Bookkeeping Assistant: Numbers count

Linda Singleton, owner of Bookkeeping Assistant, was introduced to numbers early in her life by her mother.

“She was the assistant manager of a bank,” Singleton says, “and when we were young she opened checking accounts for my siblings and me. Then, when she got tired of waiving our overdraft fees, she taught each of us how to track the checks we wrote, and how to balance our checkbook each month.”

From reconciling her finances, Singleton continued in that vein, growing up in Junior Achievement, in business education.

Fast forwarding to the present, she now thrives with her own bookkeeping, taxes and audit assistance company that she founded in 2009.

Along the way, Singleton served in the U.S. Navy as a radioman, and then in information technology, taking various courses, and after her discharge, she says, “I knew exactly what I needed to study, and Midwestern State had it! That would be Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in accounting.

Now, with past experience in tax preparation, accounting and audit testing, she has knowledge gained from various industries. She has been certified in accounting information systems and has the knowledge and experience to help in many challenging, accounting-related conflicts.

Take, for example, the contractor versus employee question. “Many of my clients are one-person companies, and when they need to hire someone,
I can tell them, based on what that person will be doing, whether they will be a contractor or an employee,” she says.

Also, because many are “one-man shows,” like her own business, Singleton says, “I tailor the bookkeeping to the tax return they will have to do,’’ so when it comes time to do their taxes, categories are organized.

Singleton spends three days a week visiting clients on site, reserving Tuesdays and Thursdays for work in her Thimble Shoals office.

Singleton’s office is only five miles from her home, which worked out well when a big snowstorm shut down everything. “My husband, who grew up in Pittsburgh and has no trouble driving in snow, came to the office, picked up my computer, brought it to me at home, and I went to work,” she says.

When she started her business, Singleton tried to work from home, but there were too many distractions.

Singleton’s husband Dwayne retired from the U.S. Navy and is now working as a civilian for the Department of the Navy. They have two daughters, ages six and 11, and Dwayne has a son, 27, and a daughter, 25.

As for the future, Singleton is seeking a good part-time employee, and hopes to offer training in QuickBooks bookkeeping software.