I would really appreciate your advice, I'm a young CPA and I got no one else to give me advice in real life, and this is kinda frustrating.
So, I work in a big 4 in audit and I want to start offering my professional services on the outside, mainly just outsourcing services (bookkeeping) targeted at small companies, and maybe income tax services on the future. Before you ask, where I live there's no contract disclosure prohibiting us from borrowing professional services.
I know I can handle small clients on my own, I just don't know where to start, or what to offer to my client. These are my main doubts:
1. What's the "standard" monthly service to offer to clients? I was thinking a monthly interim financial statement and the journal entries, or is just a monthly trial balance along with the journal entries?
2. What if my client doesn't have information to back up their financial information? Like "I recently bought a 100k vehicle but I can't find any support documentation".
3. What monthly information should I ask for? I was thinking payments, bank statements, expense bills, sales receipts, purchases documentation and that's all?
4. If I'm keeping the bookkeeping of my client, are payroll services also included, or is that a different service?
5. Am I supposed to fill my client's monthly reports like VAT to the equivalent of IFRS from my country, or is that client supposed to handle those?
6. Is there a general questionnaire or guideline when asking the client for information?
7. What should I do if I see myself on an impossible scenario? Picture this, we're on 2015, client hasn't updated its accounting since 2013, client can't find any information, should I just ignore clients like these?
So, I work in a big 4 in audit and I want to start offering my professional services on the outside, mainly just outsourcing services (bookkeeping) targeted at small companies, and maybe income tax services on the future. Before you ask, where I live there's no contract disclosure prohibiting us from borrowing professional services.
I know I can handle small clients on my own, I just don't know where to start, or what to offer to my client. These are my main doubts:
1. What's the "standard" monthly service to offer to clients? I was thinking a monthly interim financial statement and the journal entries, or is just a monthly trial balance along with the journal entries?
2. What if my client doesn't have information to back up their financial information? Like "I recently bought a 100k vehicle but I can't find any support documentation".
3. What monthly information should I ask for? I was thinking payments, bank statements, expense bills, sales receipts, purchases documentation and that's all?
4. If I'm keeping the bookkeeping of my client, are payroll services also included, or is that a different service?
5. Am I supposed to fill my client's monthly reports like VAT to the equivalent of IFRS from my country, or is that client supposed to handle those?
6. Is there a general questionnaire or guideline when asking the client for information?
7. What should I do if I see myself on an impossible scenario? Picture this, we're on 2015, client hasn't updated its accounting since 2013, client can't find any information, should I just ignore clients like these?