Signing into the Client Portal 🔐

• Click 👉Magic Link Demo

 Want to set a password instead?

• Click "Sign in with password", then click "Forgot your password" to create one.

Open Questions ❔

We have weekly automated reminders that go out Thursdays at 10am via email & text to let you know when info is needed.  

• Our portal will tell you how many open questions you have to action at the top of the portal.
• Open questions have two statuses: Unanswered & Answered.
• You can filter for Unanswered, Answered, and All questions at the top right of each Question tab.
• Any open questions we have for you will be published to your portal.  Once you've responded and we have no other questions the task/question will be removed from the portal.

Transaction Questions & Non-Transaction Questions ❔
Transaction questions are questions that tie to a specific line on your credit card or bank statement. To make sure we code your expenses and revenue correctly we will ask clarifying questions to understand the context of the transaction. Typically as we learn the nuances of your business we'll have less and less questions so please provide full context in your responses so we understand how money moves in your business. 

Non-transaction questions are any questions  or tasks that we need you to action in the portal.  This keeps us organized by having all outstanding tasks in one place vs digging through emails or text messages.  🚫🚫

• For each transaction there is a Question and an Action column.
  • From the Actions column, you can choose to
    • Add Comment
    • Upload File
    • View Files

Questions for Us ❔
Questions for Us is where you can send questions in the portal. Once you submit it, we will get a notification and respond according to our communication policy.  We aim to keep all communications regarding your bookkeeping in the portal to keep us organized. ✔️

• For any open questions you have for us, you can choose to
  • Add Additional Comments
  • Upload  Additional Files
  • View Files You've Attached
  • Mark Closed

Resources

• The resource tab is where we store important bookmarks like 
  • Our shared client folder.  This is where we will save all the files for the work we complete for you.
  • Important bookmarks like your accounting software or receipt management tool
  • Your receipt forwarding email (if included in your service package)
  • Meeting links
  • Link to our contract & billing portal (if you need to update your payment method on file)

Providing view only access to your bank and credit cards allows us to independently pull the statements and data we need to ensure the accuracy of your bookkeeping. This saves us both time and avoids a bottleneck in our process. 

We've included the instructions for some common business banks to help get you started. If your bank isn't listed below please reach out to them for assistance.  

Use the following credentials for all accounts:

• First Name: Elmwood
• Last Name: Access
• Mobile: 908 679 9192 
• Email: [email protected]
  • For Relay Bank Invites Only use : [email protected]
  • Role should be 'Bill Payer'

• ADP Payroll
  • For a tutorial, sign into RUN powered by ADP and search for "How do I authorize a firm to access my payroll account?" When it's time to enter the accounting firms number, please enter #28061075, for Elmwood Bookkeepers.
• American Express 👉Tutorial (Select "Limited Access") 
• Bank of America 👉 Tutorial
• Blue Vine Bank  👉 Tutorial
• Capital One Bank 👉 Tutorial
  • Use their Treasury Management feature to limit our viewing access. With this feature, you can adjust the access settings of your authorized users. Make sure ours is “View Only.”
• Chase Bank 👉 Tutorial
• Gusto Payroll 👉 Tutorial (Select "Limited Admin") 
• M&T Bank 👉 Tutorial
• PayPal 👉 Tutorial
• Relay Bank 👉 Tutorial
• Square POS  👉 Tutorial
• Stripe👉 Tutorial
• TD Bank 👉 Tutorial
• US Bank 👉 Tutorial
• Wells Fargo 👉 Tutorial

• If you have personal accounts that contain business transactions, please fill out our onboarding spreadsheet with only the business transactions from these personal accounts.

  Click here 👉: Onboarding Spreadsheet

  Once you've completed the spreadsheet, we will make the entries to your books to capture the activity.

   

Keep Us Informed

•  Please keep us informed when you: 
  • Open a new credit card or bank account
  • Change Banks
  • Hire any new staff
  • Receive new loan disbursements
  • Purchase a fixed asset
  • Pay a personal exp with business funds

Responsiveness

• You will make yourself available to answer queries regarding your bookkeeping in a timely fashion. 
• You will follow the systems that we have set up for you to gather the info needed for your bookkeeping

Responsibility

• If you tell us something is a business expense, we will take your word for it. Our engagement does not include auditing your books - we will be recording the information and answers you provide to us.
• You understand your record-keeping obligations and are aware of the consequences of not keeping adequate records.
• You understand that using your business bank and credit card accounts for personal use complicates your bookkeeping and results in increased time for both parties and is contrary to the advice from the IRS.

Note that any changes that significantly increase the time spent on your account will increase your monthly retainer. 

The first half of each month we are laser focused on reviewing last months business performance and preparing the books and financial reports.

• You can expect your monthly financial reports by the 15th of the month.
  • Ex: February Financial Reports will be delivered no later than March 15th.
• You will receive an email notification once your latest reports have been published in our client portal.
  
  

• All bookkeeping-related queries will be sent to you via your client portal for security and visibility. This is how we track, document, and action what is needed to serve you.
• Any files that need to be sent to us should be uploaded via our client portal. We ask that you do not submit financial documents via email as this is not secure. 
• Any emails sent to us will be responded to in 2 business days
• We send weekly email and text reminders if your action is required in the client portal.
  • Be sure to save this number to your contacts for text reminders!
    (917) 540-8838

• We take time to prepare for our meetings so we can have the most impact during our time together. If you need to cancel a scheduled meeting, we request 24 hr notice before our appointment.
• After 3 no shows you may be dismissed as a client of Elmwood Bookkeepers LLC.

Upcoming OOTO notices will be posted in our portal so you'll know ahead of time when we  won't be available. 

Our pricing is based on the complexity of your accounting and the volume of data we need to manage for your business. 

Things that can trigger rate increases, aside from general inflation, are:

• manual processes (ex: uploading statements manually vs a bank feed)
• increases in volume of transactions that adds time to monthly work
• custom reporting requests with granular detail (ex: expense allocation by project or division)
• an increase in how many accounts you have

A new service agreement with the updated scope of work will be sent as needed.

Sometimes you'll need more support in managing your business's finances. 

We offer the below upgrades to our standard bookkeeping packages⬇️ 

• Monthly Video Debrief video reviewing your monthly reports to talk through any highlights to help you digest your data (5-10 mins) 
   

A new service agreement with the updated scope of work will be sent as needed. Final cost is dependent on complexity of needs.

Your client portal is where the majority of our bookkeeping-related communications will live.

It should be used for:

• Qs we have for you
• Qs you have for us
• Uploading sensitive documents

It's also where you can find:

• Important Bookmarks (in Resources tab)
• Financial Report Packages

If there are any unanswered questions in your client portal you will receive a text and email reminder on Thursdays.

• Our shared client folder is hosted with Google where data is encrypted in-transit and at-rest
• A link to our shared folder can be found in the resources tab of your client portal.

• We'll save & attach any receipts you send to us (if included in your bookkeeping package)  - HOWEVER, it is ultimately your responsibility to save and maintain your receipts

HOW TO STORE RECEIPTS WHEN NECESSARY

Keep this simple.

• Create a folder in your preferred cloud storage (like Google Drive or DropBox)
• Have one folder for each year. 
• Name each receipt with the following naming convention:
  • VENDOR - AMOUNT - DATE
    That way if you are ever audited, you can find the receipt with ease. Ex: Office Depot - $549.78 - 06.02.19

It's important to keep business and personal separate for several reasons.

The #1 reason is that it makes our collaboration easier with fewer questions, less room for error, and time saved which means a lower fee and more accuracy.

But it's also a good practice and would really help you in the event of an audit.

That means you should pay personal expenses from your personal accounts and business expenses from your business account. If cash is tight on either side, make a transfer between accounts.

If you accidentally pay a personal expense from a business account:

We will typically code it as owner's draw and it will not count as a business deduction. If this is an autopay item, please correct the billing account.

If you accidentally pay a business expense from a personal account:

We have no way of knowing unless you tell us. That means you miss the ability to deduct what you spent. So upload the receipt to our portal with a note on what the expense was for and we'll make the necessary entries.

We kindly request you keep this to a minimum as it creates more work and an inefficient process with more room for error.

Note: estimated tax payments and payments on your personal tax return are actually personal expenses and are not deductible. If you pay them from your business we will treat them as owner's draw.

Sometimes you need to open an additional account - just let us know when you do, so we can include it in our work. Note, this may increase your monthly fee.

If you're looking to close a bank account, give us notice before you do so we can download all the info and docs we need first!

If using your business check book please add the detail of the business purpose to the memo field - it saves us both SO much time! (P.S. Please make sure your handwriting is legible!)

For any meals paid by the business, be sure the following details are visible/provided on your receipt to help protect your tax deduction.

1. The name of the establishment
2.  The date of service
3.  Itemized receipt with the amount spent
4.  The business purpose (what was discussed)
5.  Names of attendees

There are 2 ways to deduct auto expenses:

The actual method - allows you to deduct the business use percentage of actual auto expenses including gas, maintenance, insurance, and lease payments or depreciation (a specialized calculation of the cost of your vehicle overtime). The business use percentage is found by tracking all miles and dividing business miles by total miles driven.

The standard mileage
- allows you to deduct the IRS mileage rate per business mile driven. This means for every business mile you drive you can save money on your taxes. This adds up!

NOTE: If you're choosing the standard mileage method, you don't pay for gas, oil changes, auto tag renewals, or car payments from your business. Those are all included as an estimate in the IRS mileage rate that you are allowed to deduct and claiming both can get you in trouble.  What is NOT included in  the IRS mileage rate  that can be included is parking and tolls so be sure to pay for those from your business account when traveling for business.

What counts as business miles?

Examples include:

• Driving to business meetings
• Driving to networking events
• Business errands for office supplies
• Trips to post office for business, etc.

Commuting does not count as business miles. Commuting is going from your home to your regular place of work. So if you rent an office or work for one client and make the same trip daily, unfortunately that is not counted as business miles. Traveling between clients or to different clients does count.

You need to log your miles in either scenario

Tracking your miles is simple. You just need to note the date of your trip, where you went, the business purpose of thetrip, and the miles driven.

• If you are a QuickBooks user, I recommend using the QBO Mileage Tracker
• If you are a Xero user, I recommend: MileIQ

If you're working with a tax accountant, it's a good idea to ask them which one is right for you and exactly what you need to do to take the deduction.