Bookkeep in your practice: NetDeposited

September 22, 2022

Guest author, Rachel Dauchy of NetDeposited discusses her business and how she is working smarter with Bookkeep automation.

About the business

My name is Rachel Dauchy, I am the owner of NetDeposited, a firm focused on ecommerce bookkeeping and accounting.

Day-to-Day:

Now that I have employees, it is MUCH different than when I started. In the beginning and until very recently, I did everything. Prospecting clients, organizing my systems, putting together the best workflows, ALL of the bookkeeping, cleanup work, integration setups, reporting, budgeting, forecasting (started doing those services for clients who requested that to further my advisory skills), ALL of the receipt management, bill pay, payroll, my own website, marketing (to the extent that I knew how) and any other thing that I needed to do. I was very overwhelmed because I did not know how much I could realistically handle, and how much I could not. I just said yes to everything. Now, I am much more cautious about what to take on, out of respect for the client! If I honestly don’t have the capacity to help, I don’t overpromise. It hurts everyone.

With my staff now, I have assigned them every one of my accounts. Well most of them. I now can take a breath and focus on streamlining procedures, think about the culture I want my company to have, and focus on clients that are better matched for my process. I usually spend my days touching base with staff- where they are, helping them with processes they might need help on, or getting them up to speed with what I was previously doing. We use Monday as a CRM, so I am able to see what tasks are pending and completed with each client. I am now more focused on HR, marketing, and growth. I spend more time on my own company’s financials, which I NEVER did. I am also a Shopify partner, and in addition to setting up a client’s automation, I often will get pretty involved in their Shopify site. My company has recently rebranded, and I built our new site entirely on my own. I also meet with peers, partners, and potential clients in meetings throughout the day, in addition to webinars that I like to participate in. It keeps me very busy.

Pain points in the business

What processes did you find made you work inefficiently?

When you are a sole practitioner, there is no one to bounce ideas off of. I didn’t know what was the best solution to use, so I would just sign up for EVERYTHING. I tried and tested every single product I could. Certain things would work as I envisioned, but other things did not and I had to spend the time learning and testing things. I realized the process of “doing it all on my own” was the most inefficient process of all. It was too much, and I learned that I needed to delegate. Burnout is just not anything you want. There is no reason to be a hero and do it all alone. In my case, I said “sure I can do that” even if I knew I could not. I just imagined that successful people said yes and then made it happen. I did make it happen, but the process was exhausting. In the end, it was worth it, but I am very careful to think about that time and reflect and be wise and mindful about saying yes going forward. It can sometimes be a harsh lesson to learn, but in the end, everything is a lesson.

What did you learn?

NOW, I am very fast. My only issue is that I often multitask and sometimes forget to document my process and then I have to re-teach myself. If I had to give any piece of advice it would be to document your process!!! I get immense joy from problem-solving and figuring out difficult puzzles, so it hasn’t been all bad but the best thing to do is to document processes from the beginning

Solution

When and why did you start using Bookkeep?

I tested out several connectors that brought transactions in one at a time. In the beginning, I used Greenback- a connector that brought in EVERY SINGLE item in the transaction. My first client was a successful Etsy seller that was very high volume. I knew that Etsy had a lot of “stuff” going on and I wanted to see that in QuickBooks. The amount of time I spent on that was astronomical. I really wasn’t worried about it though because I was learning. I had a few other clients that had antiquated systems that did NOT sync to QuickBooks and I had to post the sales manually. With this, I learned that weekly or monthly was the better way to do it. Then, I came across Bookkeep and started to learn more. Now, I prefer it. I show my clients what the journal entries look like and they totally understand it. I am one of those accountants that is fine with QuickBooks as a GL and I run a lot of reports out of the sales platform. I understand that many people prefer having every single transaction in QuickBooks but with these high-volume sellers, this is a better time-saving technique. At least for me and my clients.

What was the onboarding process like?

Terrific. I love to learn. Everyone at Bookkeep is on my side. I know they want me to succeed, and the feeling is mutual! When I have issues, customer care is easy to contact and work with quickly.

Results

How’s it going now?

Great! My employees now know how to troubleshoot and go to Bookkeep and look at the mapping and fix it if there is an issue. I thought for SURE I would have to do that, it would be too complex but nope- they are awesome with it.