The Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast

245 | Starting Your Firm from Scratch with Jaime Rodriguez

• Serena Shoup, CPA • Episode 245

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This episode hit close to home for me because Jaime Rodriguez and I are basically living the same double life, and I loved getting to compare notes.

Jaime is the CEO of Bookkeepers.com (you probably know them as Bookkeeper Launch), and his story is wild. He went to school for accounting chasing that "safe job" American dream, hated the corporate grind so much he Googled how to start a bookkeeping business, bought the very course he now owns, and burned the boats to go all in. Fast forward through a few years of coaching, re-recording lessons, and becoming the face of the brand, and in 2025 he actually bought the company.

In this episode you’ll hear:

  • How Jaime went from burned-out corporate accountant to owning the very course that got him started
  • Why SOPs are what let you run a firm on 30 minutes a month
  • The real talk on running two businesses at once
  • The costly mistake of taking on every client in every industry before you have processes
  • Why you have to learn your debits and credits before you touch automation
  • The one question that protects your time every time a new prospect comes knocking

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Meet Jaime

Jaime Rodriguez is the owner and CEO of Bookkeepers.com, but his journey started as a student looking for a better path. After building his own successful bookkeeping business, he went on to acquire the company that first taught him the skill. Today, he helps entrepreneurs realize they’re capable of more than they think; not just financially, but in how they live and work. He’s the author of Beyond the Numbers and You’re Not for Everyone (That’s the Point), both focused on building a business that actually fulfills you.

Connect with Jaime

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bookkeepersdotcom

👥 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jaimethebookkeeper

Thanks for listening. If this episode inspired you in some way, take a screenshot of you listening on your device and post it to your Instagram stories and tag me @ambitiousbookkeeper

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Welcome Jaime to the Ambitious Bookkeeper podcast, I'm super excited to have you on the podcast. We were introed by my good friend Alyssa Lang, the workflow queen, recently. And, um, I'm just super excited to collaborate with you, so welcome to the podcast Yeah, Serena, thank you so much for having me. And, yeah, with you and, Alyssa, it's funny. Uh, when I reached out to Alyssa, I was like, "Hey, I don't know if you know me, but I know you and we're in the same circles. Like, should we connect?" And she said the same thing. She's like, "Yeah, it's weird. I don't think we've ever met, but like I know who you are." It's funny how we just kinda are in the same circles, but, uh, it's good to meet you and, and be part of this, uh, the podcast with you. So thank you so much for having me Yeah, absolutely. So for anyone listening, this is Jaime Rodriguez, and he… You are the CEO of Bookkeeper Launch. is Bookkeeper Launch the name of the company, or is bookkeepers.com the name of the company? good question. Th- th- there's been a switch over the last, uh, four, four years, I think. the, the name of the company is bookkeepers.com, and then under bookkeepers.com are courses. So Bookkeeper Launch is just a course now. It's not the name of the company, but yeah. Mo- most people know us as Bookkeeper Launch Yeah, exactly. That's definitely, like, the front-facing thing. But you guys have a lot going on over there, so, and we'll get into that for sure. But for anyone, who is new to this world who might be interested in starting their bookkeeping business, bookkeepers.com is definitely one of the places to go. so give us a little background of, like, how you got to where you're at running bookkeepers.com because, you're not the original founder. you're now the CEO, so give us a little rundown of, like, how you got into accounting, bookkeeping, and what, you know, prompted you to become involved in, educating the space. Yeah, so, going back, I, I went to school for accounting because I thought accounting's gonna be one of those for sure jobs. I have no problem finding a job. And I didn't. I had no problem finding a job, thankfully, at that time. I, I, thankfully, I say at the time, but now I'm like, "Ugh, that was the worst, like the worst time of my life." But, I found a job and I think two years into the job, it took that long to realize, is this American dream that was sold to me as a millennial is, uh, it, it is not true. Like, there's no way that I'm doing this for the next 40 years, where I am commu- between my commute and the actual time spent in the office, I'm working, I'm out of the house from 7:00 AM till about 8:00 PM. it took two years for me to realize there's, there's no way I'm doing this. Like, this is insane. This is insanity. and not to mention, I'm barely making enough to, to make rent at that time. So what I did is, uh, I, I was like,"How can I make money?" And, and at that time I was working for a law firm, and somebody that I shared an office with actually told me like, "Hey, you should start a bookkeeping business." And in my… I, I had never thought of something like that. I was like, "Well, that, that's really weird." I thought I could only do the books for one company, like the, my employer. And so I Googled how to start a bookkeeping business, found Bookkeeper Launch, and I purchased it. Uh, I purchased the course, I should say. And I went through it, started my business. Uh, and then within less than a year, I had made my return on the investment on the actual course. And then within two years, I had made, I had probably doubled, more than doubled what I was making at, uh, at that law firm. Now, what I did, I, I, I went all in. I, I quit my job before I was making any money, and just said, "Hey, I'm gonna move back in with my parents and, and do all… You know, just go all in. Just dive straight into this." And I, in my mind, I was like, "I can't fail. I have to do this." And, so 2019, I get brought in with Bookkeeper Launch. They were ask- looking for, some coaches, and I applied. I was like, "Hey, I'll, I'll, you know, make a little extra money as a coach and also, still run my bookkeeping business." And I seemed to really enjoy that. Uh, I realized that that was way more fulfilling than the actual bookkeeping. And, so I, whenever the position opened up to work full-time with bookkeepers.com, I took it. and then fast-forward to like 2023, I re-recorded a lot of the lessons, and so naturally I kind of became the face of the company, not, not on purpose, not, At least it wasn't my intent. Maybe it was Ben Robinson's intent, who's the founder, but it wasn't mine. and then in, 2025, I'm sorry, 2024, he appointed me as CEO, and then 2025, I bought the company. So, Okay it's been, uh, it's been a whirlwind over the last seven or eight, nine years. Wow. That's, I love, number one, the fact that you, like, burned the boats and, like, Yeah. all in on your business and were able to double what you were making at the law firm within a couple years. I think that's really awesome. do you think you would've been able to achieve that if you hadn't just gone all in? Do you think it Yeah. quickly? Like if I had the safety nets, I, I'd like to say that I would eventually get there, but not as fast. Right yeah. And I, I mean, I was blessed enough to be able to have those resources to go back to my parents and not pay rent. I did have, uh, enough to, enough saved for about three months worth of like my expenses, because I still had a car note. and then I had, I had to pay for my own groceries. I wasn't totally leeching off my parents, but I wasn't paying rent. But, no, I, I don't think I would've made it, not as fast. Eventually I would have, I think, but not, not in two years Yeah. There's something about being able to focus 100% on the one thing so that, like, it eliminates the distraction, the other stresses, Yeah. the same time, it adds a layer of a different kind of stress of, like,"Now I have to make this work." Yeah, a little urgency Yeah, exactly. But at the same time, like, as, as accountants, like, because you went into this profession because you know of the job security, you still… Like, there's always a thing in the back of your mind that like, "Okay, I'm just gonna go all in, but even if it doesn't work out, I know I can get a job." Right, and that's what I thought. I was like, at that, I was 27 at the time, and I thought, "You know what? Like, if this really doesn't work, I, I can find a job somewhere, at least to make ends meet, and, I may not be the happiest, but I'll, I'll survive." Yeah. that, like, I have to know, I have to show myself and just give it a try because if I don't, I'm gonna regret not doing it. Like, I feel like it's one of those things, like, you've gotta just try, like, just try it what- however you can, whether it is as a side hustle or going all in. Like, if you have that desire and know that there's a, a possibility for you because you can see all of us doing Yeah it's like you're gonna regret not trying, so you may as well just go for it. Oh yeah, absolutely. I, I couldn't agree more. I think it's, uh, if there's even an ounce of you that thinks that this is something you can do, you should give it a shot. you're never gonna find the right time. Like e- every- everybody has obstacles, and you're always going to think about, like, "Well, once this is done," or,"Once I get all my ducks in a row, then I'll go and, and go all in and do this." But the truth is, it's w- we're never truly ready. Yeah heck, I'm in, I, I'm, I still have my bookkeeping business, and I, I still feel like there's times where I'm like… I still feel stumped, right? It, it still happens. So you never truly feel like it's the right time Yeah. It's like we never truly feel like we're grownups. We never truly feel like we're ready to have kids, and it's like if, if we all waited until we felt ready, no one would ever do anything. Exactly. No, yeah, absolutely so now that you are, CEO of bookkeepers.com, like, what has shifted in your bookkeeping business? I didn't realize you still had yours, so this is Yeah. Yeah like, little quest we're gonna go on now. So what's changed in the way that you run your business, or, like, how have you managed both? This is a question people always ask me, so I'm, like, excited to ask this question of someone Yeah, yeah. So, you know, it's funny because now, what started as… B- bookkeeping was my… That, that was my main source of income, and bookkeepers.com was, like, my side gig, right? I was like, I was a bookkeeper first and a coach second, and that has totally shift to… shifted to where now bookkeepers.com is my primary focus. It's my main source of income, and now my, uh, bookkeeping business is my, my side gig now. Mm-hmm. And it's, In 2019, when I came full time with bookkeepers.com, I took that job knowing that I was going to have to go all in in… with this job and either automate, delegate, or remove, a lot of the things that I was doing, because I was still spending a lot of time in my bookkeeping business. so in 2019, I hired help, and, thankfully, I did some things right. You know, as a business owner, you do so many things wrong, but I, I think all it takes is one c- one right thing for it to really help or, or for you to be able to take off. And, I did enough right where I hired the right people that asked the right questions and really forced me to have my workflows, because I didn't have them before. and instead of them… Instead of giving somebody, like,"Hey, here's a bunch of books. Go and complete them on a month-to-month basis and meet with the clients," the right people that I hired came to me and would say, "Hey, how do you want this done?" And I, I couldn't be mad about it, right? Because I didn't give them the right direction. But that forced me to have directions and forced me to have SOPs, which I didn't have before. And now, every task that we have, we have SOPs for. Now, I was still spending quite a bit of time with my business, not, not as much. And when I say quite a bit, I'm thinking maybe 20 hours a month on, on the bookkeeping business. But it was still, like- 18 hours more than I wanted to spend. And so whenever I got appointed a CEO, that's when I, I was like, "Okay, I, I don't have the time for this." And, I let go of a lot of clients, uh, ba- just last year, and in fact, we're still letting go of clients now. So I… It's not something that I, I don't want to discourage people to think, like, you can't do two things at once. I think I can't dedicate, and give 100% to two things at once. So I do, I, I, I plan on still keeping the bookkeeping business for now. but it, I am keeping only the clients that do not have direct access to me or the ones that we have automated, uh, in some way, shape or form. And so now I'm spending probably 30 minutes a month on the clients. And, uh, it, it's still profitable, which is good for me, and it's creating jobs. Uh, we have, we have a, a, a great staff that does our bookkeeping for our bookkeeping firm. And, that for me was enough, like, to keep it. I didn't wanna completely shut the business down. I think that was probably the number one reason why I didn't want to is the jobs that it has created. I'd hate for anybody to lose that. So I've been able to keep it, and… But you know, it, it's the, it's the workflow. So if you go back to what it, what is it that's actually managing this and allowing this to happen is the fact that we have workflows and we have something set up to where this can be done and me take a week-long vacation, two-week-long vacation, and the business is still running Yeah. Have you found that it's helpful for you to, um, still have your bookkeeping firm the work that you're doing with bookkeepers.com? not really actually. Uh, I think it actually, to be honest, I feel like it almost, uh, even the 30 minutes that it takes me a month, I- it's like 30 more minutes than I wanted, than I wanna be spending. Um, so I don't… And, and it's funny, like, you mentioned Alyssa earlier, in the intro, and, Alyssa's somebody that I talked to about that because it's not one of those things where I feel like I have to have one either. but I don't think it helps either. I, I don't think it, it has helped with the, with bookkeepers.com. Because I think we have our pulse on a lot of great businesses, and we, have, like for example, we've, we've had about 18,000, students go through the course, and we have a really good group of people, and we get a pulse on, like, what is needed. that what little, you know, suggestion I could have from my business, it, it doesn't compare to the thousands of people that are screaming, saying, "Hey, the industry needs this," or it needs that, or it doesn't need this or that. So I don't think it's really helped, it, from that perspective. Right. Yeah, I can see that. And, al- it's almost, it can be almost a hindrance if you do use it that way because then you're spending time fiddling with things you normally wouldn't have.'Cause I found that with myself, is like, because I do still run my firm and, I don't do any of the bookkeeping for any of our clients, and only, like, one or two clients have access to me. there are times when I'm like, I see my firm as a playground of, like, I could figure this out and then teach about it. then I'm, but then I'm spending th- time on things that I should not be spending time on, Yep if I wasn't also trying to maybe create a YouTube video or something like that to educate, this is not something that I would even be doing. Someone else on my team would be handling it. So Yeah. Yep balance of like, okay, is this actually gonna be helpful for me to piddle with, or should I just delegate it and talk about something else on my YouTube channel? Yeah, yeah. And, and there's so much, like, client sensitivity in, in those, uh, in your, in the books, so it's like you can't even record. Any time that I'm recording anything with QuickBooks, I'm like, "Well, I, I can't use my client's data," so I just get a clean set of books every time, and here I go with… I, I have my go-to, uh, Better Call Saul is my go-to company that I always create and upload fake stuff to and start teaching in, so it doesn't really help Yeah. So, okay, this is very interesting to have this conversation. And I've talked about this, uh, at length with Alyssa as well. but, yeah. So, and then there's the aspect of even if you're not involved in the firm at all, you're still ultimately the one responsible. So, having Yeah. weight and that, like, Oh, yeah you know, just invisible load, I guess, if you will, of knowing, like, there's still this team you've gotta take care of, this business, and all of that. It, it makes, it, it does make sense that even 30 minutes… And I've done the analysis on, on my own time. I've, I always feel like my firm actually takes more time than it really does. When I'm looking at my time tracking, I'm like, "Wow, it feels like I spent more time on my firm than I did," but Yeah. of that invisible, Yeah. responsibility It's, it's heavy. Like, you definitely feel it, and if you're spending 30 minutes on it, you're usually spending 30 minutes as a business owner. They're … You're not categorizing transactions. You're not reconciling a bank account. You're doing, like, bigger stuff. You're really using your brain, where, like, y- within 30 minutes you're like,"I've, I've had enough of this," right? So it … I, I totally see that, like why 30 minutes would feel like three hours Yeah. So for those that are listening and they are newer and maybe they don't have a team yet and they wanna get to this point where they're, like, kind of starting to think about removing themselves, like, what, at what point did you, hire in your firm and start delegating a lot of this stuff?'Cause you started your firm from scratch, right? From scratch, yep. So, uh, I, I first started with a virtual assistant, and this is always tricky because I've seen… You know, I've gotten advice from other bookkeepers, like, "What can your virtual assistant do?" Some of them will have them do a little bookkeeping if they have a bookkeeping background. I didn't have a virtual assistant that actually helped me, helped me with any of that. So it was mostly, uh, helping me just stay consistent on social media, checking my emails, and then I would get, like, eas- just very easy emails where, like, my client's asking me for a report on, like, payroll. Like, "Hey, what, when… Can you give me a report on all the last raises we gave to people?" I didn't need to be in that, so, uh, my virtual assistant could go into the payroll software and, pull that report, send it to them. Any kind of random reports like that, that she could handle, she would, and then anything that she couldn't would go to me. That was, that was the, my very first hire, I think it was the right hire because it wasn't somebody that was working full time. Uh, it was somebody… It was exactly what I needed, just enough to, I guess, dip my toes into this, uh, and, and hiring somebody and managing someone. So it was… I, I think if you're looking to hire for the first time, find those repetitive tasks that you, you almost feel like you'd, like anybody can handle. Like, and, and, like, and you… It might seem like you, there aren't a lot of those, but if you really start to analyze what you do on a week-to-week basis, you'll realize how many of those tasks can really be taken, taken up by somebody else, that you don't have to, you don't have to pay 40 hours a, a week for. Like, Right my virtual assistant, like, we're paying her somewhere around, like, 10 hours for every two weeks. Like, I think that's what it was. I think I was paying her, biweekly, and it was about 10 hours at most. So it can tot- it can totally be affordable. and then the next step is hiring your bookkeeper, hiring a bookkeeper, but, I guess before that, you, you really do have to have your processes. and I know, Serena, I'm sure you have, like, listeners here that say, well, y- they'll listen to what we're saying, where we're talking about how rough it is to work 30 minutes a, a month on this. And, it might sound like, "Wow, I just wish I could get there," but, you get there by, by having those, those processes. I think… I mean, the, it, it just doesn't get… You can't get around that. That is the number one thing you have to have. Even if you have one client right now, I would say, like, record your processes. Make it easier on you, because if you wait till you have 5, 10 clients, you're, you're just never gonna do them, which is honestly what I did. I, I waited too long before I started recording processes. I hired somebody, and that hire is who really pushed me and said, "I need instructions on how to do this." And then I'm like, "Yeah, of course you do." The other thing that I've realized happens with that, when you don't have processes, even just if you're solo by yourself and you have three or four clients and you don't have your process documented, it creates the opportunity for you to take on too much different stuff Yeah is harder to streamline because you're just, like, used to opening up the QuickBooks file and figuring it out every month as you go. And that enables you to just, like, take on clients in all sorts of different industries with totally different processes, and you don't even realize it. whereas if you establish and start recording your first client's process as you go, when you look at bringing on another client, you're gonna subconsciously out, does this client fit in the process that I have, or am I gonna have to go out of, you know, learn something new, learn a different software, create a new process around this? And, y- it's like I said, it's like on a subconscious level, you might not even realize you're creating these guardrails for yourself and future team when you do that, but it's gonna create a lot more efficiency. Yeah, yeah. And, and it's gotten so much easier to create these processes now. Like when I, whenever I first started, recording these, I was literally starting a Zoom meeting by myself where, you know, just so that I could record myself and record what I was doing on video, and then I would take my video, send it to rev.com so they can pull a transcript, and I would pay for that. They would send me a transcript, and then I would pull that transcript, create an outline, and say, "This is my process." All that can be done within, like, five minutes at most now. Like, it's so fast now. So there, all there's no… the tools. Yeah, yeah. Like, now I, I, I use Loom for it, and Loom's AI is, uh… I love their AI. it doesn't matter whether you use Loom or whatever. There, there's, there's so many different apps. It just depends which one you like better and how they do it. But for Loom, I mean, you just record, and there's literally a button called SOP. You press that button, and it pulls it. I mean, it's amazing. So if there's ever a time to do it, now you can do it now. It's so easy to do it I know, it's so much easier now. I remember the days in corporate when we would take screenshots and do the little circles and the arrows and, Oh my goodness. photos and then drop it in a Word doc. And then, like, we actually printed this crap out. I'm not even joking. We had binders. I'm like, Oh, I can imagine. these days Oh gosh, I can only imagine like a five-inch binder with like the just instructions on how to do things, and now that five-inch binder, you could probably recreate that within minutes Yeah, absolutely. It's incredible the technology that we have. Um, some of it's for good, some of it's not great, but it's all right. But this using AI for SOPs, I will always stand behind that one Well, yeah. Yeah. There's just… It, it's game changing. It's made everything so much easier from that perspective. I, I love what you said, Serena, with like it keeps these guardrails, where if you have these SOPs, that gives you something to think about when you're meeting a prospect. Whether if you take on this client, are they going to then… Is this going to require you to create a new process? And if the answer is yes, now you have to weigh whether that's worth it to you. Um, do you really wanna create that process for this new industry, for this new client? Uh, or do they just fit right into the processes you have now? Because n- now that if you can do that, I mean, that just makes your life easier, it'll make your team's life easier. Uh, I think that's a wonderful way to, um, just really measure whether this is a client you really wanna continue to work with that's one thing that I realized once I hired … 'Cause my first hire was a bookkeeper, not a VA. So I brought someone in to help with bookkeeping r- almost right away when I had, like, five clients. And even though I only had five clients, all those five clients, two were on QBO, one was, one or two were on Xero, and then one was on, Buildium or something. It was a, like a real estate, totally, like, Yeah. thing. And so we had three different month-end processes because of Wow different softwares. Yeah every time I brought on a new client, I would do them first and create the process, and then Mm-hmm. and train my bookkeeper, and that is so inefficient.' Cause it'll, 'cause you, the, the bad thing is you're only closing once a month. So if you're talking about you creating a process, you're doing the books for at least one month by yourself before you hand it over. And in most cases, if you're like me, I, because, and I say that because I did the exact same thing as you. I would, I'm like, "Let me figure it out. Once I figure it out, then I'll give the process to my staff." and if you're like me, like after one month, I'd be like, "Eh, I'm not really ready to hand this off yet. Let me wait another month." And now I've been doing the month, the, the bookkeeping for three months Yep client before I'm like, "All right, now I'm ready to hand this over." I'm like, "What are, what are we doing here?" Yeah, 100%, that's what I did. And, like, the other thing too is especially when you add different softwares and I, I … Everyone knows if they listen to the podcast, I'm a huge Xero fan. Bookkeeper Launch covers everything in QBO. I don't care what you use, just pick one. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. one, have… in it Yeah, yeah. And it's like, which- whichever one you like, right? Like, it, it, it, and I'm the same way. We teach in QuickBooks because it's, it, it's just the leader in the space right now. the if, if Xero takes over, we'll probably go back to Xero too. but it, it's just, just pick one. We have peop- uh, students that have, gone through the course and they say,"Hey, you know what? Forget Xero, forget QuickBooks. I'm gonna go to Zoho Books," and they'll do that. And then there's Wave. There's… Yeah. Did you? At the beginning, I was like, "What was the other one that I was on? That one." Yeah. Zoho Books, yeah different bookkeeping softwares initially. Oh my goodness You live and you learn. Yeah. Yeah and not to mention, every single client was in a different industry. So I'm not saying that you can't start out that way. I You'll learn a lot of different things, and then you'll learn what you like and who you like to work with. But you also, if you know you don't want to have the learning curve, Yeah. Yeah able to hit the ground running, then do that. And one thing I've, like, It took me a while to draw the line in the sand and, like, put my stake in the ground and be like, Xero is where I'm gonna s- Yeah do. but I found the reason that it became easier is because there's things about Xero that really did make my life easier, my team's life easier, and was more seamless, so it was easy to do that. And that's the only thing that you need. Whatever you choose, you just have to be able to stand behind it with conviction. Yeah, yeah. And like you said, draw the line in the sand, whether that's on, with software, with your niche, or, or whatever it is. Just draw the line and say, "This is what I'm doing. This is what I'm sticking with." And just prove that you're the expert. I mean, at the end of the day, y- you are. That's what peop- you're being hired to be the expert in the, in the space. So, pick your processes. Don't let your clients pick it, and tell them why it's better process, or why you do it Yeah. what do you guys have going on in thebookkeepers.com realm? Are you focused on Bookkeeper Launch? Do you have anything new in the works? Tell me all the things. Yeah, yeah. So we recently recorded a new, uh, video for our, it's a whole lesson, or we're recording a whole bunch of lessons, but we just finished with this one lesson for our AI book- bookkeeping community. and so I'll, I'll talk a little bit about that. With Bookkeeper Launch, we teach… I think it's super important to learn the fundamentals. You have to crawl before you walk, before you run, right? So you can't just go into, "I, um, I'm gonna start a bookkeeping business. Let me figure out how to automate this whole thing." N- like, not the way to do it. Figure out your debits, learn your debits, learn your credits, learn how… Learn, make mistakes, learn how to be a business owner, and then work on automation afterwards. So, the A- we have an AI bookkeeping membership, which is outside of Bookkeeper Launch, where we teach you how to automate some things. one of the coolest things that we just did, two days ago was a video on how to record, like, loans. So, for example, every month you have to record and separate the principal from the interest. And it's one of those things that you can't just put a… You c- you can't just create a recurring journal entry because the interest changes every month, from month to month. And so we found a way that you can automate that now, using Google Scripts. You just add a, have a, uh, an amortization ca- uh, table and connect it to a developer account of QuickBooks Online. it literally will read the entire, amortization table and post these, journal entries for you. And then, so at the… When you're going into your transactions, all you have to do is match instead of having to go and create them. It's a process that takes a little while to create. Like, it took us… We went very fast and created it in one hour. I think, uh, if you're watching it for the first time, it'll probably take you about three hours to do it. But if you can implement that with one client, it may save you five minutes for that one client, for that one loan. But what if you had 10 clients and each client had two loans? I mean, all it takes is a couple months before you got your return on your investment of your time, right? So it w- it, it's one of those things that's worth it. So, in the AI bookkeeping community, what we've been doing is trying to figure out ways that we can just automate a lot of the repetitive tasks that come with bookkeeping. And one of the things that I like to say when it comes to AI is that you treat it like a staff member. It's gonna make mistakes, so the role of the bookkeeper or the bookkeeping business owner is that of somebody that's reviewing the work of that staff member. Don't treat it like it's perfect, because it's not. But you are who's going to go back and review that the automations are working properly. And I think that's really where the industry's headed And I love what you said. know, I'm like, "We are gonna cr- clip this into a media post," but the walk before you run, like, because you're, you are a community of people learning bookkeeping, I'm so grateful that you are making sure they're still learning the debits and the credits and the foundations, because I feel the exact same way, and I think that it's I know a lot of people are afraid of, in any industry, honestly, not just ours, but, like, all the new people coming into the industry from college. Like, how are they gonna learn things? Like, you know, are they gonna know what to look for because they never had to do it manually before? Hopefully, we Hopefully, our colleges maintain, like, doing the debits and credits on papers and T accounts and all of that so that people still understand how to fix the AI mistakes Yeah. Yeah but yeah. So, thank you for doing that work. Yeah, yeah. I, I think it's super important. And we have students that, like, are brand new and they see that we have this community and they're like, "Ooh, I'd, I'd love to join." And I'm very upfront with them, like, "Do not join us. Do not join." Like, you, you have to get your foundations. You have to build that. You have to have a strong foundation. You can't build a house on this, like, foundation that you've created in a week, right? Like, you have to really learn bookkeeping before you can start to, to walk and run Yeah. absolutely. So we will link, if you're an experienced bookkeeper, what is the, like, is there a, like an application or like how do people get into the AI bookkeeping community? Uh, if you just go to bookkeepers.com under courses, there is a link there, like you'll see all of our courses. One of them is called AI Bookkeeping Membership. Uh, that's probably the best way to get to it. Um, but yeah, we, I mean, we'd love to have anybody that's, uh, that is willing to learn. And, and AI's moving so fast, so like whenever we first recorded lessons, it was before Claude, Cowork was out and Claude Code and, ChatGPT Work. So I mean, it's just moving so fast. So you'll watch some of the first lessons and you're like, "What the heck is this?" But then like you get to the newer ones, we're like, no, like we're always uploading and updating as, as things change because our, our industry's changing and it's changing fast. But, yeah. And, and we're, we're here for the ride Yeah. Okay, I have a s- side question off of that now. How do you keep up with all of that? Do you have people on the team that are dedicated to watching the trends and making sure that they're developing, like, with the most, the latest and Yeah Like, what is the… Because that just seems, like, unmanageable to me. Yeah, yeah. And, and it, it really is to, like, to be honest, it is unmanageable. but the, one of the good things that we have, we have a great team at bookkeepers.com and, I think everybody but one person in our staff is a student that went through the course. And I think every one of us except for one person owns a bookkeeping business. So we ha- I, I'm very privileged to have that kind of staff that is always looking because they're looking to improve their own business. And the fact that we have 18,000 students and we have people saying like,"Hey, I tried this app." So as soon as I see it on, on, on our group, I'm like, "Well, I need to go look at this app and see what this is all about." the hardest thing I think, and, and this is I think where I draw the line or, or where I preach when it comes to AI, is that there, there's a lot of software that claims AI and, and they're selling you on AI for bookkeeping and then they'll solve all the problems. But I think most of the tasks that these softwares have created, you can create yourself. you don't have to be a software developer. You don't have to be a genius. I'm not a software developer. I've created apps. that's what you have Claude Code for. You go to Claude Code and say,"I… This is where I'm at. This is where I wanna be. This is what the end result should be. Help me create it. But by the way, I have never created this, so treat me like I'm a child and walk me through everything step by step." And it can really create some of this. Like, I talked about the automation we just created, and I mean, the code was like 300 lines long. I would've never created that. I'm not a software developer, but I know how to ask questions and I know my limitations, and that's… If you're just honest with, Claude and tell it where you lack and where you need help, it'll, it'll create it for you Wow, that's pretty cool. And if anyone is listening and they are, like, thinking about starting their bookkeeping business, 'cause I know I get a lot of listeners, um, in that realm as well, if you need to learn bookkeeping, like if you don't, if you haven't found this podcast with prior experience, again, you can go to bookkeepers.com to learn the foundations um, in, Bookkeeper Launch. uh, sorry, I wanted to add, uh, for, uh, your listeners, we're doing, uh, actually an exclusive sale for referral partners, for Bookkeeper Launch from August 14th through the 20th. it'll be a, it's $1,000 off for any version of Bookkeeper, uh, Bookkeeper Launch. So Awesome. We will link that in the show notes so that you guys can take advantage of that if you are ready. And, thank you again so much for your time and hanging out with me on the podcast. I'm super excited. I will be in your community in September to run a workshop. I just got another reminder email to send information on that, so I will get to that. and I'm super excited for that. So if you're in the Bookkeeper Launch community, you will see my face, um, on September 1st Thank you so much for having me, Serena. It's been fun. Have a good one. You too

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