🎙️🔥 Bookkeepers on Fire is officially ONE year old… and we kicked off 2026 with the kind of conversation that makes you sit up straighter in your chair.
In our first episode of the year, we welcomed Jessica Fox, and she dropped truth bombs with kindness and a little “don’t-you-dare-bill-by-the-hour” energy 😅⚡️
Here are my 3 spicy takeaways:
🧠💰 Stop charging for minutes. Start pricing for impact. In a world of automation, billing by time punishes efficiency. Pricing is forward. Billing is backwards. (Yes, we said what we said. 😤)
🏗️🧩 Systems = freedom. Jessica built a “lifetime business” by turning chaos into workflows, then got her time back (15–20 hrs/week kind of back) 🙌⏳
🤝🌶️ Community beats overwhelm. She created a free space for entrepreneurial bookkeepers to connect, problem-solve, and grow faster than she had to: Bookkeeping Systems Lounge https://bksystemslounge.club/ 💬🚀
If you’re a bookkeeper who leads with heart + power + purpose, come ignite with us 🔥✨
And if you’re still tracking time like it’s 2009… we need to talk 😄📉➡️📈
Connect with Donna on LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnareade/
Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiekilz/
Debbie & Donna Do Digits: https://www.youtube.com/@dodigits
Debbie & Donna Decoded: https://debbieanddonnadecoded.substack.com/
Debbie & Donna Decoded Store: https://debbie-donna-decoded.shoprocket.io/
#BookkeepersOnFire #ValuePricing #Bookkeeping #Accounting #Workflow #Systems #Entrepreneurship #WomenInBusiness 🔥
🔥 Bookkeepers on Fire is back—and this one is equal parts innovation, horses, and four-leaf clover magic ☘️🐴✨
This week, we sat down with the incredible Heather Satterley .
And whew… Heather brought the heat and the heart. ❤️🔥
Here’s what hit hardest (and brightest) 👇
🧠 Change doesn’t need more “push”… it needs more empathy. Heather broke down real change leadership: validate the emotions, have a plan, communicate clearly, and create a safe space for people to speak up. (Yes—clients AND teams!)
🤖 AI isn’t just “the next cloud shift”… it’s a full-blown revolution. The drudgery gets automated, but our humanity becomes the differentiator—reading between the lines, coaching clients, and showing up like real people (not P&L robots 😅).
☘️ Mindset is a pattern your brain can learn to see. Heather’s four-leaf clover story is pure gold: what you tell yourself is what you start recognizing—and eventually… what you start creating. “They’re all four-leaf clovers.” Boom. 💥
And yes… there may or may not have been talk of 💃 a live polka in the exhibit hall + 🎭 comedy routines + 🤠 horse emergencies being the perfect metaphor for running a firm.
🎯 Take your shot. Swing big. Look for your clovers. Be kind.
If you’re heading to Scaling New Heights, get ready—because this community is where you find your people. 🔥🙌
Bookkeepers who get it don’t just balance books. They build communities, change lives, and nerd out on spreadsheets together. 🔥📊
In this episode of Bookkeepers on Fire, we sat down with Martha Yasso. Wall Street alum, AI pioneer (her thesis was on neural networks… in 1996 🤯) and founder of Fiscal Clinic, a niche community for advisors serving independent healthcare practices.
Here’s what we dug into:
💚 From cutthroat Wall Street to radical community
How Martha left a backstabbing Wall Street culture for a bookkeeping/accounting community where we share engagement letters, contacts, and real-life support. The kind that shows up when your kid is struggling or your health throws you a curveball.
🧠 Healthcare + habits + cashflow reality checks
Why she niched into independent healthcare practices (it low-key chose her), how bad advice like “spend so you don’t pay tax” destroys cashflow and how better data, habits and pricing help doctors actually keep more of what they earn.
🤖 AI, systems & the future of our profession
Martha breaks down AI as “really fast math” (not magic), why it won’t replace curious, constantly-learning pros and how systems, checklists and language that clients understand turn numbers into real-life decisions like family, community, and freedom.
If you’re a bookkeeper or accountant who loves a good spreadsheet, cares deeply about people, and wants to lead with intention this episode is your jam.
🔥 Hit follow, drop a ❤️ if community has carried you, and tell us:
What’s ONE habit you’re helping your clients build in 2025?
⚡️If you think balances = bookkeeping, we need to talk… ⚡️
🔥 Balances Aren’t Bookkeeping 🔥
Ever been tempted to just drop in a monthly total and call it “done”? Yeah… no. Bookkeeping isn’t a shortcut game—it’s about details, clarity, and yes, a little bit of struggle (even for the pros).
✨ Here’s the real deal:
📊 Reconcile like a pro → It doesn’t matter if the bank cuts statements midweek—reconcile to the statement date and keep moving.
🧾 Transactions matter → Totals won’t cut it. Every dollar has a story, and your job is to tell it.
💡 Struggle = Growth → We’ve all been there. Asking questions and making mistakes is exactly how you level up.
👉 Welcome to the club, new bookkeepers. It’s spicy, it’s messy, but it’s worth it.
🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.
Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire Community
Bookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.
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#Bookkeeping #QuickBooks #EntrepreneurLife #BookkeepersOnFire
🔥 New Episode Drop: Bookkeepers on Fire with the legendary William “Murph” Murphy of Insightful Accountant 🔥
This week we went deep on what it really looks like to lead, serve, and stay all-in for our profession — even while life is throwing curveballs.
Here’s a taste of what we unpacked with Murph 👇
💥 From funeral homes to QuickBooks royalty – How Murph’s wild career path ran through medicine, paramedics, health economics, offshore financing (😳) and eventually into accounting, data repair, and becoming the editorial engine behind Insightful Accountant.
🧠 Behind the curtain of the Top 100 ProAdvisor Awards – The dog-show inspired scoring system (yes, really 🐕), why it’s 100% standards-based and mostly objective, and why you cannot win unless you complete the application (nomination alone won’t cut it).
🔥 Premium content, QB Talks & what’s coming next – Murph’s 16-article weeks, 80–90 page reports, in-depth blue papers, expanded QB Talks, and how Insightful Accountant is leveling up training, app comparisons, and ProAdvisor support for 2026 and beyond.
If you’re a bookkeeper or accounting pro who’s ready to be seen, valued, and elevated — this one’s for you.
Here is the link to apply: https://survey.zohopublic.com/zs/00DALX
👉 Tag a ProAdvisor who needs to apply this year
👉 Save this post as your reminder to fill out that application
👉 Stay fired up and intentional 🔥✨
🔥 Subscribe to the : Bookkeepers On Fire Newsletter
Bookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.
💥 “Hackers don’t break into banks anymore—they break into bookkeepers.”
🚨 Traveling with tech? It’s not just about convenience—it’s about protecting your client’s goldmine of data. Hackers love bookkeepers (because that’s where the juicy stuff is 💳🔐).
Here’s what we spilled in this week’s episode of Bookkeepers on Fire:
✨ Laptop > Tablet – iPads are great for Netflix, not payroll. Functionality matters when you’re working on the road.
🔒 Security isn’t optional – VPNs, WISP docs, and Practice Protect aren’t “extras,” they’re essentials.
🌍 WiFi traps everywhere – especially airports like Maui ✈️. Stick to cellular data or risk starring on the Dark Web.
🔥 Bottom line: If you wouldn’t leave your house uninsured in hurricane season, don’t leave your client data unprotected online.
🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.
Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire Community
Bookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.
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#BookkeepersOnFire #CyberSecurity #AccountingHumor #StaySecure
⚡️ “If it smells scammy, it IS scammy.” 🚨
Ever been told by “QuickBooks Support” that it’ll cost you $249.99 to fix your books? Yeah… fake support scams are real (and pricey 💸).
✨ 3 Hot Takeaways:
🛑 If “support” asks for upfront $$$ — HANG UP. Legit QuickBooks support doesn’t charge like that.
📂 Banks have quirks: some go back 7 years, others only 60 days. Know your bank’s limits before you panic.
🤖 AI + CSV uploads > manual entry. Train yourself now, and you’ll thank yourself later.
🔥 Pro tip: Do it right, not easy. Fake fixes = fake results.
🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.
Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire Community
Bookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.
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#BookkeepersOnFire #QuickBooks #ScamAlert #SmallBusiness
⚡️“Hot take: If you’re whining about processing fees, you’re already doing it wrong.”⚡️
💳 Processing fees got you grumpy? Think again. Paying those fees means you’re actually making 💵 (congrats 🎉). But here’s the kicker—stop nickel-and-diming your clients with “convenience fees.” It’s not convenient. It’s annoying.
✨ Key Takeaways from this week’s Bookkeepers on Fire:
🚫 Don’t scare clients away with extra line-item credit card fees (they’ll walk—just ask Vegas 🎰).
💡 Instead, bake the cost into your pricing—make it seamless, make it easy, make it frictionless.
💳 Remember: McDonald’s, Amazon, Macy’s… none of them charge you extra to swipe a card. Be that business.
👉 Stop treating processing fees like a burden—make them part of the experience. Because Processing Fees Rock. 🎸💸
🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.
Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire Community
Bookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.
🚨 Hiring contractors overseas? Don’t overcomplicate it. We just broke it down on Bookkeepers on Fire and here’s the 🔥 truth:
✅ Contractor ≠ Employee – If they’re outside the U.S., they’re not subject to U.S. payroll taxes.
📝 W-8BEN is Your Friend – Have it on file, don’t send it anywhere. Just keep it for your records.
🌍 Simple, Not Scary – Unless you’re setting up payroll in another country (👀 Canada anyone?), don’t make it harder than it needs to be.
Sometimes the biggest bookkeeping “headaches” are actually just paperwork in disguise. 😉✍️
👉 Would you ever hire a contractor outside the U.S.? Why or why not?
🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.
Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire Community
Bookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.
🚨 Nine years of messy books later… and guess what? They finally called a bookkeeper. 🙃
When clients come in with chaos, here’s the deal:
✨ Fresh Books, Fresh Start – Don’t dig through a decade of dust. Get what’s needed for the tax return and move forward.
💸 Charge What It’s Worth – Cleanups aren’t charity. Minimums matter. Yes, even $10K+ for the mess they created.
📝 ROI Reality Check – No one cares if that 2016 repair was “office supplies.” The IRS just wants the return filed.
👉 Bookkeepers: Don’t sell yourself short. Clients waited nine years — they can wait for the invoice too. 💥
🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.
Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire Community
Bookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.
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#BookkeepersOnFire #MessyBooks #ValuePricing
🔥 Bookkeepers, let’s get real... do we really need to sit around waiting for bank statements before entering transactions?
Spoiler alert: nope. Business keeps moving, and so should you. 🚀
Here’s the spicy takeaway from our latest Bookkeepers on Fire episode:
✨ 3 Hot Truths About Reconciling:
💻 Enter First, Reconcile Later → Don’t let missing statements slow your workflow. Keep the books rolling.
🏦 Bank Feeds Rule → If balances match, statements start to look like yesterday’s news.
🌟 Old School is Over → Statements are turning into nothing more than a dusty touchpoint for the curious accountant.
⚡ Keep it moving. Keep it accurate. Keep it fiery.
🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.
Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire Community
Bookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.
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#BookkeepersOnFire #AlwaysBePosting #AccountingHumor
🚨 Just landed your “first client”? Hold up… not so fast. 🚨
Here’s the real deal from our latest Bookkeepers on Fire episode 🎙️👇
✨ 3 Hot Truths:
💸 Prospect ≠ Client → Until there’s 💵 on the table (and a signed engagement letter), you’ve got a maybe, not a client.
🍔 Fries Still Cost Extra → Minimum pricing is non-negotiable. You don’t get a discount just because you don’t eat the fries.
🤖 Transactions vs. Transformation → Are you a keystroke-counter (AI bait) or the advisor who changes lives?
🎧 Catch the full episode where we spill the sarcasm and the strategy → #BookkeepersOnFire
🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.
Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire Community
Bookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.
Bookkeepers are DONE playing small. 🔥
In our latest Bookkeepers on Fire episode, Deb and Donna sat down with Matt Tait of Decimal – a “recovering attorney” turned multi-business founder who's blowing up the traditional firm model and turning bookkeeping into a scalable, lifestyle-friendly business opportunity.
Here’s a taste of what we got into 👇
💥 Stop building yourself a job. Most firm owners stay stuck “doing the work” instead of building a business. Matt breaks down why founders should NOT be the ones in the GL…and what to focus on instead.
🧠 Cleanups, pricing & boundaries (aka: stop bleeding profit). From NOT selling cleanups first, to pricing in relationships (emails, meetings, Slack chaos), Matt shares how Decimal avoids the margin-killing traps most firms fall into.
🚀 Franchising bookkeeping as an operating system. Decimal isn’t just tech + offshore staff. It’s a full blueprint: vertical specialization, community, Philippines-based team support, and AI at the “tip of the spear” so franchisees can actually grow…not drown.
If you’re a bookkeeper or accountant who’s tired of being “just the back office” and ready to think like an entrepreneur, this convo is for you.
🔥 Subscribe to the : Bookkeepers On Fire Newsletter
Bookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.
💸 Cash + Coaches = Chaos?
Sometimes bookkeeping questions aren’t about how to record… but why the heck it happened in the first place.
Here’s the hot take from this week’s Bookkeepers on Fire 🎙️🔥:
🚨 Red Flags Everywhere – Paying a “business coach” in cash? No invoice? No W9? Yeah… sketchy.
💼 Bookkeepers ≠ Police – Our job is to record, advise, and guide. Not cuff clients for bad decision.
💡 Transform, Don’t Tattle – The win is coaching clients toward smarter choices (not letting them spiral into IRS nightmares).
👉 Bottom line: You record the transaction, you flag the concern, and you keep the sparkle of professionalism alive. ✨
🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.
Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire Community
Bookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.
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#BookkeepersOnFire #CashIsn’tKing #BookkeepingWithAttitude
💡 Ever thought you needed a QuickBooks mentor to finally “get it”?
Here’s the truth (with a little tough love): nobody can make you learn. You’ve got to do the work. But the right communities can absolutely change the game.
✨ Here’s the real scoop:
🚀 F1 was my first mentor → yup, that little help key taught me more than I ever expected.
🎥 YouTube University FTW → Hector Garcia & Veronica Wasek mentored me for years before they even knew I existed.
🤝 Communities beat gurus → you’ll learn faster (and cheaper) by surrounding yourself with people who share knowledge than by paying someone to spoon-feed you.
👉 So stop hunting for shortcuts. Dive in, get your hands messy, ask questions in the right groups, and teach as you learn. That’s how you level up.
🔥 Question for you: Who’s been your “accidental mentor”?
🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.
Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire Community
Bookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.
🚨 Stop scrolling. Let’s talk about why you’re stuck in analysis paralysis instead of building your business.
Too many new bookkeepers are:
🤯 Comparing prices to $200 “McBookkeeping” shops (spoiler: it’s a race to the bottom)
📝 Counting transactions instead of transforming clients’ businesses (transactional = cheap, transformative = premium 💎)
🌐 Obsessing over websites instead of landing actual clients (newsflash: your first five don’t care about your homepage 🚫)
💡 The truth? You’re not competing with bargain-bin vendors. You’re building something bigger. Premium. Impactful. You.
🔥 Stop waiting. Stop copying. Start transforming.
🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.
Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire Community
Bookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.
🚨 Ever had an insurance provider, mortgage broker, or workers comp auditor throw around the word “audited” like it’s free candy?
🍬 Spoiler alert: it’s not the same thing we mean in accounting.
Here’s the real talk:
🔹 Audited ≠ Audited – Capital “A” audit means third-party, deep dive, $15K+ bill 💸 … small “a” audit means “does this look okay?” 👀
🔹 Push Back – When they demand “audited” statements, ask them who’s paying. (Hint: not you, unless they’ve got $15,000 burning a hole in their pocket) 🔥
🔹 Clarity Wins – Most of the time, they just want standardized financials. Send your year-end statements ✅ and call it a day.
👉 Next time someone tosses the word audit at you, remember: definitions matter.
Would you pay $15K just to make your insurance agent happy? 😂
🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.
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Bookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.
💸 Favorite clients can still fail… and it’s not your fault.
Sometimes, tough love is the best kind of bookkeeping.
🔥 Here’s the hard truth we don’t like to admit:
☕ Starbucks ≠ Sales. If your client spends more than they sell, no spreadsheet magic can fix it.
💳 Loans for payroll? That’s not strategy, that’s survival mode (with interest).
🚪 No sales, no business. A website doesn’t pay the bills—customers do.
At the end of the day, you can love your client… but you can’t fund their denial. Sometimes, letting go is the real act of service.
👉 Bookkeepers, have you ever had to give a client the “tough mom” talk?
🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.
Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire Community
Bookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.
🎓 School told us confidence comes with a degree.
😅 Reality handed us dusty ledgers, 100° fields in business suits, and office supply “theories” that no one uses.
Here’s what we actually learned:
📚 Theory is nice… until you’re sweating through your blazer counting grain silos in Bakersfield.
🤯 Confidence tanks fast when your shiny diploma doesn’t match real-world chaos (spoiler: it never does).
🚀 Real growth happens when you mess up, fix it, and keep showing up. No permission slips required.
🔥 So, are you still riding the stagecoach of “education only”… or are you piloting the supersonic jet of experience + guts?
🔥 Join our Bookkeepers On Fire Community to connect 🤝, collaborate 💬, and thrive 🚀 with like-minded professionals who are passionate about bookkeeping, accounting and business growth.
Join us here: Bookkeepers On Fire Community
Bookkeepers On Fire is proudly ad-free and 100% listener-supported, so we can bring you unfiltered conversations without outside agendas. If you enjoy the show, consider donating to help keep our mics hot and our mission independent.