I want you to imagine with me for a minute, a future where you have complete and total understanding of the money side of your business, maybe you're already there, in which case, my hat's off to you, I'm super excited that that you are on top of all of those things. But for many of us getting to a place where we understand not just sort of the basic numbers of our business, but everything about where we are right now in relation to the past, what our forecasted income and expenses are, what our profit margins are, for the year, all of that sort of thing, we really have to dig to figure that out. And it's something that stresses us out. But that doesn't have to be the way that it is there could be in the relatively near future, a version of reality where you know those things and you feel confident about those things. And when somebody says, Have you got all your tax stuff ready, you don't have like a small panic attack. Today's interview is with a friend of mine named Tanya Hershey, who is the owner of tidy books boutique. She is a former photographer, turned bookkeeper, and she now runs this boutique bookkeeping firm that caters primarily to photographers. So I literally couldn't think of a better person to chat with here, at the end of the year, as we are all sort of in the process of getting ready to wrap up our books for the year about how to do that well, and how to put ourselves in a place where we are not stressing this coming spring, so many of us drag our feet until the very last minute when it comes to preparing for taxes. But the truth is, we should always be preparing for that it should be just an ongoing part of our business that we attend to. But because tax season really only comes around one big time per year, many of us put that at the bottom of the list. It's not something we love doing, it's not something we absolutely have to do. So we put it off, and we put it off and we put it off until it becomes this monstrous, horrible task. So I am trying my best with this episode to save you some of the angst that may come in the spring if you don't check in right now. And Tanya is going to give us some great tips on how to do that status check and the steps that you can take right now to be proactively ready for the end of the year. Welcome to this can't be that hard. My name is Annemie Tonken. And I help photographers run profitable, sustainable businesses that they love. Each week on the podcast, I cover simple, actionable strategies and systems that photographers at every level of experience can use to earn more money in a more sustainable way. Running a photography business doesn't have to be that hard. You can do it. And I can show you how. Tanya, welcome to this can't be that hard. I'm super excited to be chatting with you on the show today. How are you?
Tanya Hirschey:I'm doing great. Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here. Yeah,
Annemie Tonken:well, this is kind of a surprise show here in November, to already be talking about tax time. But you are such a great person to be having this conversation with you've got I'm gonna let you do a little introduction of yourself. But history sort of spanning both the photography side of things and the bookkeeping and tax prep side of things. So I feel like this is a really good conversation to have. And I'm excited to be having it at a time when it's not like you have to do this right now. It can actually be you know, the thing that we all strive for, which is like getting a little bit ahead. But yeah, before we dive in on all of that, why don't you give everybody a quick backdrop on who you are and where you are and all that good stuff.
Tanya Hirschey:Yeah, sounds good. So I'm Tanya, I am the founder and owner of tidy books. And I am a photographer, turned bookkeeper. So I had a photography business years ago, it was successful. It was fun. However, there was a time where I had to put that aside professionally for a bit and then fast forward I decided to go down the path of becoming a bookkeeper. And it was this wonderful opportunity to mesh the two worlds together because I just started seeing all these needs. Within the photography industry. Just a lot of photographers would say you know, I'm not a numbers person. This really stresses me out I need help. There was just this gap in education or a photographer might be like I'm I'm like growing like crazy, and I just don't have the time to keep up with this. So way I was able to kind of meet that felt need by providing the bookkeeping services that we offer. So basically, I started tidy books in 2017 and it's grown like crazy. We have close to 80 monthly bookkeeping clients that are mostly photographers. So we see a really broad range of different types and sizes of photographers. And it's just so much fun to have a front row seat to that and be able to support all these amazing growing businesses.
Annemie Tonken:Yeah. And that is so good. The very first time that I ever reached out to a bookkeeper, I was looking to actually hire somebody to train me on how to manage my own books. And I contacted somebody locally, who was just a small business bookkeeper. And it was, I mean, she did, she gave me some good pointers and things, but she had never worked with a photographer before. And there were so many issues where she was like, Well, I don't know, I'm not sure. And I feel like that cross training that you have that you come to the table with is amazing. It just means so much less sort of preliminary work, you know, where you have a system that is like built for the photography industry and the different needs that we do have. I mean, I'm sure that's true to a certain extent, with every industry, but ours is funny, right? Like, there's all these, you know, part of what we offer is digital, and part of it is physics. Some of it is physical, and you know, all of the different things like it's just not, it's not as straightforward. It seems as like a retail store or something like that.
Tanya Hirschey:Yeah, that's so true. And the great thing is that we do kind of see across the board, and we're like, okay, here are the different trends. Here are typical challenges at you know, and here's what we can recommend. And I think it's yeah, it's really powerful to be able to, to bring that to the table.
Annemie Tonken:Excellent. Well, I know that we are sort of dropping this conversation in at a time of year when a lot of photographers are like, Yeah, thanks. I don't have time right now to think about my bookkeeping and my money. But the reason that I wanted to talk to you now is that it actually really is a good time for people to start thinking about this ahead of tax season. If you're not, you know, if you are not someone who already has all of your sort of bookkeeping ducks in a row. I feel like now rather than even January, but certainly like February, March, now is a great time to take just a little bit of time each week to make sure that you are setting yourself up well, because there are some pretty big mistakes you can make before the end of the year that you can't fix afterwards, you can only sort of like move forward. So I'm excited to talk to you about some really important habits that photographers can put into place and some like boxes that they can check now before the end of the year to ensure that they're not going to get any unfund surprises come come tax season.
Tanya Hirschey:Yeah. I mean, it's so hard because if you've got a busy season, you know, your family, your senior photographer, let's say it's just so hard to keep up with it. It gets put on the bet. It's the thing that gets put on the battery, right, if you're not super diligent about it, and then yeah, now it's November, December, the panic starts to set in, like I've done something or I'm so far behind. But yeah, I'm excited to get some tips that will help end the year. Well,
Annemie Tonken:yeah, and it's also one of those I mean, I talk sometimes about like, we all have those monsters in the dark corners that we imagine are huge and scary and terrible. And sometimes the best thing that we can do is just flip on the light and take a look at that monster and be like, Oh, I can handle you. Yeah, so so that's what we're doing. We're turning on the lights and, and and chatting about how to get ourselves ready before the end of the year. So let's go ahead and dive in on what you think are the most important things that people can do habits that they can establish or, you know, things that they can check off their list now, before the end of the year.
Tanya Hirschey:Yeah, um, as I was thinking about this, I think one of the most one of the easiest things you can do if you haven't already done this is to make sure you're separating your business and personal finances because if you're not then it's just a nightmare at the end of the year to get all of that together. So if you have not been doing that, then go open a business bank account right now and switch everything over to your business. If you've gotten a little bit lacs about it and your you know your swipe in business or personal and vice versa. Just do your very best to start separating that. I feel like that's one really easy habit that will save you a lot of headaches in the end.
Annemie Tonken:Absolutely. I feel like I I can't even remember when it was that I separated those things out. I think it was pretty early on and I appreciate that because what I didn't do early on so I had a business bank account but I didn't have a separate business credit card. And I remember when I finally did get a business credit card being like Oh, wow, this is so much easier to just pull up the business credit card statement and be like these are all of my expenses versus before where I was going line by line through my personal credit card statements trying to be like, Well, this one was for business and this one was for personal. It was it that untangled so much. And I feel like that's, I'm glad we're starting there. Because if you don't already have a separate business account and a business, I would add credit card, I don't know, I'm assuming that you agree with that. Those are huge. And there are great business credit cards out there that, you know, do cashback and miles and all that sort of thing. So just sort of add it to the and
Tanya Hirschey:I will add also these days, PayPal to open a business, PayPal accounts, business Venmo they've got those now, they are pretty easy to separate. There's, you know, even Amazon business, those are also simple things you can do just to further separate business and personal. It'll make it so much easier down the road. Yeah, if you do those things,
Annemie Tonken:for sure. Yeah. Good. Okay, so we've got our accounts separated, and we're spending money and earning money all into a single column over here. Yes, what comes next?
Tanya Hirschey:Yeah, I think a natural lead out of that is let's talk about receipts, which nobody wants to talk about. But along the lines of statements, you might you probably realize this, but some might not realize that you cannot rely on your bank or credit card statements or proof of purchase. So the IRS wants to see actual documentation. Because, you know, they don't know if that Amazon purchase was, you know, a personal fun thing, or was it a business, an actual business expense, so, so we need to be tracking our business expenses, and providing proof of purchase. So establish a good receipt system, you can do something as simple as you know, if it's a digital receipt that comes to your email, just label it and put it in, in a folder in your email. And then you know, gather those at the end of the year, you might open a Google Drive folder, or you just how's everything you might scan or, you know, move those email receipts to that folder, or you might use a software, whatever you do, it doesn't really matter how you do it. Maybe you have a shoebox, whatever you do, just make sure that you're saving your receipts. If you were ever to be audited, it's just, it's just an audit proof thing to do.
Annemie Tonken:Right? And remind me what the length of time is that you need to sort of hang on to those things and make sure that you still have them available.
Tanya Hirschey:Yeah, I think it's always the rule of thumb has always been seven years, do some research, to see what you might be comfortable with. Nowadays, because everything is digital digitally. So much easier. We the software that we use, saves your receipts, your files for 10 years. So um, I think it's less, you know, years ago, it was like you go through your file folder every seven years, I dump everything. Now, it's just so much easier to save things online.
Annemie Tonken:Yeah. And I think the thing that I get hung up on sometimes is the duplicate receipts, I suppose it's better to have to than nuttin. But like, for instance, I order something online, and I save that, you know, when they send me the thank you for your order email, I save that email, but then the product arrives in a box and it has like a packing slip receipt with it. And then I am like, do I do I need to keep both of these is one of them. Okay, I'm assuming that really just that email would suffice in the case of an audit?
Tanya Hirschey:Yeah, I mean, I would say whichever is most detailed, and whichever has, you know, the confirmation of purchase the actual receipt, both of them are probably sufficient. The other thing is just choose one system to go with, you want to keep both just Do you know, just keep keep that consistent. And you just want to keep you know, consistency is the key. Yeah.
Annemie Tonken:So what? I'm just kind of curious, because I have definitely heard this advice before. And it seems like good advice. And I'm happy to follow it without really knowing the why. But I always like to know the why. What, what would happen if you were to get audited and you had credit card statements, and maybe you could pull, you know, your Amazon history up and match those things up. But you probably wouldn't be able to do that for everything. Like would they just take those all of the ones that you couldn't account for and be like, well, you owe money on these? Yeah,
Tanya Hirschey:basically, if you if you don't have sufficient proof, you know, in the case of an audit that that was a business purchase, you would be liable for whatever deduction you know you took for that purchase would be liable for it plus, perhaps a penalty of some sort. Yeah,
Annemie Tonken:yikes. Oh, okay. Better safe than sorry, is the
Tanya Hirschey:sorry, the The easier you can make it on the auditor, the better basically, the less they have to dig the better, right?
Annemie Tonken:Nice. I like to imagine myself being like welcome in. Here's my perfectly organized system, but I fear that that's probably not true. Okay, good. So we've got our accounts separated. We have receipts on you know, in some sort of organized saving, saving your receipts folder. What comes next?
Tanya Hirschey:Yeah, I mean, the bulk of the work is obviously bookkeeping, the actual keeping of your records and your business. So obviously, that when we boil it down, we need to track all incoming money. And we need to track all outgoing expenses. And so I, you can do that a number of ways. You know, when I first started as a photographer, I had a spreadsheet, you know, where I was tracking everything, and totaling categories. And then at the end of the year, I would take those totals to my CPA, um, you might be at the point in your business where you're like, Alright, I need a software I need, I need just automation and streamlining. And so I need to get together, whatever you're doing, you know, it's now November, just go back and start catching up. Don't you know, it can be really overwhelming if you've let it go, you know, you had good intentions at the beginning of the year. But now it's, you know, pretty far into the game. Just just set aside, you know, a morning a couple mornings a week with two to three hours and just tackle it one month at a time get all caught up for the year. And then my rule of thumb is catch up monthly. So maybe on day, five of each month, just go back and catch up from the month before you'll have your your credit card and bank statements by then. And so you'll be able to make sure you've got everything captured for the month. So number one is just get caught up number two is a consistent time each month that you're staying on top of it.
Annemie Tonken:Yeah, yeah, it is. It's one of those things that is on my calendar as a recurring like, Okay, today's the day is sit down. And every time it pops up, I'm like, but the minute I'm done, and it usually it's like the anticipation is so much worse than the actual getting it done. And then I have that post getting it done feeling of sweet, I don't have to do that for another month. And it feels like you know, it's that it's flipping on the light and looking at the monster, it's just, you know, reminding yourself like, Okay, I've got this, it's not so bad. So I love that. And I feel like so I'm curious, you say the fifth of the month, any particular reason? Why did you just pick a day at random or
Tanya Hirschey:so that's, that's the cycle that we follow in the business, because usually bank statements end on the 30th 31st of the month. So it gives time for those statements to come through. So that if you're using a software, you can reconcile your accounts, you can collect all of your receipts from the previous month, and make sure you know, it just gives you a buffer between the end of the month and the fifth ninth. But you can do you could do the 15th. The 20th. Just choose a day.
Annemie Tonken:Excellent. Do you have you've mentioned software a couple of times do you have software that you recommend?
Tanya Hirschey:Yeah, so we use QuickBooks Online. That's kind of the industry. That's kind of the standard. There are the ones out there. We've just found if you are at a certain point in your business, and you're growing, and you're working with an accountant, that's the one we prefer, there's a lot of automation, it's gotten a lot more user friendly over the years, I think I get a bad rap. Now, it's pretty easy to go in there and do the basics that you need to do. And then you can just look at your reports in so many different ways that are going to give you insights also into how your business is doing. And the big picture of things
Annemie Tonken:nice. And I want to get back to that and like thinking about the big picture and what you can use those kinds of reports for but I think you've got a couple more like tips for us in terms of activities that can be tackled now.
Tanya Hirschey:Yeah, um, so to two things that come up at tax time. One is mileage. So you're doing a lot of driving to shoots or events. Hopefully, you've been tracking your mileage. If you have not been using a mileage Tracker app, just do it. It's amazing. It'll save you so much time and energy. So that's the number one tip QuickBooks has a mileage tracker, or you could use something like Expensify or MileIQ. But just makes it so much easier to to automate that. Yeah. Again, try to keep up with that once a month. If it's November and you haven't done a thing, just you know, you might have a day it was worth of swiping left or right to do on that app. But yeah, definitely use an app. And then the last thing I'll say is 1099 contractors, if you have a second shooter or an office assistant that you are paying as a 1099 contractor, make sure you've got their W nine if you haven't already collected that from them, you will need that at tax time. And also make sure you're keeping immaculate records on what you have been paying them throughout the year because you're going to be using those those rules are getting more stringent this year. And so it's more important than ever to track what you've been paying your 1099 contractors.
Annemie Tonken:Gotcha. And I know that obviously there are people who listen to this podcast outside the US so some of this information is not necessarily going to translate but in In the US, is it my recollection is that it's anyone you pay more than $600 to is considered to require a 1099?
Tanya Hirschey:Correct? Yeah, that's a very general why? Regulation?
Annemie Tonken:Yeah. And can you talk a little bit about the difference between, for instance, I pay, let's say, a second shooter, you know, I hire them three different times, and I pay them $500 each time. So it's $1,500. Total? And I'm gonna send them a 1099 for that.$1,500. What about if I spend$1,500 with a local business, like a frame shop or something like that, that I spend, you know, that same amount of money to? What's the difference between someone who gets a 1099 and a business like that, where you wouldn't necessarily be 1099?
Tanya Hirschey:Well, a couple of things. In general, it's a service distinction. And also, it's a If so, if a company is incorporated, they will not receive a 1099. So really general guidelines, it can get pretty technical and nitty gritty. So you know, if you're at the point where you're like really confused, I would say definitely ask your CPA or your bookkeeper for for help on like, knowing do they do they need a 1099? You know, I don't really know, I'm kind of confused. Yeah, it does get overwhelming.
Annemie Tonken:Yeah, I feel like I've run into this before myself where, like, for instance, I will hire a photographer to help me with something. And they file as an S corp, let's say. And then it's like, well, how does this work? They've invoiced me. So obviously, we have tax records of the fact that I've paid them. So yeah, I mean, obviously, it's sort of a case by case basis, it sounds like
Tanya Hirschey:and always get advice from your accountant, because different states might have different regulations. Like if you're filing a 1099, some states, you have to file with the state as well as federal. So there's all kinds of intricacies on that. But, but, but we don't have to get, you know, make it so complicated, just in general$600 threshold. Yeah,
Annemie Tonken:again, better safe than sorry, you get somebody to send you a 1099, then you have it if you need it. And I will just toss in there, if you know you're going to be paying somebody that much. And they're like a contract worker for you get that 1099 upfront when you first hire them before you've paid them. So that you are not dealing with like, Hey, I know you're traveling for the holidays. But I need you to send me that 1099 Right now, it's much easier to do it up in front when they're motivated, because they need to turn that in in order to get paid.
Tanya Hirschey:Yes, the W nine Yeah, make sure Oh, sorry. Sorry. That's
Annemie Tonken:what I meant. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah,
Tanya Hirschey:it's all these numbers. W nine is what? For the, for the tenant and and contractors, yes, it
Annemie Tonken:is confusing. And yet, and like, I just want to say this again, like I still get tripped up on the language of it. Sometimes, however, it's easy to manage once you kind of like have it in front of you. But it's harder, it gets harder and harder the closer like your deadlines get. So that's why we're having this conversation now. So good
Tanya Hirschey:start now. Also, if you're having you know, if if your accountant is filing loose for you, they will not have to track you down right on January 5, right, when you still haven't collected that W nine. So they will thank you as well, I'm sure
Annemie Tonken:good. And then finally, let's talk a little bit about tax savings, which is something that I think again, really gives a lot of people stress, like what's going to happen come, you know, tax time, I'm going to get a bill, am I going to get money back? What can you do now, before the end of the year to kind of prepare yourself for that?
Tanya Hirschey:Yeah, if at all possible. If you have a CPA, now is the time to check in with them and say, Hey, here's what's been going on this year. Here's what I'm projecting for the end of the year, you know, what kind of tax bill am I going to be caught with? Or am I on track, because you don't want it to be March and all of a sudden you've got this huge tax bill that you don't have the cash for and it's super stressful. So I would say definitely check in with your tax professional, let them kind of analyze and do a tax analysis or whatever they might call it to see where you are. See if you're on track. And also they might tell you, you know, this is this is a situation do you have any big expenses that you need to make before the end of the year? They're going to be able to advise you one way or the other on that? Yeah, I think the biggest thing is just preparing, making sure that you have money set aside. And you're prepared.
Annemie Tonken:Yeah, yeah. For a lot of photographers, there is sort of a it is worth checking into what your income and expense ratio is at this time of year because if you have equipment that you need to buy or if you are considering purchasing a course or signing up for a conference or something like that all of those are deductible expenses and one when you know where you Stand from a tax perspective, you can make an informed decision about whether it's smarter to make that purchase before the end of the year or after the end of the year. We've all seen those ads that are like use your, you know, end of your spending whatever for this. That's what they're talking about. Because sometimes it makes sense to make those bigger purchases before the end of the Yes.
Tanya Hirschey:Yeah, exactly. So definitely, definitely don't wait until the very end of the year. Now is such a good time to sit down and evaluate and then look towards the end of the year. Yeah,
Annemie Tonken:good. So let's talk about these reports and the you know, expenses and things like that, and how you can start, you know, once you've got the basics taken care of, like, what are the what are the next steps? What is the sort of when we're all dreaming of becoming this person who's completely on top of their finances and their business finances? What do those people's lives look like in terms of what they're doing on a weekly and monthly basis?
Tanya Hirschey:Yeah, well, even you mentioned the dread that comes every month when you're like, Okay, I've I know, I've got to do this to stay on top of things. I mean, I enjoy bookkeeping, and even myself, I'm, when that you know, I, when that day rolls around, I'm like, Okay, I still have to do this. But what drives me, is what happens after I've got that foundation of like, Alright, my books are cut up, I know where I'm at. And then comes the fun part, because you can look at your numbers and be like, Okay, here's how I met my, my, my sales goals, you know, if I was aiming for, I'll just make up a number of 15,000. Did I, that month? Did I make it? And so it's exciting. If you look at your books, and it's like, oh, I made 20,000 or 10,000? Why was it down? What can I do? Or you might look at something that I find fun for myself and my clients is to look at like, a two or three year comparison to be like, okay, you know, last year, January through October, was this much, you know, let's say 80,000. This year, January through October was 100,000. So look at what we've done. And then you can start projecting out like, Okay, we've got 40,000 More coming in at the end of the year. So how can we? How can we best use that money? And then from a tax perspective? What's that gonna look like? All these things that you can strategize and start making proactive decisions instead of just always be like, Okay, I'm caught up, I'm, you know, or I'm reacting to this big expense that's coming or whatnot.
Annemie Tonken:Yeah, for sure. Having that sort of anticipation factor, like knowing I am on top of it, or I'm behind, or whatever I say this all the time, just when it comes to running your numbers, for setting your prices purposes. It, yeah, it can be scary. It's not necessarily the most fun exercise to go through. However, that knowledge comes with so much power and so much. Ultimately, when you start to track it over time, there's some freedom built into there, because it's freedom from the stress and freedom from worry. And, and it just adds like concrete plans to Well, I need to bring in three more clients by the end of the month. So how am I going to do that? Yeah, but not knowing is just like this, you know, we all have that sense of like, generalized dread. Or like, that's, that's a terrible place
Tanya Hirschey:to be. And I will add some encouragement because I, maybe nine times out of 10, if a photographer comes to us, and we're catching up, they're like, I have no idea how I've done this year. I'm just work, work work, I have no idea. Nine times out of 10. We sit down with them and say, Okay, here's what your year looks like. And they're like, Wow, I had no idea I did this. Well, like, I had no idea of this, you know, this is what was going on. And they're really pleased with how the year was, but they had this dread up until that point of like, Oh, I'm working so hard. Is this worth it? But when you actually sit down and look at what you've done, it can be really encouraging.
Annemie Tonken:Yeah, celebrating those wins, I, again, it's like, you're trudging up the mountain all the time. Like you have to turn around and enjoy the view a little bit and say, Wow, I really did that. And I, I am as guilty of this as anyone but like, there are days when I'm looking around, and we're always looking at the people who are sort of ahead of us and comparing ourselves to them. That's just like human nature. I think we all do it. However, it makes so much more sense to compare where you are now to where you were this time last year or you know, this time last month or whatever, you know, wherever you are on your journey, that that's really what's important. As long as you're trending in the right direction. You are, you know, you're on the right path. I think that that's it's a good feeling.
Tanya Hirschey:I don't know if that's an entrepreneurial trait, like you know, we're like so hard on ourselves. So competitive, which is a good thing. You know, it gets us where we are, but I think we sometimes do Just push yourself so hard we don't stop. Right to see. Wow, look, we've accomplished
Annemie Tonken:Yeah, yeah. Well, good. Okay. So you've talked a little bit about, you know, when people come to you and that sort of thing, when, first of all, let's talk for just a minute about the difference between working with a CPA and working with a bookkeeper. Sometimes those things are rolled into one, but oftentimes they're not.
Tanya Hirschey:Yeah, so the best analogy that I can give is a doctor versus a nurse. So compare CPA to a doctor, where they come in for the big events, like birth and surgeries and things like that, CPA, mostly at tax time. That could be once a year, once a quarter, some CPAs. There are some overlap, where they might be more involved and doing the bookkeeping as well. But a bookkeeper is more like a nurse in that they are in your day to day or your weekly or monthly operations. They're keeping a really close eye on what's going on. They're asking you a lot of questions about the details of money coming in and out. There are some bookkeepers that also do taxes. And so they're going to roll that into one. But for us, we do basically everything you need to get ready for the CPA at tax time. And then that CPA is going to be really concerned about saving you money, making sure you're compliant, and all of those good things. So really, it's a good team team effort, I find that there's so much value in having both on your team, people looking at, you know, at the same thing from different perspectives and giving you all sorts of great information and advice. And yeah, it's a good, it's a good, they're both very valuable to have on your team.
Annemie Tonken:Definitely. That's so good. So tell me a little bit about when an photographer comes to work with you. And let's say they've been just doing everything on their own up to that point. What's the what's sort of the onboarding process? And then what does it What are you doing with them on a monthly basis?
Tanya Hirschey:Yeah, so as a bookkeeper, you typically clients will come to us one of two reasons. One, there's kind of two ends of the spectrum, the one end is, I have grown so much. And I really couldn't, I don't mind doing my own books, but I've gotten too busy. And so can you take this off of my plate, and then on the other end is like, I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm two years behind, like, please just help me. And so kind of two different thresholds one is more money, you know, they've they've gotten to a certain threshold income wise, and they're like, you know, what can I delegate, and the other one is more motivated by just the stress of fear and overwhelm? Yep, fear, here. Um, so anyway, either way, what we do is we come in and basically do a full review of what you have going on. And then we will get you set up and caught up to you know, now it's November. So we're seeing a lot of people come to us that either have done a little bit, or they might be, you know, have a good chunk done for the year. But we're doing a lot of catch ups, like starting back in January, and just recreating the year in QuickBooks, and then finish it, we'll finish out the year as well, and make sure that they're ready for taxes. We're going to make sure every penny is accounted for you know that we've captured all of your income, all of your deductions, you're not going to miss out on any of those things. Things that you might, you know, maybe you forgot that you made this, this business purchase on your personal card, we're going to ask you all those questions and make sure that you've gotten everything that you need in your books. So yeah, in a nutshell, that's, that's how it works. We're going to get you all caught up accurate, ready for taxes.
Annemie Tonken:And then going forward? Would that just be sort of a monthly or a quarterly check in with you and you've got access to all of those statements, and you're just kind of keeping an eye on you know, as the nurse you're coming in and taking the blood pressure every every so often?
Tanya Hirschey:Yeah, exactly. We're gonna keep up with things at least monthly, if not weekly. And we're gonna, it's with QuickBooks, it's all automated, your your transactions are coming through the bank feed. We're gonna see those come through, we often know you know, we know the vendors. So we know what b&h photo is, for example. And then we'll take your bank statements, we'll ask you questions as needed. We've got a portal that we go back and forth with and then reconcile, and then you get this nice report at the end of the month that shows your profit and loss, which is the fun part, you get to see okay, how did I do this month? How did I do? How am I doing this year? And we can walk through that with you to give you some clarity and some insights. But we're also going to empower you to be able to look at that and say, Okay, here's looking back, this is what happened and looking forward. This is what I'm going to do.
Annemie Tonken:That's great. Do you do any kind of like goal setting with People and then helping them, you know, let's say that I want my I want to make sure that my business has a 60% profit margin, you know, 60% of what I am only my expenses only add up to 40% of the total of what I'm bringing in. So, and I, you run my numbers for this month, and you see that actually, I'm at 50% for my expenses, or 60%, do you go in and help make? Like, here's where we see, you might want to consider holding back or, you know, you need to bring in three more clients? Or does that? Or is it more like, here's the information now you figure it out?
Tanya Hirschey:Yeah, we do offer we call them CFO advisory services. What I have found with most photographers is a quarterly pace is good with that, if you look monthly, things fluctuate so much. It's hard to be like, Oh, this month, you know, you were down. But it just so many factors go into that, right. So quarterly, and then for sure, yearly, I think is the absolute best time to be analyzing those numbers. So if you can, three years in a row, for example. And you've got all the same metrics to go by, that can just be really powerful. You say to highlight opportunities, or like, hey, looks like like you said, let's say your goal is 40%. Net Profit. Well, you were at 50%. Let's look at why that was, do we need to cut your spending? Do you need to raise your prices? How can we get there next year, and then we can buy quarters and say, you know, look at those numbers every quarter and see how it's going?
Annemie Tonken:Yeah, I'm going to pull one of my favorite quotes out again, not for the first time on this podcast, which is the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is now like, sure if you fall into the category, the large category of photographers who hates this isn't good at it feels intimidated about it, like all of those things. And you're listening to this and you're thinking, yeah, yeah, I really do want to get to a place where I know these numbers and feel confident about what I'm doing and all that sort of stuff. Just release the judgment, which I think we all heap on ourselves about, like, I should have been doing this the whole time. Like most photographers, most artists come into business sideways, like we're not we did not go into business, because we always wanted to be in business. We went into business, because we're good at our art. And we're like, yeah, and I could make money for this. It takes a while to get all of your plates spinning. And accounting is one of those things that many of us in bookkeeping, or you know, many of us save that plate for last. So if you're, if you feel behind if you feel like, you know, it's going to be mortifying to have somebody open your books and look at them for the first time. Just understand that like a doctor, or like a nurse. These people have our professionals and they've seen it all before.
Tanya Hirschey:Yes, all these other ones. Yes, exactly.
Annemie Tonken:So. So that's amazing. Well, Tony, I really appreciate you coming on and breaking this down in such a manageable, actionable kind of a way. That is what I'm all about here. So tell everybody, first of all, you've got a you have a freebie that that people might be interested in. Right?
Unknown:I do. I have a tax prep checklist for photographers. You can find that at my website, tidy books, boutique.com/taxchecklist. So again, it's tidy books. boutique.com/tachecklist. Excellent.
Annemie Tonken:I'll put it in the show notes. No, no problem. They should be able to click on that.
Tanya Hirschey:Yes, yeah. So so grab that, you can start now, by going through those tips. Make sure that you're ready. There's just four simple steps there. To make sure you're ready next year, when tax time rolls around.
Annemie Tonken:I love it. I want you guys to grab that I am certainly grabbing it and and then drop me a DM in Instagram or shoot me an email in response to my weekly newsletter this week or whatever to let me know that you got it and that you are on it. Because this is one of those things where it's like, I I just want this for all of those photographers out there who are are feel stressed about money. It's like I want you to feel empowered, and there's no reason why you can't do this. It's free and it's probably represents just a little bit of your time. Well, excellent. Tanya, tell me or tell everybody where they can find you. Otherwise your tidy books boutique.com. And then do you are you do you hang out on Insta?
Tanya Hirschey:Yeah, Instagram is at tidy books boutique. You can find us there. That's a great way send us a DM Yeah, I'll get back to you or someone from my team. We'll get back to you.
Annemie Tonken:I love it. Good. Well, thank you so much. I hope the rest of your year goes great. Pete,
Tanya Hirschey:thank you so much. It's such a pleasure to be on.
Annemie Tonken:Likewise, have a great day. Well, that's it for this week's episode of This can't be that hard. I'll be back Same time, same place next week. In the meantime, you can find more information about this episode, along with all the relevant links, notes and downloads at this can't be that hard.com/learn If you liked the podcast, be sure to hit the subscribe button. Even better, share the love by leaving a review on iTunes. And as always, thanks so much for joining me. I hope you have a fantastic week.