Consulting & Training

The situation this is for

Your books are kept in-house, by an office manager, a bookkeeper, an operations person, or you. Mostly it works. But there's one thing that keeps not resolving: a reconciliation that won't balance, outstanding items nobody knows what to do with, a period closed on numbers that don't hold up.

The usual options are both bad. You hire someone to fix it, and the knowledge leaves when they do, so the same problem returns next quarter. Or you buy a course, and courses teach the general case while your file has the specific one.

This is the third option. I work in your file, live, one to one with the person who keeps your books, so the thing gets fixed and the next one doesn't need me.

What it is

One half day, three hours. One specific problem.

• Three hours worked live on Zoom, in your own file, one to one with whoever does your books
• Questions answered as they come up, at the point in the work where the answer makes sense
• The Zoom recording, yours to keep, so the method is available long after the session ends
• A written debrief covering what we did and why
• One 30-minute follow-up Zoom about thirty days later, included and scheduled when you book, to work through whatever came up on your own since

A couple of days before we meet, I'll ask you to add me to your file as an accountant user so I can see what I'm walking into. That's so we don't spend the first half hour of a three-hour block getting oriented. When I send your debrief I'll include the steps to remove me, so it happens while you're thinking about it rather than next year.

Why the recording matters more than it sounds. The person in the session will forget a step. Everyone does. Without the recording that means either a call to me or a workaround that quietly becomes the new process. With it, they rewatch four minutes and carry on. It's the difference between having been shown something and being able to do it.

What "one problem, one half day" actually means

The three hours are the boundary, and I'd rather be plain about that than have it come as a surprise at hour two.

Most of what people bring me fits comfortably. A reconciliation that won't tie, a period that needs unrolling and re-doing properly, a category of transaction that's been handled wrong for months. Three hours is more than it sounds like when someone who has done it a thousand times is driving.

If your problem is bigger than a half day, I'll tell you that on our call rather than after you've paid. Books that are badly behind across multiple years aren't a training problem, they're a cleanup project, and that's a different and larger piece of work.

Who's in the room

Two people. Me, and whoever does your books.

Whoever is actually in the file, working alongside me. If that's you, it's you. If it's your office manager or bookkeeper, it's them. This is not a group session, it's one on one training. The recording and the written debrief are how everyone else finds out what happened.

One thing worth saying to whoever is coming: I'm not there to audit anyone's work. Nearly everything I find in a file was done by someone doing their best with a system nobody explained to them properly.

What this isn't

It isn't ongoing bookkeeping. I'm not taking your books over. The whole point is that your team keeps doing them, better.

It isn't a cleanup project. Three hours fixes a specific problem and teaches the method behind it. It doesn't bring years of neglected books current, and I'll say so before you book rather than after.

It isn't a course. Nothing is pre-recorded and nothing is general. We work in your file, on your actual problem.

It isn't tax work. I don't prepare or file returns. If something turns out to be a tax question, I'll say so plainly, and I'm glad to talk to whoever files yours.

The steps

1. A conversation. Fifteen or twenty minutes on what's not resolving and who's doing the books. This is also where I tell you honestly whether it fits a half day.

2. You book the session. $1,200, paid in advance, with the follow-up Zoom scheduled at the same time so nobody has to chase it later.

3. I get oriented. You add me as an accountant user a couple of days ahead, so the three hours are spent on the work rather than on finding things.

4. We do the work, live. On Zoom, in your file, just me and the person who keeps your books.

5. Recording and debrief. Both yours to keep, along with the steps to remove my access.

6. Thirty days later, we check in. Thirty minutes on whatever came up since. Already on the calendar.

A note from Stacy

Hi, I'm Stacy Luft, founder of CEO Business Balance.

I've been working in financial operations since 1992, and I teach foundational bookkeeping at Hofstra University, so explaining this material to people who didn't come up through accounting is what I do most weeks.

What I've learned doing both: the reason a reconciliation won't balance is almost never that the person doing it isn't careful enough. It's that nobody ever explained what reconciling actually is, as distinct from clearing a bank feed. Once someone sees that difference, they don't unsee it. Which is why I'd rather do this live than hand back a fixed file and an invoice.

"In my world, being a CEO means being a Calm, Empowered Owner, of your business, your numbers, and your decisions."

Let's talk about what's not resolving

Bring the specific thing. What won't balance, what keeps coming back, and who's doing the books. Fifteen minutes is usually enough for both of us to know whether this is the right shape of help.