Money Matters Big And Small

Natalie Loaiza
Co-owner of The Bookeeper

Please tell us about your business. The Bookkeeper, located in Lihue, provides the service of business and personal bookkeeping. On the business side, we offer a variety of services including sales and invoice tracking, vendor and payable tracking, bill pay, credit card transactions and reconciliations, and bank account transactions. We also file GET reports. The individual side is very important to us as well. We focus on creating and managing individuals’ budgets and, in doing that, we track detailed records of their income and expenses, which helps them to see where their money is going and how much they have left after their monthly expenses are accounted for.

What kind of tracking system do you use? We offer a cloud-based record-and receipt-keeping storage system. Everything we do is cloud-based. Whenever we receive a document from a client, they can scan, email or send it via an app and securely upload it to our server, where we’re able to attach that to their transactions and categorize that expense appropriately. This allows them always to have access to that receipt.

Are your services customized? Yes. We feel out everyone’s needs and their specific requirements of what they’d want to see out of their books if they are a business, or, if they’re individuals, what they’d want to track. Basically, everything is customized. We cater our services to meet individual needs.

What is a benefit of using your services? One of the benefits of doing individual personal finances is so you can have all of that backup for the whole year itemized for tax purposes, and be able to manage all of your bills and debt. That enables you to get a visual picture of where your money is going. At a certain point, everyone wants to obtain financial freedom. So, in order to do that, you really need to be able to see where everything is going. You have to develop a budget and stick to it, and that’s an area we’re trying to fulfill. With our system, we can give you daily updates of where you stand with the budget, and we have the ability to monitor your incoming and outgoing expenses with your credit cards and bank accounts.

Why did you start this business? My family owned a business and I grew up being included in the family-business atmosphere. I also have a degree in accounting and worked at a CPA firm for about five years. I came to just really love helping businesses get to a better place for their bigger-picture dreams.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of your business? Helping people develop a budget and figure out what it is that they are spending their money on, and help them stick to their budget to help them get out of debt.

What’s the most challenging aspect of your business? Helping people understand that it’s a misconception that getting personal finances in place is only for people who have excessive money to spend on a monthly basis – trying to change that mind-set, and getting the average person to realize that having a budget is more than just having tax write-offs. Even if you live paycheck to paycheck, it’s in fact more important to have a budget and keep track of your finances.

How do you measure success? By being able to see our clients’ positive outcomes – being able to see over time how they’ve changed their outlook on their finances, and for them to actually see and realize that they’ve done a great job of changing their spending habits and actually have a savings or emergency fund available. That’s the way I measure success.

3-3367 Kuhio Hwy Ste. 210, Lihue www.thebookkeeper.com 212.9499