Bookkeeping Case Study – Specialty Retail Store

CASE STUDY

CLIENT

A single location speciality Retail Store established 20 years.

CHALLENGE

The business model had changed and the owner’s wife no longer had time to do the company’s books in house and so they decided to outsource their bookkeeping.

JOURNEY

They hired a new bookkeeper at a very reasonable $14 per hour to come to the store and take care of all bookkeeping needs three days per week.

DISCOVERY

Months passed, and he found that his bookkeeper always seemed to be playing catch up, and he couldn’t remember the last time he had seen a set of up to date financial statements. He sat her down, explained his concerns, and she said that it was just too much to do in 3 days, and she needed to come in full time and everything would be caught up.

He was planning some major changes in his business, which meant the financials became more important to him, so he agreed and she started coming in 5 days a week. After a couple of months, there was no discernible difference and some growing concerns as to whether the numbers he was seeing were even accurate – he vented to a fellow business owner, which resulted in a call to us.

SOLUTION

We conducted our site assessment of his books and gave him a detailed list of areas that needed to be addressed with his current financials. He didn’t want to commit to an ongoing contract with us, and so we billed him on an hourly basis. We charged him $45 per hour. A huge challenge for him, from when he was only paying $14 per hour, but he agreed to give us a try only because of the recommendation from his friend, and his need for some accurate financial statements.

RESULTS

Within weeks of us coming on board, his books were completely current and he now receives his monthly reports 5 business days after the month is over. He is able to make business decisions in real time as his books are updated throughout the month. He has revenue reports which tell him what his top product sellers are. He has an accurate inventory count of what is on his shelves and when he was looking to invest in a new line of products, we were able to provide the information he needed to know how often that inventory had to turn in his store in order for the decision to make sense for him.

However, despite all of these changes which thrilled him, what was most surprising to him was that we were doing all of this in 5 hours per week.

He went from $14 per hour or $28000 per year to paying $11700 per year – a savings of more than 58% and received more than he ever did having a full time bookkeeper.