, and effective programs to educate and enlighten those personnel who were involved in the problem.
Generally, these assignments do not involve tasks with a fixed or determinable duration, the scope may be expected to change as the work progresses, and the compensation generally is based on an appropriate hourly rate.
Program Steps
- Diagnosis of scope of the overall problem and all its components
- Selection of the priorities and sequence of the problems requiring resolution
- Determination of the solutions and steps necessary to solve the problems
- Estimation of the degree of task sharing between the client and the firm
- Estimation of effort required by the firm to coordinate task sharing
- Allocate work to proper level of personnel
- If appropriate, suggest lower level outside contractors to provide optimum cost efficiency
- Confirmation with client of costs, financial budget and timing of implementation
- Implementation of services and strategies to resolve the problems
- Follow up with checking work, confirm progress and completion of solutions
- Test, as appropriate, the quality and effectiveness of the solutions with the client
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 small business, how to interpret the meaning of the results on the small business, and what the reports imply about the small business operations, its opportunities, challenges and profitability.
