Falling leaves, temps getting colder, and suddenly, business owners start their year-end bookkeeping run.
Every year, I watch entrepreneurs hit “panic mode.” They should be enjoying all the fun the end of the year brings.
Instead, they’re hunting down receipts, chasing past invoices, and trying to cobble together a year’s worth of numbers before the clock strikes tax season.
Real talk: Playing catch-up with your books isn’t just stressful. You risk missed deductions, late fees, inaccurate reports, and maybe an audit you don’t want.
There is another way to exist. What if keeping up with your books all year became as easy as automatic payments and, in the end, made you money?
That is what hiring a bookkeeper can do for you. You get:
✅ Clean up to date records so tax season is a non-event.
✅ Maximize deductions
✅ Total clarity on your cash flow so you can make better decisions – not react to problems
✅ Zero scrambling
And, there’s a good chance it pays for itself as you have more time to generate revenue.
If the year-end scramble feels familiar, don’t wait until it’s crunch time. Let’s build the systems to get ahead and stay ahead.
Ready to spend December focused on growth and not bookkeeping? DM me. Let’s make stress-free books your new normal.
Category: FreshBooks
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The Year End Bookkeeper
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Service-based businesses don’t fail because they can’t deliver.
They stall because of admin burdens and cash flow struggles choke growth.
FreshBooks fixes both.
Simple setup means invoice, expenses, and time tracking don’t eat your week.
Professional invoices + automated reminders=faster payments and predictable cash flow.
Built for non-accountants=clean dashboards and reports you can understand.
Scales with you: projects, proposals, integrations. It’s a partner, not just software.
I run Becker & Ledger Precision Bookkeeping on FreshBooks. It keeps ops lean and let’s me serve more clients.
It you’re a service-based entrepreneur, get clarity and momentum. Use or move to FreshBooks.
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Are your numbers lying to you?
If you’re not paying yourself, you’re lying to yourself.
Can’t afford to pay yourself a fair salary? It’s a huge red flag.
I had a client with a thriving business, generating decent revenue. But they weren’t taking a salary. Zero. Profits looked good on paper.
When you skip paying yourself a market salary, your “profit” isn’t profit. It’s a fantasy.
Consider:
↳ Not paying yourself a market salary means the business’s profits are artificially inflated.
↳ Buyers and lenders might add back a realistic salary when valuing your business. Then what?
Real business health means covering the cost of your time. So, I’d like to ask you to please pay yourself first. Like you’re an employee, not a charity case.
If your business can’t afford to pay you what you deserve, it’s time to rethink the numbers.
Not sure if you’re doing this? Ask yourself: What would I have to pay someone to replace me? -
Count It: Cash Flow is The Metric
Profitable but broke all the time?
It’s more common than you think.
I had a client hitting revenue goals.
Yet, every month she struggled to pay bills.
The problem? No one was tracking operating cash flow.
It’s the money flowing in and out daily.
What are the most common reasons small businesses struggle with this?
↳Slow-paying customers
↳Low cash reserves
↳Failure to plan and forecast
Paying attention and planning cash flow is key to staying in business.
Know your cash flow and you’ll be in control of the business.
Grab my 13-week cash flow forecasting template if you need some help.
https://lnkd.in/evRqs2Hi -
Valuation and Your Tech Stack
One way to kill your exit strategy and it’s too common.
If your business runs on desktop software or worse, paper files, you’re already losing value.
Here’s the hard truth: Buyers want businesses that run smoothly and are not hard to value. Not ones needing a full IT team just to see the books.
Valuable businesses 👍 : Modern tech, scalable, recurring revenue
Passed over businesses 👎 : Desktop tech, clunky processes, billing hourly
The fact is, an offer made for your business is dependent on the soundness and transferability of your books.
If you’re still running on desktop bookkeeping software, you’re getting in your own way.
Cloud bookkeeping offers real-time data, instant access, and zero headaches at handover.
Businesses with modern tech systems get better offers. They grow faster. And they exit cleaner.
If you want to get serious about growth and future-proof your business, start with your tech stack today.
Every day stuck in the past is value left on the table.
For most business owners, a sale is when, not if.
Start simple and in the most important place, your bookkeeping.
If the books are behind, get them caught up. If you’re on desktop software, get in the cloud. -
Chart of Accounts: The Backbone of Your Financial System
The Chart of Accounts (COA) is the foundation of your financial system.
Customizing it in FreshBooks ensures your books aren’t just accurate for tax work, they’re useful for running and growing your business.
Why it matters:
The COA determines how transactions are classified and summarized.
A clear, well-structured COA makes your P&L and balance sheet meaningful.
Messy COA = messy books
Customizing the COA in FreshBooks is good form.
Out of the box, FreshBooks comes with a COA that you can customize to fit your business. The default COA is not perfect and can use a few tweaks for all businesses. Here are two tweaks I recommend.
Archive (you can’t delete) the Personal Expense Account. For clean bookkeeping, you should not have personal expenses.
Add appropriate accounts under Equity for Owner’s Contributions and Owner’s Distributions. This may vary depending on how many owners you have in your business. Meaning, for a solopreneur, the above suffices. If you have partners, you need a contribution and distribution account for each partner. -
How to Know if You’re Overpaying for Accounting Software
How to know if you’re overpaying for Accounting Software?
If you run a service-based firm and are using QuickBooks, you’re overpaying.
Ask yourself these questions:
↳ Do you manage inventory? No.
↳ Complex manufacturing workflows? No.
↳ You just invoice clients, track projects? Yes.
Then why pay for features you will never use?
Here’s the thing about service businesses – you don’t need full-featured, enterprise accounting software. You need something that makes invoicing, projects, and time tracking simple.
FreshBooks does exactly that.
Built specifically for service businesses:
↳ Mobile first design
↳ Time tracking that works
↳ Simple invoice flows
↳ Client portals
The fact is, QuickBooks is trying to be everything to everyone. FreshBooks focuses on your business because that is what it’s built for.
The benefit to you is that you spend less time wrestling with software and more time serving clients.
Stop buying tools that you will only use 30% of the features for no good reason.
My service business is powered by FreshBooks. Yes, I put my books where my mouth/writing is.
P.S. Not sponsored, just looking out for my fellow service business owners.👍 -
Reconciling my own accounts
I’m not ashamed to admit I was bad about reconciling my own accounts.
I told myself, “The balance looks fine, I’ll get to it later.” When first starting my business, there were too many other draws on my time, and reconciling my own accounts fell down the priority list.
Big mistake.
When I finally reconciled, I found:
➡️ A double-charged vendor bill
➡️ An old client payment that never cleared
➡️ A subscription I thought I canceled, but was still draining money (who hasn’t done that)
By ignoring reconciliations, I was losing money without even realizing it.
The fix? A 30-minute monthly routine that saves me hours of stress and hundreds of dollars in errors.
Lesson: Your bank balance isn’t your financial truth.
Your reconciled books are.
👉 If you’re skipping reconciliations, you’re running blind. -
Top 10 Reasons to Choose FreshBooks for Your Business
Why FreshBooks Consistently Ranks Among the Top Choices for Consultants, Agencies, Freelancers, and Service Professionals
Service-based businesses juggle client relationships, project deadlines, and cash flow, all at once. While dozens of accounting tools compete for your attention, FreshBooks was specifically built for businesses that sell time, expertise, or creativity. Here’s why it’s a top performer in this space.
1. Exceptionally Easy User Interface
FreshBooks stands out for a sleek, intuitive interface designed for non-accountants and busy owners, whereas QuickBooks can feel complex and Xero, though clean, packs advanced features deeper into menus. In FreshBooks, you’ll find plain English, logical navigation, and a dashboard focused on what matters: overdue invoices, invoice status, and recent payments.
The relief? Most users get started without outside help.
2. Purpose-Built Time Tracking
Time tracking is not an add-on: it’s core in FreshBooks, with one-touch timers across all devices, even offline. Clients can view beautiful timesheets with full transparency, helping prevent billing disputes and win trust. QuickBooks and Xero offer time tracking, but it’s not as central or user-friendly for freelancers and agencies.
3. Project Profitability at a Glance
FreshBooks gives project-level insights, budget, margin, estimated vs. actual costs. All of this is designed for professional services. This lets users pivot mid-project to keep profits healthy. Most accounting platforms track income and expenses overall, but only some make project-based profitability this clear out-of-the-box.
4. Automated Payment Reminders from Humans
Getting paid is faster with branded, customizable email reminders. Not only can you send reminders, you can set a schedule of three reminder over a time frame of your choosing. On average, FreshBooks users get paid significantly faster than those using manual invoices or generic systems, due to these client-friendly prompts.
5. Robust, Collaborative Client Account Feature
Clients can view, save, and pay invoices, comment on documents, and participate in project discussions. While clients do not have to create a FreshBooks account, there are wonderful collaborative features if they do create their own account, which takes just seconds to establish. This transparency helps set FreshBooks apart from most platforms, where client interaction is usually limited to simple invoice viewing and payment.
6. Proposals and Estimates Designed to Convert
FreshBooks proposals and estimates feature e-signatures, tracked client views, itemized feedback, and partial approval, features proven to improve deal closing rates for service businesses.
7. Fast, Mobile Expense Tracking
The mobile app allows snap-and-save receipt capture, categorization by project, and mileage/GPS tracking. Expenses can be marked as billable and attached to client invoices with images included, eliminating lost revenue from forgotten outlays.
8. True Retainer Management
FreshBooks tracks retainers and credits, automatically applies balances to new work, and shows clients their real-time balance, making retainer arrangements clear and simple. This is not as smoothly managed in many generalist accounting packages.
9. Owner-Focused Reporting
FreshBooks reports are simple, visual, and focused on actionable insights: trends, client profitability, time analysis, not just raw numbers.
10. Team Collaboration That Grows with You
With role-based permissions, contractors or account managers can access just what they need (e.g., track time, send invoices). Integrations with Slack, Asana, and core business tools simplify scaling, from solo work to small teams.
Bonus: Dedicated Support for Service Businesses
FreshBooks support reps understand project billing and retainers, emphasizing clear, knowledgeable help by phone, chat, or email. Users consistently praise this hands-on, service-business expertise.
Owner Quotes
“FreshBooks just fits the way our marketing agency actually works, real-time client discussions, clear invoicing, and effortless payments.”
“Setup took less than a day, and now we spend more time serving clients, less time on admin.”
Summary: Still Best-in-Class for Service Pros in 2025!
FreshBooks is ideal for freelancers, consultants, agencies, and other service providers who value ease of use, mobile time tracking, transparent client collaboration, and lightweight but practical reporting.
Need help setting up FreshBooks to maximize your service business efficiency? As a certified FreshBooks Collaborative Advisor, I help service businesses optimize their financial workflows and get the most out of their accounting software. Reach out to discuss your specific needs.
Becker & Ledger 