Six reviews, each labelled and dated

The six reviews

1. 01

   What matteredThe quoted figure was the invoiced figure

   C01–C08

   I arrived with two years of freelance invoices in a shoebox and one real question: whether to amend the previous year or leave it alone. Marisol Vance walked through both routes, said plainly which one came out cheaper and why, and we decided to amend. The scope and the price were written down before any of the work started, and the figure on the invoice was the figure I had been quoted.

2. 02

   What matteredA monthly close date set once and kept

   C01–C04

   We moved the monthly bookkeeping over after a year of doing it ourselves badly. The first conversation was mostly about what we already had rather than what we ought to buy: three spreadsheets, a card reader and no reconciliation anywhere. Otis Brennan set one close date each month and has kept to it since. Nine months on I know by the fifth what the previous month actually did.

3. 03

   What matteredTold the work was not needed yet

   C07–C12

   What I noticed first is that the price published on the website was the price I was charged. I had asked about quarterly review and was told directly that our turnover did not need it yet and that we should look again in a year. That is not the answer a firm gives when it is selling. We booked the smaller piece of work instead and it took the afternoon it was said to take.

4. 04

   What matteredA misread lease found on paper

   C01–C06

   The planning session opened with a question I had not thought to ask: whether the equipment purchase belonged in this year or the next. We went through both on paper with the numbers in front of us, and the answer turned out to rest on one thing I had misread in the lease. I left with a one-page note of what to do and when. The room is plain and quiet, which helped.

5. 05

   What matteredEvery figure carried its source

   C09–C12

   I used the contact form on a Sunday evening expecting nothing before the following week, and had a reply on Monday morning that answered the actual question instead of asking me to telephone. The form wanted what was needed and nothing else. When the small-business return was finished, every figure I had been unsure about carried a line saying where it had come from.

6. 06

   What matteredSix records to keep, not sixty

   C01–C12

   Setting the new company up, I mainly wanted somebody to tell me which of the four things I had read online were true. We spent the first half hour on structure and the second on what records I would have to keep from the first day. The list was written out for me and it ran to six items, not sixty. A year later I have not had to change it.