I have been working for a friend (sigh, mistake) maintaining business financials, marketing etc for over 2 years. She recently took a leap and invested in/built a p/t clinic (small animal). I originally worked 2 hours between 2 and 4 times per month due to the low activity, only able to work one day a week. They purchased Quickbooks for the business (hubby is involved also) and I have been building/filling the data base as the year has progressed, starting in March. The clinic opened in June, and up til now, the owners were flat out with construction and marketing,  off property treatments. They have been insistent that I "watch my hours" and they are "concerned" about how much they will need to pay me. I thought, as an investment into my future with them, to adjust my billing so after the initial 2 hours a week my hourly rate drops.  I have had to bounce around my time to access the computer we share and it has been challenging to put enough hours in. Additionally, a few weeks into the new system, I realized, by chance, they were using multiple credit cards and bank accounts to pay for business related items and fit up. This meant finding, backing out data and re-entering. Also, they have Quickbooks on a Mac, which I am not savvy in. There was a bit of a learning curve and slower entry for this reason initially. I sent them email updates as to what I've been working on, where I'm at and what's left and my estimated timing for such. Any time I checked in with them to date they have either been "too busy" or what I am sharing is "too overwhelming" for them at the time. 

I am at the point where I have roughly 2 past months of minimal entries I have to review and either delete (duplicate "cash" slips that were not withdrawals from the bank, and need to be owners equity, or items entered when I reconciled the bank account which were debit card charges not originally indicated as such), a handful of pay pal entries and reconciliation, enter a months worth of petty cash slips (should take 15 minutes) and set up income accounts for credit card charges and enter roughly 10ish sales receipts. I have been trying to stay under 4 hours a week, doing some work at home when I cannot concentrate or have 'spent too long" at the office and know they are "concerned."

I have worked for start up companies before, but shared these tasks with multiple people. I have been flying solo since day one, having had one meeting with them only, no requests or inquiries from them as to what I am doing etc., and they do not know anything about Quickbooks. I cannot give them accurate financials until the above is completed.

They are done with reconstruction of the site and are up and running, and the heat is off them a bit, as they settle into their routine. They are still a challenge to coordinate a time to go in and focus on what I need to do, and there are regular comments about "why is this taking you so long?"

Am I crazy? I know it is hard to explain the volume, but, suffice to say, there are usually an hours worth of entries to do weekly, in addition to building the vendor, customer, account, job, banking, reconciliation and list information.I have been compliant with their needs, but have not gotten to a point where I am prepared to give them "evidence" of my hard work ie: their financials are not 100% yet due to having to recategorize and finish input. This is their first experience with their own business, and it seems to me they just don't get what is involved in organizing paperwork, entering all the details, and getting things to a point where we are just entering the past week's data. I am STILL getting "invoice" or payment info on sticky notes, even though we created a slip months ago. I get sales receipts, multiple payment methods, etc still.....

I went in one day this week (I work part time on purpose and am only able to give 8 hours a week, which they have know all along, and which I cannot deviate from) to have the computer to myself, and when I opened Quickbooks, all I could access was the backup files I had made (pointless to back up on hard drive, I know, but I had nothing external to back up to, yet, it seemed like a better idea than not backing up!! lol!!) Nothing was bold for me to open the most current version. I opened each of the backup files, looked for most recent input, nothing. There were 4 files with dates of when they were backed up, and nothing else for me to open. I even did a search with the Mac version (woohoo I'm Mac savvy now!! not..), and only found the same backed up files. Rebooted...got the same thing.

The owner had a new external device on the computer that we are now able to use to do backup. When I called, he could not walk me thru anything to get to the current version, so I had to leave. Today, he calls and says he opened the most current file straight away like normal when he got in. ???????????? I am wondering if I am going crazy now. Alzheimer's perhaps? My dad had it........they say it's hereditary.

I have to meet with them on Friday to "discuss" and "get in sync" and they want accurate financial records asap. They are done with their fit up and the clinic is now up and running, so they are beginning to have more availability. However, they have NO idea of all the work I've done, what I have left to do, and do not seem to remember that I work one day a week, and have other things I need to tend to on my other days.

Phew! Thanks for letting me get that off my chest! I'm just looking for validation from anyone in a similar situation of a start up company, and the fact that it take a great deal of time and work to get everything up and running. I have been bookkeeping very successfully for over 20 years (ouch) and have always had much praise for my work. This, however, is starting to really fray my nerves. :)