Bringing Joy To Accounting

I have been a CPA for over 20 years, and my partner recently diagnosed me with “battered accountant syndrome." I think there are many victims of this syndrome, including our clients. A good example can be found here. It’s unfortunate because, if it’s done right, accounting really can be fun (yes, I’m a nerd but that’s a topic for another blog).

We are victims of relentless deadlines, billable hour requirements, and delivering a “product” that many clients don’t value or appreciate (i.e. tax returns and financial statements), but must pay for to comply with the government or bank covenants. We’re so busy meeting all these deadlines that we don’t have time to give clients what we are best positioned for: business advice and strategies. We should be a sounding board for entrepreneurs, who can often feel isolated and confused. 

After providing a product our clients don’t really want, we give them a bill that, in their opinion, is based on an arbitrary “hourly rate” multiplied by the hours it took us (which always seems like more than it should be). This creates a lot of friction with our clients while we are vainly trying to become their “trusted business advisor."

I think there is a better way and we are calling it Breakaway. At Breakaway, we don’t perform strict compliance services, such as prepared financial statements or tax returns. We perform bookkeeping for our clients on a timely basis so they can make informed business decisions; ideally with insights from their advisor and using a dashboard platform to track their business’ key performance indicators. 

We charge for our services on a fixed monthly retainer, so there are no dreaded calls with our clients each time we send a bill explaining why it took so long or how we came up with our hourly rate, which saves everybody a lot of time and frustration.  

We utilize cutting edge cloud technology and leverage a dedicated offshore team to help get client data into their accounting system. Then we spend our time analyzing the results and having meaningful conversations with our clients. 

Although we don’t prepare a tax return or financial statement, we collect all the data necessary to provide a CPA, and they should be able to give a transparent fee quote for their work. When books and records are in good order, your CPA, our trusted colleague, knows they won’t have to do 12 months of accounting during their busiest weeks of the year.

We believe this brings joy to the accounting process. Both for us and our clients. We no longer work 60 hour weeks and still feel like we don’t get enough done. We have well rounded lives that include family time and personal care. Our clients get meaningful interactions with us and a team who is truly dedicated to their success. #bringjoytoaccounting 

-Kristen Keats

Founder + Advisor / Breakaway Bookkeeping + Advising