Vicki Spurling

Spurling Bookkeeping is a bookkeeping practice in Shreveport, run by me. It is a registered Louisiana limited liability company, and it is deliberately small. There is no team to hand you off to and no line to wait in: one bookkeeper, a short client list, and the attention that comes with that.

I’ve been working with numbers and some form of bookkeeping since 1978, with experience ranging from accounts receivable and church and law-firm bookkeeping to designing and programming financial software systems for large corporations. I’ve worked with all kinds of small businesses, including some wonderfully unique ones—horse farriers, stables, breeders, a dairy goat operation, and an Equine Assisted Psychotherapy company.

I started my own practice because I love working with numbers and helping people, especially mom-and-pop businesses. I believe bookkeeping should come with a personal, one-on-one relationship. There’s no such thing as a stupid question, and no books too messed up to get help.

My goal is to take care of the boring part of running a small business so you can concentrate on your passion. When I’m not crunching numbers, I’m usually quilting or trying out new recipes.

How I work

Every owner should be able to read their own numbers.

Every month, every account gets reconciled to its statement, line by line. That sentence sounds small and it is the whole job: books that are not reconciled are a guess, and books that are reconciled every month are a record you can rely on.

Questions get asked while they are fresh. If a transaction does not make sense in March, you hear about it in March, not in a list of forty questions the week before your return is due.

Reports are written in plain English for the person who owns the business. The formal statements are there too, for your tax preparer and your bank or lender, but the page you read first is the one that tells you what happened and what it means. You get straight answers about what your numbers mean, and about what they do not.

Nothing about the work changes without a conversation first. If your business grows and the work grows with it, that is a new number in writing, never a surprise on the invoice.

And I reply within one business day, by email. Bookkeepers who go quiet are the most common complaint I hear about, and it is an easy one not to earn.

Where the work happens

Online, on purpose. We talk by phone when talking is easier than typing, and by email the rest of the time. Documents live in a shared Dropbox folder, never as open email attachments. The numbers arrive on their own through read-only bank feeds into QuickBooks Online, so you never share a password. That is what lets me work with businesses anywhere in the country without anyone driving anywhere, and it is why working with me costs you a few minutes a week rather than an afternoon a month.

If you are in the Shreveport–Bossier area and would like to meet in person, that can be arranged.

What I don’t do

I do bookkeeping, and only bookkeeping. I do not prepare tax returns, file sales tax, renew licenses, or run payroll; those belong to you or to your tax preparer. I keep the books that make every one of them straightforward, and I work alongside whoever prepares your return. If you need something outside bookkeeping, I will say so and point you toward someone good.