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Terri Bork

💼📊 Expert QuickBooks Cleanups & Bookkeeping for Service Based Businesses 💹💰
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AbacusGal.com

23/10/2026

Are your expenses growing without you noticing?

A $200 increase here and $300 there may not feel significant.

But five expenses that each increase by $300 a month means your business is spending another $18,000 a year.

Pull up your P&L and compare your expenses to the same period last year.

Don’t just look for your biggest expenses. Look for the ones that have changed.

Your action item: Find the three expenses that increased the most and ask one question:

“Do I know why?”

If you don’t, dig into them.

Need help understanding what your numbers are telling you?

Book a call with us

22/10/2026

Ready to hire?

When your team is stretched thin and everyone is wearing too many hats, hiring another person can feel like the obvious next move.

But “we’re busy” and “we can afford to hire” are two very different things.

Before you add another person to payroll, I want you to look beyond the salary.

What will the position really cost once you include payroll taxes, workers’ comp, benefits, software, equipment, training, and everything else that comes with adding another employee?

Then look at the business.

• Is your current profit strong enough to absorb the additional cost?
• Is your cash flow consistent enough to support the new payroll every month?
• How long will it take before this person is fully productive?
• Will this hire help generate additional revenue, increase capacity, or free up someone else to do higher-value work?
• What happens if revenue has a slower month?

A new employee can be one of the best investments you make in a growing business.

But the decision shouldn’t start with “We’re drowning. We need somebody.”

It should start with the numbers.

Your action item: Before posting that next job opening, calculate the full annual cost of the position and determine how much additional revenue, capacity, or time that hire needs to create for the investment to make sense.

Ready to grow your team but not sure what your business can comfortably afford?

That’s exactly the kind of decision your financial information should help you make.

Book a time on my calendar and let’s look at it together

21/10/2026

That number you haven’t looked at yet?

Your actual profitability by service line.

A business can be generating $1 million, $2 million, even $3 million in revenue and still have services that aren't contributing nearly as much profit as the owner thinks they are.

And sometimes the service bringing in the most revenue isn't the one making you the most money.

That’s why I want business owners to look beyond the top line.

For each major service you offer, ask:

• How much revenue does it generate?
• What does it actually cost to deliver?
• How much labor does it require?
• How much of your team’s time does it consume?
• What is left after those direct costs?

You may discover that the service everyone is busy selling isn't your strongest performer.

Or that a quieter, less exciting service consistently produces a healthier margin.

That information can change some pretty important decisions.

What should you be promoting?

Where should you raise prices?

Where should you add staff?

What work should you stop saying yes to?

And where should you focus your energy if you want to grow profit, not just revenue?

Finding out that something isn't as profitable as you thought isn't bad news.

Not knowing is the bigger problem.

Because once you know, you can do something about it.

Ready to find out what's actually making your business money?

Book a time on my calendar and let's talk

20/10/2026

Are you paying for mistakes twice?

When something goes wrong on a job, it’s easy to see the obvious cost: replacing materials, issuing a refund, or giving the customer a credit.

But there may be another cost hiding in your numbers: the labor to fix it.

Example:

A job requires $500 in replacement materials.

Two employees spend 6 hours fixing the problem at $30 per hour.

That mistake didn’t cost you $500.

The labor alone adds another $360, before payroll taxes and other costs.

And those 12 employee hours weren’t available for another paying job.

Your Tuesday action item:

Think about one job you had to redo, correct, or return to recently.

Add up:
• Replacement materials
• Additional labor hours
• Refunds or credits
• Any other direct costs

Now you know what that mistake actually cost your business.

Tracking rework separately can help you spot patterns and decide whether the problem is training, estimating, quality control, a particular type of job, or something else.

Need help getting better information from your numbers so you can make better business decisions?

Book a call with us.

19/10/2026

Financial clarity is one of those phrases that gets thrown around a lot.

But what does it actually mean for a business owner?

It isn’t simply knowing your revenue.

It isn’t having a P&L delivered to your inbox every month.

And it definitely isn’t checking the bank balance and thinking, “We’re good.”

Real financial clarity means being able to answer the questions that actually affect how you run your business.

What’s your actual profit margin?

Which services or clients are making you money?

Where is your cash getting stuck?

Can you afford that next hire without worrying about making payroll three months from now?

Can you increase your own pay?

What will that new equipment, location, service, or employee really cost the business?

And if you grow another 20%, what has to happen financially to support that growth?

Those are the questions I want business owners to be able to answer.

Because financial reports should do more than tell you what happened last month.

They should help you decide what happens next.

That’s financial clarity.

And that’s where bookkeeping stops being something you “have to do” and starts becoming information you can actually use to build a stronger business.

Do your numbers help you make decisions, or are they simply reports you receive every month?

Ready for more than reports?

Let’s talk about what your numbers could be telling you.

16/10/2026

Are you actually collecting what you’ve earned?

A sale isn’t finished just because you sent the invoice.

If you have $40,000 sitting in accounts receivable, part of your job is understanding how old that money is.

There’s a big difference between:

$40,000 due from customers
and
$40,000 that has been sitting unpaid for 60+ days.

Run your Accounts Receivable Aging report and look at the columns:

• Current
• 1–30 days past due
• 31–60 days past due
• 61–90 days past due
• 90+ days past due

Then focus your attention on the oldest balances first.

Your action item: Pick the three oldest unpaid invoices and find out exactly why they haven't been collected.

Sometimes improving cash flow starts with collecting money you've already earned.

Need help understanding what your numbers are telling you?

Book a call with us

15/10/2026

Business Owner BINGO! 🎯

How many can you check off?

If you own a business, I have a feeling you’ve earned BINGO more than once.

Payroll week? Check.

Someone forgot their password? Of course.

Employee called out? Check.

Client has a “quick question”? We all know how that goes.

Wi-Fi down at exactly the wrong moment? Naturally.

And my personal favorite...

“I’ll handle it.”

That one gets the FREE SPACE because somehow everything eventually finds its way back to the business owner. 😂

Running a business means wearing more hats than you ever expected, changing priorities on the fly, solving problems nobody warned you about, and occasionally celebrating the rare and beautiful moment when you actually leave on time.

No financial lesson today. No action item. Just a little Thursday fun for the people who understand.

How many squares can you check off? And what did I miss that absolutely belongs on Business Owner BINGO?

14/10/2026

How much do you miss?

One of the hardest parts of owning a business is that it doesn’t always know when you’re off the clock.

You can finally get away for a weekend, sit around the fire with people you love, and then your phone rings.

A client needs something.

An employee has a question.

There’s a payroll issue.

Something “quick” suddenly needs your attention.

And just like that, you’re physically there, but mentally back at work.

That’s the part we don’t talk about enough.

The cost of always being available isn’t just time.

It’s the conversation you only half heard.

The laugh you missed.

The moment everyone else will remember that you spent solving a problem.

Building a successful business should create more freedom, not less of it.

That doesn’t mean you’ll never take a call on vacation. It means building a business with enough structure, systems, and support that everything doesn’t have to come back to you.

So here’s the question:

When you step away from your business, can you actually step away?

Or does it still follow you everywhere?

13/10/2026

Have you looked at your subscriptions lately?

Subscriptions have a sneaky way of piling up.

$29 here.
$79 there.
$199 for software someone signed up for two years ago.

Individually, they may not seem like much. But $500 a month in subscriptions you no longer need is $6,000 a year.

Here’s your Tuesday coaching tip:

Pull up the last 90 days of your credit card and bank activity and look specifically for recurring charges.

For each one, ask:

• What is this for?
• Who is using it?
• Does the business still need it?
• Are we paying for another program that does the same thing?

Don’t cancel something just because it costs money.

Cancel it because it no longer earns its place in your business.

Your action item this Tuesday: Spend 15 minutes reviewing your recurring charges. You might be surprised by what you find.

Need help understanding where your business is spending money and what your numbers are telling you?

Book a call with us

12/10/2026

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue...

And I’m pretty sure there were a few moments when things didn’t go exactly according to plan. 😂

Business ownership can feel a little like that.

You start with a destination in mind, make your plan, and head out.

Then reality shows up.

A client leaves.
An expense pops up.
A hire doesn’t work out.
Your pricing needs adjusting.
Or an opportunity appears that wasn’t anywhere on the original map.

The goal isn’t to run a business where nothing ever goes wrong.

It’s to recognize when you’re off course and make the adjustment.

Here’s to the business owners navigating the blunders, changing course when necessary, and continuing to move forward.

Happy Columbus Day!

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