It usually arrives as a short message. Your accountant is retiring with two weeks notice, or is in the hospital, or has simply stopped answering. Whatever the reason, the person who kept your finances together is gone, and with them went the passwords, the process, and the picture of where the money actually is. Payroll is still due Friday.
Most of the businesses that come to us arrived this way. There is an order to the first two weeks. The aim is stable by the end of week one, and readable by the end of week two.
Day one: get into everything
Then change any password the accountant controlled alone, one system at a time, writing down what changed and where the new credentials live. Nobody outside the business should hold a key you cannot revoke, and you should not lock yourself out of your own payroll.
Day one, still: find the dates
Note anything else with a date on it: a loan payment, a filing, a renewal, an agency notice unopened in the mail. Deadlines, penalties and compliance issues are what turn a disruption into a problem, and most are visible from the calendar if someone looks.
Days two to five: keep money moving, and watch what leaves
Keep the other side moving. Invoices still go out and receivables still get chased. Untidy books are recoverable. Not billing hurts faster.
Before the week ends: locate the anchors
Call your CPA and your attorney and tell them what happened. They are staying, and they are useful now. If a CPA prepared that return, they can tell you what they were given and when. Neither should hear the news from a missed deadline.
Week two: rebuild the picture
Then write down how money actually moves. Which account pays payroll. Which collects. What moves between entities, and who approves it. Which vendors are paid automatically and which by hand. It does not need to be elegant. It needs to exist somewhere other than one person's memory, because that is what just failed.
Finally, build a simple report: cash in each account, what is owed to you, what you owe, and the next payroll against the cash to cover it. One page is enough. This is the picture that walked out the door, rebuilt in a form you can read without an accountant in the room.
The mistake to avoid
Where MSI comes in
If we are, we often suggest a 30 day assessment period at no fee. The steps above become the first month's work, done by a team, with a dedicated accountant backed by people who also know your file. Your CPA and attorney stay where they are. If either side decides at the end of the 30 days that it is not right, we part ways and you keep the work. Start with the logins. If you want the rest carried, call (831) 220-3113 or use the contact form.