Carla Gate
What’s Normal?
Bookkeeper
If you hate bookkeeping, then it just means that you are NORMAL.
It is people such as myself who are compelled to organize, sort,
match, investigate, question, triple check and search for nitty gritty
details, that are the peculiar ones. Rest assured that shoeboxes of
receipts and rooms of ‘important paper piles’ do not scare me;
however, jumping out of a perfectly good airplane scares me
(so instead, I donate to the fundraising efforts of those who do)!
Since bookkeeping is the longest standing, most boring and tedious profession in
the history of mankind, sometimes people ask me why I do it. Well, that goes all the
way back to my high school days. My ‘career planning and aptitude testing’ reflected
that I would be a great religious minister (I had no belief in God at that time) or an
excellent accountant (sorry, no thank you). I was on my way to being a high school
band teacher so clearly, whoever developed that program did not understand what he
or she was doing.
The irony is not lost on me that my entire adult work history has involved
bookkeeping in one form or another. But the reason WHY I embraced and invested
in this career is because of the joy I experienced as a volunteer peer tutor during high
school. Often times, I was paired with students who were having difficulties with
math. They usually needed someone to take the time to listen to their concerns,
reassure them that there was an achievable solution, and provide them with patient,
guided support as they worked through understanding the concept.
These students would arrive frustrated and overwhelmed but leave weeks later
confidant and appreciative, sometimes even tutoring their own friends. I loved being a
part of that process! I continue this same process now but in a business environment,
alleviating the stress that NORMAL people experience when faced with processing
payroll, filing GST returns, maintaining files and entering data.
So here I am with the desire, knowledge and flexibility to assist those who either do
not have time, do not want to, or who simply need support to learn how, to care for
their bookkeeping concerns. There are numerous options available to meet every
individua