"Do I need a bookkeeper or a CPA?" is one of the most common questions business owners ask, and the honest answer is usually both, doing different jobs. The confusion is understandable. Both roles deal with numbers, both can feel intimidating to hire for, and the line between them isn't always explained clearly. But understanding what each one actually does makes the decision much easier. What a Bookkeeper Does A bookkeeper handles the day-to-day financial record-keeping that everything else is ...

It happens to more business owners than you'd think. A busy season hits, bookkeeping gets pushed to next week, and next week turns into next month, and eventually you're staring at a bank feed with hundreds of uncategorized transactions and no idea where you actually stand financially. If this is you, take a breath. Books that are behind are a very fixable problem. Here's how to approach getting caught up without making the situation worse. Don't Panic, But Don't Keep Waiting Either The instinct...

Restaurant margins are thin, and the businesses that stay healthy are the ones that treat their numbers as a monthly habit, not a year-end scramble. The good news is that the restaurant industry has well-established benchmarks, so instead of guessing whether a number is good, owners can measure themselves against a known standard and catch problems early. Here's what should be on every restaurant owner's monthly financial review. Food Cost Percentage Take your total food cost for the month and d...

QuickBooks is a powerful tool, but it's only as good as the foundation it's built on. Most of the accounting messes I get called in to clean up didn't start as big problems. They started as small setup shortcuts or habits that quietly compounded over months or years, until the books no longer reflected what was actually happening in the business. Here are the most common QuickBooks mistakes I see, and why each one causes more damage than it looks like at first. 1. A Poorly Laid Out Chart of Acco...

If you're running a business doing $1 to $10 million a year in revenue, there's a good chance you've asked yourself: do I need to hire a full-time, in-house bookkeeper or accountant? The surprising answer, for most businesses in this range, is no. The Hidden Cost of an In-House Hire A full-time bookkeeper or staff accountant comes with more than just a salary. There's payroll tax, benefits, paid time off, training, software licenses, and the ongoing management overhead of having another employee...

For a lot of business owners, the relationship with their financials starts out as one of avoidance. The bank account gets checked. The bills get paid. But the deeper questions sit unanswered, sometimes for years. Am I actually profitable? Which parts of my business make money and which ones quietly bleed it? Can I afford to hire, or take that owner's draw, or make that investment? That avoidance isn't laziness. It's anxiety. Financial statements can feel like a foreign language, and when the nu...

You can operate as a sole proprietorship under your own name and social security number, but if you'd like to give an independent name/doing business as...for your business you can do so by filing an application with the City of Portland Maine.  For the nominal fee of $10 the City of Portland will certify your unique name within the city limits and allows for easy set up of banking and insurance accounts.

This past January you may have heard that the State of Maine is amending their process of certifying who qualifies for subconsultant status.  The state modified the "PREDETERMINATION OF INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR STATUS TO ESTABLISH A REBUTTABLE PRESUMPTION" questionare to 12 basic questions.  The point of having your subconsultant certified is to clear them from your Workers Compensation Insurance Policy and therefore liability. This survey is intended to be completed by the subconsultant BE...