CPA-supervised college students handle remote accounting with great advantages to small business owners.
In 1971 a college student named Greig Clark founded College Pro Painters, giving other college students a chance to pay for their schooling and to secure post-graduation careers. I recall that their story was part of the early advertising message and I felt inspired by the story.
Lately I’ve had success using bright accounting college students in an online accounting platform handling bookkeeping, data entry and other tedious but necessary data management chores. Last week we finished a difficult project that involved cleaning up a customer list of more than 1,000 entries in addition to the setup of an updated accounting system of a multi-million dollar. The job was finished flawlessly, as far as we can see, and I billed the client less than the amount than we had previously agreed in the project budget.
Modern accounting platforms have well-developed security systems that let me control and manage access to specific data, review the work in increments and audit all activity of all users of the accounting system. I have no doubt this platform offers the highest level of security in the accounting industry yet, oddly, I find that some accountants and business owners remain unconvinced of the advantages. Accounting industry experts predict that another 40% of all small businesses will recognize the advantages of this trend and upgrade to a hosted accounting systems within the next five years. The built-in messaging system within the accounting platform makes communication about work tasks easy. Young workers adapt easily to the latest constant evolving technology; in fact much faster than other bookkeepers I’ve worked with.
Clients like it because we have come in under budget and ahead of schedule on the past several jobs. Their cost for CPA-supervised student bookkeepers is still about half of what they would pay to hire a local bookkeeper. Since all of the work is done and reviewed online, physical location is not an issue.
Students like it because they can earn about twice hat they would at most other jobs. Our performance has been so good so far that I’ve been able to offer a bonus on each job. In addition, working for a CPA looks great on the resume and, of course, I’ll willing to offer a personal referral to future employers.
I like it because these are bright young people who communicate well, are comfortable with the technology, and are eager to make a good impression on me . They are not bound by 9 to 5 hours and often seem to be night owls. I sometimes assign a task in the evening and find it done when I awake the next morning. I’ve often expressed frustration working with non-English native speakers in offshore labor pools that are used by so many firms today. Understanding these young associates is easy.
In summary, I am pleased to report that this is an idea that works as a win/win/win. I would welcome the chance to discuss how this approach might be used to cut your firm’s bookkeeping costs and boost productivity.
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