Why I’ve Avoided Bookkeeping for Five Years in My CAS Firm (And Why I’m Reconsidering It Now)

In this episode, I talk about why I’ve avoided offering bookkeeping in my fractional CFO firm for nearly five years. It goes back to burnout from public accounting, payroll emergencies, bill pay disasters, and the realization that full-service bookkeeping is a zero-sum game.I share real stories, including processing payroll from a car during a family trip and the time a client bypassed controls and wired more than $50,000 to a bad actor. These experiences shaped how I built my firm and why I stayed out of bookkeeping for so long.But now I am reconsidering it. One of my clients is consistently months behind because their accountant is split between bookkeeping and tax work. It slows down my team and limits the strategic value we can deliver. So we are exploring a controlled, light-touch bookkeeping model that supports advisory without going back to full-service chaos.Sponsored by TeamUp. Learn how to hire a full-time accountant in the Philippines without an outsourcing middleman at teamup.ph.