A business owner discovers that he actually saves more of his time by having his books outsourced.
When Len Rissman opened his Yonkers Pearl Express Vision Center franchise location in 1991, he had always outsourced his bookkeeping, although he had part-timers coming in for a while. Upon launching his Yonkers facility, he decided to find a new accountant/bookkeeper and met with several accountants, but he found the meetings tedious. He had the distinct feeling that the accountants he was meeting didn’t understand the nature of his very specific business needs. Then a sales representative recommended Robert Rimberg. Upon speaking with Rimberg, Len immediately felt relaxed and comfortable. Rissman happily handed over all his bookkeeping and hired Robert Rimberg as CPA of record for his franchise.
He was assigned a dedicated bookkeeper at Rimberg Online, who handles the invoices and pays the franchise’s bills after Len approves them. The same bookkeeper does all of Pearl Express Vision Center’s financial statements and oversees their payroll company. Additionally, Rimberg does Pearl’s annual and estimated taxes. The franchise requires quarterly and annual reports, which are delivered to Rissman in a timely fashion. “They even review my inventory,” states Rissman, citing instances when they flagged him to potential frauds and system errors. He says they have caught errors, and have no qualms about calling to help him get to the bottom of a situation—solve the mysteries of payables and receivables that sometimes come up when running a business.
According to Rissman, the work doesn’t require a full-time bookkeeper or accountant and he doesn’t want to pay medical and other benefits. He points out that having someone in-house costs more – even if they just come in part-time, and that his own workload increased with in-house bookkeepers since he had to do more hands-on work . With Rimberg Online, Rissman says, the staff is great – and there’s always someone available to help him.