Smart Ways to Spend Wedding Gift Money for a Happy Future Together
Nonprofit bookkeeping services help small organizations keep grant reports, board budgets, restricted funds, reconciliations, and QuickBooks records clean before deadlines arrive.
Nonprofit Bookkeeping Services: Keep Grant Reports, Board Budgets, and QuickBooks Clean
Nonprofit bookkeeping services help small organizations keep grant reports, board budgets, restricted funds, reconciliations, and QuickBooks records clean before deadlines arrive.
Applying for a Small Business Loan? Clean Up Your Books Before the Lender Looks
If you plan to apply for a small business loan, clean and current books should come before the application. Lenders commonly evaluate financial statements, cash flow, debt, and the consistency of the numbers you provide. When bank balances do not reconcile, personal purchases appear in business accounts, or reports cannot be explained, the lender [...]
How to Reduce Financial Stress and Boost Your Mental Well-Being
Busy parents juggling work, caregiving, and bills often carry a quiet worry that never fully turns off. The core tension is simple: money uncertainty demands constant attention, while the mind still needs rest, focus, and emotional steadiness. That stress and money connection can show up as irritability, sleep trouble, or feeling on edge, which [...]
Is Your QuickBooks Set Up Wrong? 5 Warning Signs It’s Quietly Costing Your Business
A business owner in Joliet called us in a panic last spring: their QuickBooks said they had $18,000 in the bank, but two checks had just bounced. Nothing had been stolen. The software was simply set up wrong — duplicate accounts, uncategorized transactions, and a bank feed that had been silently double-counting deposits for [...]
Behind on Your Books? A Guide to Catch-Up Bookkeeping for Small Businesses (And How to Get Current Fast)
If you are reading this at 11 p.m. with a drawer of unopened bank statements and a knot in your stomach, you are not the exception. Most of the catch-up calls we take at Keep A Count start the same way: a business owner who meant to "get to the books next month" looks [...]
How a Notary Can Help You Access Your Retirement Funds
A notary public plays a critical role in helping retirees and pre-retirees access retirement funds from pensions and 401(k) accounts by verifying identity, witnessing signatures, and preventing costly paperwork delays. When retirement fund administrators require notarized withdrawal or distribution forms, a professional notary helps ensure everything is completed correctly the first time. Accessing retirement [...]
Remote Online Notarization (RON) in Illinois: How Business Owners Are Closing Deals Without Leaving Their Desks
After more than thirty years running Keep A Count, I've watched the way business gets done shift dramatically — and nowhere is that shift more obvious than how my clients sign and notarize their documents. The driver under-the-table contracts, the cross-state vendor agreements, the loan packages that used to require a half-day off — they're [...]
Why Small Business Owners Are Switching to Outsourced Bookkeeping Services in 2026 (And How It Impacts Profitability)
There is a quiet shift happening in the way small business owners think about their finances in 2026. It is not dramatic or loud, but it is consistent. More and more entrepreneurs are stepping back from trying to manage everything themselves and are instead choosing to trust professionals with one of the most important parts [...]
Why Every Business Owner Should Stop Using a Personal Bank Account
In an ideal world, every business would open a dedicated business bank account before conducting its first commercial transaction. But even if you’ve been running your business through a personal account, it’s never too late to make the switch. Regardless of your business size, separating your finances shouldn’t be a question of if, but [...]