Contact Information
Douglas M. Swain, Bookkeeper
143 South Great Rd.
Lincoln, MA 01773
Mob: 617-281-0115
Fax: 781-259-8070
E-mail: doug@dougswain.com
Software experience:
Peachtree, QuickBooks, Microsoft Office, and Church Windows.
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Contact Information Douglas M. Swain, Bookkeeper |
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Greater Boston area to Worcester, Nashua and Providence.
Bookkeeping and payroll service for small businesses, including nonprofit organizations (NPO's).
Lincoln is roughly in between Concord and Waltham, Mass. South Great Rd. is the same as Rte. 117, the road from Waltham to Leominster, Mass.
My first job after college (1974) was as a salesman for IBM's small computer division. That's where I learned the bread and butter small business applications like manufacturing inventory control, billing, accounts receivable, sales analysis, general ledger, payables, and payroll.
December 28, 2003, an unusually warm winter day, in my 17 ft. Sea Hunt outboard motorboat at Peddocks Island in Boston Harbor. For more Boston Harbor boating pictures, scroll down to the last link at the very bottom of this web page.
January 17, 2004 near Gardiner, Mass. ATK 260 off-road motorcycle with studded ice tires. I rode for 45 minutes around noon up on the power lines. It was 23 degrees F. My hands got a little cold wearing gloves and over-mitts. The vest covers my hydration system, including the drinking tube, so it doesn't freeze. I wear a chest protector over the vest.
January 3, 2004. It was 44 degrees F. at Hull, Massachusetts, the southern entrance to Boston Harbor. I paddled a 10 ft. Walden Paddler kayak 300 yards across the Hull Gut to Peddocks Island. My car is parked over there by the windmill. That kayak is short and wide compared to a sleek ocean kayak, but it is seaworthy in rough water and good for short rides (or long rides if you float out a tidal river with the ebb current, wait for the tide change, and float back with the flood). On January 3rd I pulled the boat up the Peddocks Island rocky beach above the high tide line, walked through the 1905 army fort (in ruins) and along the island's shore, looking at the 20 boarded up summer cottages and at the three larger cottages that appeared to be occupied. Smoke was coming from their chimneys, and one had a large generator running and a sign about a Rottweiler guard dog. There is a variety of trash that floats up on a harbor island shore, and it stays there until the moon causes a very high tide. Then it floats loose and repositions itself all around the Boston Harbor, and you better not hit the big stuff with your outboard motor. Those big wooden beams are dark and they float low in the water.
West end of Peddocks Island at low tide on a warm winter day, January 3, 2004.
When I visit a client once or twice a week, I pay bills, deposit checks, calculate payroll, and book it to QuickBooks, Peachtree, or Church Windows accounting software.
I need supervision from an accountant, and I ask clients for periodic corrections from their CPA. Surprisingly few small businesses ask for monthly or quarterly checkups from their CPA. Routine checkups make year-end tax prep easier. The CPA can spend more time on tax strategy at year end and less time correcting my errors.
Each day starts with answering questions from the owner, vendors, customers, shareholders, pension fund administrators, and insurance companies. These "research" questions take time to answer, and some examples are below:
-- Has a terminated employee been removed from disability and Blue Cross insurance?
-- Have you prepared the 401(k) annual census?
-- We would like to transfer our share to our adult child. How is this done?
-- What is the wage history for an employee so we can prepare for a wage/salary review?
-- Could you pull the client invoice folder for a client so we can work on collecting overdue accounts receivable?
-- Have you prepared the workers' compensation insurance audit?
-- Could you set up bonus checks for the following employees?
-- Could you return the call from an insurance adjuster about damage from the Feb. 6th lightning strike?
-- Could you come to meetings with three potential payroll services?
-- Could you answer the CPA about what our restricted gift income was this year?
Why? Because as I file papers from the above business activities, I keep a bookkeeper's manual, which is a computer index of keywords to help me or a substitute bookkeeper find things quickly. Good filing (and purging of obsolete retained records) saves space and it saves time. The businesses I work for have to file frequent reports and forms for workers' comp audits, CPA reviews, disability and unemployment claims, disputed client invoices, etc. They need to be able to quickly find articles of organization, bylaws, tax exempt determination letters, past tax returns, bank statements, cancelled checks, fixed asset list, employment agreements, termination letters, deeds and lease agreements, software disks and manuals, deposits, paid bills, insurance policies, budgets, and permits. Employee turnover makes it hard for new people to find these files.
In small businesses, accounting and personnel issues come up that cannot be resolved immediately. I use Intuit Inc.'s QuickBase program to maintain this list, tracking the "next step" required for resolution, and marking issues closed when they are resolved. In the problem description, I note where relevant the papers or images are filed.
When I arrive at a new job, there is usually no arrangement for off-site backup of computer disks and copies of tax returns, articles of organization, state sales tax exempt forms, IRS determination letters, etc. I want the business to have enough off-premise backup (OPB) to start up again after a fire or other problem.
Restoring data is the other half of backup, and most people don't practice and test to be sure the restore works.
-- Forgot to release online payroll a day early to compensate for a Monday bank holiday.
-- May have mis-filed Form 1099-INT and other items needed by the CPA for year end tax preparation.
-- Late payment on a real estate tax bill.
-- Missed a computer equipment rebate filing deadline and did not notice that there were different deadlines for online versus postal mail filing.
-- Underestimated how long it takes for Citizens Bank to send a paper check after payment is released from the online banking web site.
-- Received an Excel spreadsheet without bothering to look to see if the quantity-times-price formulas were correct.
-- Registered online to send a FedEx envelope without bothering to change the default settings so that the proper people received tracking emails.
-- Missed the monthly payment deadline for a client's credit card. Late payments can jeopardize credit standing; they can result in increased interest rates; they can cause other credit card companies to raise their interest rates for the client's loans; and they can cause late fees. All of this because I failed to understand how to use the online credit card web site to make a minimum payment.
-- Didn't put enough postage on a paychecks mailing to a client. Paychecks delayed. Employees annoyed. Note: Most of my clients use a payroll service with direct deposit.
-- Transferred funds online from savings to checking and didn't notice that the bank's online XFer confirm didn't have a confirmation number on it. Result? Bounced check.
-- In QuickBooks, I received a customer payment that was greater than the invoice, creating negative A/R. The CPA's who oversee my work go ballistic when they see negative A/R.
-- Wrote Prospect St. on a vendor check instead of Prescott St. Had to stop pay and re-issue the check, annoying the vendor and everyone I work with.
-- On payroll Form W-2, forgot to put a checkmark in Box 13 "Pension Plan" for a client whose employees have 401(k) plans. I mistakenly assumed that the pension plan administrator would warn us about a need for that.
-- Forgetting to ask a new client if they had any outstanding problems with state or federal taxing authorities. Employees who open the mail sometimes don't copy the chief financial officer with such news. They should copy the CFO because the IRS will take calls only from an officer of the company, not from a bookkeeper.
-- Forgetting to tell a new client that I need a few hours of help each year from a QuickBooks professional advisor.
-- Failing to double check a client mailing to be sure all customers got the mailing.
Running important financial applications on separate computer software and not reconciling the two systems. Most small businesses have some variation on this problem of two parallel and unreconciled billing systems.
Employees rendering services or delivering goods, giving an invoice to a customer, and not passing the invoice copy on to the bookkeeper so that it shows up in the accounts receivable system.
Many employees don't understand that there is a moment in time when, suddenly, the client or customer owes money to the business. The date and amount of that debt needs to be recorded and aged in the accounts receivable system, whether on paper on in a computer. Recording A/R data means keeping track of one of the most tricky and elusive assets owned by a company. Like cash, A/R is a fundamental asset on the balance sheet.
My fee is based on travel time and tasks performed, whether in the office or at my home office, at an hourly rate of $40.00.
This rate continues round the clock (and I require a retainer of $6,000.00) if the work is done at a location outside reasonable daily commuting range from my home.
In addition, I bill clients for bookkeeping sub-contractor time, cash out of pocket expenses, which are usually tolls, parking, and subway expenses, but which also could include taxi, airfare, hotel, long distance calls, delivery fees, photocopying and fax costs, postage and other expenses which I may incur on the client's behalf.
Massachusetts Dept. of Revenue to get state tax forms, mostly relating to payroll.
Internal Revenue Service to get I.R.S. forms, mostly relating to payroll.
Jeff Swain, my brother. Jeff is a certified court videographer and tournament slalom waterskiier in Tallahasee, Florida.
Bikeworx, Inc. where I take my off-road motorcycle for repairs (in Maynard, Mass.)
ATK Motorcycles in Utah, the manufacturer of my 2-stroke dirt bike.
Rex Swain, my brother. Rex is a software developer.
Photos of my Apr. 3, 2004 motorboat trip on the Mississippi just north of St. Louis.
Photos of my March, 2001 Matewan, West Virginia off-road motorcycle trip.
Photos of Jan. 17, 2004 motorcycles near Gardner, Mass.
Photos of C.C. King's Incidents of Listening exhibit at Middlesex School, Concord, Mass. January 8, 2003.
American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers
Text of a Nov. 2007 ice ride and how I got interested in motorcycles.
Photos of my Nov. 22, 2003 motorboat trip around Boston Harbor.