Bookkeepers On Fire with Deb & Donna

🔥✨ Bookkeepers On Fire Welcomes Corry Jankowski! ✨🔥 In this power-packed episode, we’re thrilled to welcome the amazing 💫 Corry Jankowski — founder of 🌐 Ask a Bookkeeper and creator of the wildly popular 💥 Cleanup Course (with over 1,700 members! 🙌). Corry went from doing books at 14 📚 to building a vibrant bookkeeping empire — and she’s sharing all the juicy details with us. If you’re a...

🔥 "Smart, Not Local." – Yep, we said it. Some folks are still clutching their pearls because bookkeepers and accountants hire overseas talent. Let’s break it down, with a little heat: 💥 Smart doesn’t have a zip code. We work with pros around the globe who are sharp, skilled, and sometimes smarter than the guy charging $40/hour down the street. 💥 Cheap bookkeeping = cheap results. If all you wan...

🎙️ Bookkeepers On Fire Welcomes Marnie Roberts + Special Guest Nash! 🔥👶 In this heartwarming and inspiring episode, we welcome the incredible Marnie Roberts, a brand-new bookkeeping business owner and proud mom to baby Nash (our cutest guest yet! 🍼👩‍👦).  Marnie shares her journey of launching her dream business in January 2025 while balancing motherhood, entrepreneurship, and chicken parm 🍝...

🔥 Bookkeepers on Fire - YouTube Live: Meet Olga Hurtado of Neat Books! 🔥 In this powerhouse episode, Donna and Debbie sit down with the incredible Olga Hurtado, founder of Neat Books LLC, to talk scaling, niching, automation, AI, and building a bookkeeping empire without losing your mind. 📍 Based in Miami, Olga shares her inspiring journey from Colombia to leading a thriving 20+ person firm spe...

🔥 CPA? Who Cares! 🔥 You don’t need letters after your name to start stacking income. We dropped truth bombs (and a few sarcastic gems) on the latest episode of Bookkeepers on Fire . 💥 Here’s what we’re really saying: • No license? No problem. You can do almost everything in accounting… just don’t call it an audit. • eBay > Ethics? Maybe not — but flipping yard sale junk paid for a house . Si...

🔥 Nonprofit ≠ Free Work 🔥 Think nonprofits mean no profit for you? Think again. In our latest episode of Bookkeepers on Fire , we set the record straight—with a little sarcasm and a lot of truth. Here’s what we dished out: 👉 Nonprofits pay—when you know your worth. Stop working for "exposure." You’re not a billboard. 👉 It’s harder than regular accounting. Functional expenses, restricted grants...

🔥 When Trust Gets Weird… 🔥 Ever had a prospective client ask for a background check—then say they’ll “run it through their guy”? Yeah… we did too. 😏 In this episode of Bookkeepers On Fire, we break down the awkward (and oddly magical) world of mutual vetting. ✨ Here’s the spicy scoop: 🔍 If you’re checking me, I’m checking you. Fair is fair. 📞 Referral requests? Of course, we’re sending our A...

On this 🔥 episode of Bookkeepers on Fire, Donna and Debbie don’t sugarcoat it — they’re diving deep into the messy truth about payroll. Spoiler alert: it’s not just pushing a button Here’s what we cover: ✅ QBO Payroll? Hard pass. We said what we said. ADP gets our vote — and our peace of mind. 🧨 Deadlines are not our love language. Want to ruin your vacation? Run payroll manually. We’ll pass, t...

🔥 The fiery truth about hiring help in your bookkeeping biz 🔥 Thinking of bringing someone onto your team? Before you hand over passwords and pray for the best, listen up. In this episode of Bookkeepers on Fire, we torch the myths and spark some serious strategy. Here's your spicy sneak peek: 👉 Subcontractor or Employee? Know the rules (and risks). One wrong move and you’re on the IRS’s naughty...

Checks, chaos, and cash-back mysteries? Just another day in the life of a bookkeeper. In this sizzling episode of Bookkeepers on Fire, Debbie and Donna dive into the wild world of check deposits, rogue workflows, and Hal’s infamous “pocket account.” Here’s what went down: ✅ Teach the Workflow, Live in Reality You can show clients the QBO way—but they’ll still do whatever they want. Adapt or combu...

🔥 Ever feel like your cleanup jobs are marching in a never-ending loop? You're not alone. In this episode of Bookkeepers on Fire, Debbie and Donna break down the chaos with a side of sass and strategy.  Here’s what you’ll walk away with:  ✅ Batch or Bounce: Whether you're multitasking cleanups or tackling one beast at a time—there’s no wrong way… except the one that burns you out.  🧠 Pick Proje...

🔥 FOUR DOLLAR DRAMA just dropped on Bookkeepers on Fire — and oh, it’s spicy. When $4 turns into a full-blown management meltdown, we’ve got thoughts. And a mic. 🎙️ Here’s what went down: 🔸 Stop Penalizing the Tech – Taking $4 out of your tech's pay because you didn’t notice the underpayment? Bold move. Wrong one, though. 🔸 Fix the Payment Right – Accept the $440. Leave the $4 open. Call the cu...

🔥 Equity Fix Madness hit the podcast booth this week, and things got real. If you've ever stared at a balance sheet like it's gaslighting you—this one's for you. Here’s what we unpacked on Bookkeepers On Fire: 🔻 Balance Sheet Baloney – When past-year mistakes haunt your cleanup like bookkeeping ghosts 👻 🧯 Equity Adjustments Gone Wild – Because sometimes “fixing it” just breaks something else...

Donna & Debbie of Bookkeepers On Fire aren’t here to play—unless it's with 🔐secure, 🔥spicy, and 😅slightly sarcastic password strategies. If you're still scribbling logins on sticky notes... we need to talk.  💥 What’s Inside:  🧠 Why “1234” isn't a strategy (and neither is your kid’s birthday). 📲 RoboForm vs. 1Password – real talk on what actually works. 📝 The naming convention that saves...

💥 Tweak Your Life: A Peek into Our Not-So-Typical Workweek 💥 Ever wonder what a typical week looks like for two bookkeepers who run on caffeine, creativity, and a calendar obsession? Spoiler: It’s anything but boring. 😎 In this episode of Bookkeepers on Fire, Donna and Debbie unpack what “a typical week” looks like for two bookkeepers who refuse to be boxed into 9-to-5 life.  ✨ Here's the behi...

🔥 Starting your virtual bookkeeping biz? Before you dive into reconciliations and tech stacks, let’s talk real talk...  Here’s what we wish someone told us at the start:  💥 Skills ≠ Strategy You know how to reconcile? Great. That’s not enough. You need business chops, not just spreadsheets. 💬 Be Visible + Valuable Get on LinkedIn. Talk to strangers. Tell people what you do. You're not "just" vi...

🔥 In this episode of Bookkeepers on Fire is a spicy audit of one firm’s questionable hiring “strategy”   A new bookkeeper gets hired “on probation” as a contractor for 60 days. Here’s what we break down: 🔻 Misclassification Madness – Contractors on probation? That’s a legal burrito 🌯 full of bad decisions. ⚡ Fear-Based Decisions – An LLC won’t make you lawsuit-proof, despite what your paranoid...

When a client says “just a quarterly review” and “can I call you anytime?”—we’ve got thoughts. 😏  In this episode, we tackle: 🔍 Why reviewing isn’t fixing (and why that matters for pricing) 💸 How to charge for “on-call” support without losing your mind (or weekends) 🧠 Why this level of service needs respect—and a higher rate   It’s time to stop undervaluing your skills. Set the boundary, set t...

Just starting out in bookkeeping? You’re not alone in the mess of mismatched balances and mystery journal entries. In this episode of Bookkeepers on Fire, we’re keeping it real—and hilarious. 🧩 Beginner mistakes we’ve all made (and cleaned up)  💸 Why reconciling to zero isn’t always a win  📉 Journal entries that should’ve never happened  😂 Learn, laugh, and level up your bookkeeping game with...

This episode dives into one of the most asked questions in our industry: Can you take on clients while still learning bookkeeping? The answer might surprise you… 😅  💡 Here’s what we cover: 🔹 Learning vs. Earning – Why gaining hands-on experience before taking clients is crucial 💸 Pricing Pitfalls – How undercharging early on can hurt the whole industry ✨ Confidence = Value – Clients aren’t pa...

🔥  "Nonprofit Trailblazer with No Workarounds" 🔥 Donna & Debbie sat down with the one and only Megan Tarnow—a nonprofit accounting genius who makes QBO sing 🎶 (and no, there are NO workarounds involved).  ✨ What’s inside this firecracker of a conversation?  🔍 Accounting isn’t math—it’s puzzles . Megan breaks down how true nonprofit mastery comes from understanding both accounting AND the...

This episode of Bookkeepers on Fire brings the heat on business meals, tax rules, and real-world money habits. 🍕📄💥  Takeaways that might surprise you:  🥡 Not all meals are taxed — travel meals, team parties, and coffee chats are deducted very differently.  🖊️ You’ll need more than a receipt — think names, dates, and purpose to keep the IRS happy.  🎯 A client’s $500/month Starbucks habit was t...

🔥 We made it to 100! 🔥 Bookkeepers on Fire just hit our 100th podcast episode, and we’re feeling all the love, laughter, and late-night Zoom calls that got us here. What started as a hallway conversation at QuickBooks Connect turned into something that’s changed us—and connected us—with bookkeepers everywhere.  Here’s what we’ve learned along the way:  💬 Just start – We didn’t have all the answ...

🔥 How to Catch Small Errors Without Losing Your Mind 🎯 Donna & Debbie of Bookkeepers on Fire bring the heat 🔥 and the honesty 💬 when it comes to self-review, bookkeeping mistakes, and staying sane in a spreadsheet world.  🌲 Zoom Out – Step away from the trees 🌳 and review with fresh eyes 👀.  💥 Mistakes Happen – Even the pros 🧠 double-enter sometimes. Just fix it and move on ➕. 🤝 Fin...

🔥 Bookkeepers, let’s get real—Excel isn’t cutting it anymore. On the latest Bookkeepers on Fire , Debbie & Donna break down how they stay organized (and sane) while juggling client chaos. ✅ Start with a system Before chasing shiny apps, map out your client workflow. Tools like Notion, Bublup, or Keeper only work if you have a plan. 🧠 Gamify your to-do list Turn productivity into a game with...