Bookkeeper went 4-7 hours over her estimate but didn’t check in before billing me

[jro1]

Her initial estimate was 5-8 hours to balance my books for the year. I use QuickBooks so everything is digital. Since I have no idea what a reasonable time frame is, I’m curious if she should have at least checked in to say hey, it’s gonna be closer to 12 hours.

It’s a huge expense for me since I’m so small. Of course I’ll pay either way but I’m wondering if I should bring it up or not, especially if we plan to work together ongoing.
Thoughts?

 

[easyrider2]

@jro1 I'm a former bookkeeper. Yes, just about any bookkeeping client would be annoyed at the extra cost. The overage should have been communicated to you.

If you are small and it's that much time, there would be systemic problems that need to be fixed. You need to find out what the issues are so that you can fix them.

Things that can increase the billing:

No bank recs for the year, no/incorrect coding, sales invoices incorrectly coded, general ledger entries, AR payments not allocated to the customer accounts, etc.

I had one client in the early days of QBO who created a credit card download for a debit card. It was so difficult to fix. LOL. I think they have fixed that bug years ago now.

If it's a clean up job, it can be any of those issues or more. Make sure you get to the bottom of what went wrong. It might explain why it took too long to fix. You need to help prevent those mistakes in the future.

 

[suicidegirl1988]

@easyrider2 i have done a lot of small business bookkeeping. i agree with this person's response, might just add that there are two different issues here. thing 1 is whether or not the bookkeeping should have taken 12 hours, and i agree that there quality of clients books is so all over the map that it is entirely possible that the 12 hours was needed. this does not sound excessive to me. thing 2 is that both the bookkeeper and OP failed at communicating, bookkeeper absolutely should have raised a hand and said "im X hours in but i still have Y hours to go, do i proceed?" and OP should have told bookkeeper prior to starting that they were only approving the estimated hours, that the bookkeeper needed to wave a flag if they planned to go over.

 

[jro1]

@suicidegirl1988 Thanks so much. Yes it was a cleanup job so hopefully things can be smoother moving forward. The communication was totally what I was looking for but I know that the work was needed!

 

[photon]

@jro1 Clean up usually doubles the regular work. Look into an hour per month or quarter so it's spread and not cumulative cluster.

 

[jro1]

@easyrider2 Thanks so much for the feedback. I’m sure I would’ve approved the extra time anyway but yeah the check in before hand would’ve felt better. I’ll make sure to check in with her about what can be fixed moving forward.

 

[roxanne1011]

@jro1 You are correct to feel that the bookkeeper should have communicated and I am going to respectfully disagree with above responder, never would I go into a restaurant and say, “I’ll have the steak, but only if it is the price on the menu, tell me if it’s gonna be more” or a bakery where I contract to make a wedding cake and they quote me $800 and show up on my wedding day with my cake and say, “sorry, it took me extra hours, got your cake done but it’s going to be $1,400 because I thought it would only take 8 hours, but it took 14.”

It was absolutely the bookkeeper job as a professional who has the experience of working with small businesses to stay within the quoted range and if they couldn’t (and it’s likely they couldn’t) to communicate with you before exceeding their quote so significantly - you do not hold responsibility for the lack of communication… maybe the lack of keeping clean records and making the time go over, but not the lack of communication.

 

[jjoel10]

@jro1 First off, if you’ve got 12 hours of bookkeeping to get 2023 closed, you should probably have semi-annual/quarterly cleanups. 3 hours a quarter is better than an annual fix.

Second, yeah, they should have communicated when they went over 8 and detailed why. But at the end of the day, if your records are a mess, they gotta get cleaned up.

Communicate your frustration, but pay and move on.

 

[photon]

@jjoel10 It's also a hassle to clean up poor records and have to hand hold the client. You don't want to lose quality accounting help right now. It's not so easy to replace and often more expensive.

 

[theislandpoet]

@jro1 If it was me, I would have talked with you about the estimate before billing unless you were being a pain in the ass or adding to the original scope discussed

 

[angeleone]

@theislandpoet 100% this

 

[staceyl0u]

@jro1 If the books are a mess and take much longer than expected, they should have communicated that to you. That being said, it's going to take as long as it takes, and it's gotta get done. I'd just mention to your bookkeeper that if in the future the job is going to take longer than they quoted, that you expect an update on the expected cost.

 

[tinamichelle]

@jro1 I’d pay the bookkeeper but provide her with a bit of feedback to let her know your dismay of the inaccuracy of the initial estimate and how expectations could be set better in the future (assuming you’ll use her again).

 

[maxkim]

@jro1 If you plan on working with them in the future, I would find a nice way to give that note. Something like "I need to try and control expenses as much as I can, so if you're going to exceed the quoted hours please let me know before proceeding." An accountant should be able to understand that having expenses exceed their quoted amounts by 100% will be bad for business.

 

[alongingformore]

@jro1 I don't think you got ripped off, but I think it's reasonable to feel the way you do. The bookkeeper needs to do a better job of communicating and understand what an estimate is.

If a mechanic told me it was $500 to $800 to fix my car, and then gave me a bill for $1,200, I'd have sticker shock too.

 

[wolf7]

@alongingformore I run a painting business so most people assume my estimates are going to be exact. For the most part they are but for any changes I make sure to let them know before even moving forward

 

[alongingformore]

@wolf7 If it's a consistent problem, you should really work up a process to try and find a solution to it.

I'm in the home service space as well and I try and do everything I can to minimize friction during the whole process. There's obviously things just out of my control, but I can do my best to handle what is in my control.

 

[breety]

@alongingformore Yup, and with automotive repair bills, without prior communication that's illegal in my area.

 

[adhmar]

@jro1 Not to your question, but advice as a small business owner too:

Learn to do your books. Learn quickbooks. Take an online class. Study the P&L and map it to Schedule C tax form. You'll be amazed how much you can take care of yourself at the time of entry vs. reactively trying to fix it later. Not only will it save you money, but you'll know the health of your business from multiple angles.

We still use a bookkeeper to help look everything over, but I sleep so much better at night knowing our house is in order.

 

[lekolonka]

@jro1 Get off quickbooks that’s the real problem here