Many business owners start out believing that once the doors open, customers will magically appear. As Corinna Bogenrieder, founder of CB Solutions, points out in this episode of Go Beyond Busy, that simply is not how it works. Starting a business still requires effort, structure, and a clear view of what people are actually willing to pay for.
This conversation looks at what bookkeeping really involves today. The role has moved well beyond piles of paper and manual records. Modern bookkeeping covers day to day transaction coding, invoicing, GST returns, payroll, and keeping accounting software such as Xero or MYOB running properly. When those tasks are not handled well, they tend to spill over into evenings and weekends.
Corinna works with both start ups and established businesses. Some clients come to her before they even begin trading, needing help setting things up correctly from day one. Others have been doing everything themselves for years and reach a point where the admin load starts to slow the business down. In both cases, the warning signs are similar. Long hours spent on paperwork, whole days lost to bookwork, and very little time left for the work that actually brings money in.
A clear distinction is made between a bookkeeper and an accountant. Bookkeeping focuses on the regular running of the business throughout the year, while accountants step in for end of year financials and compliance work. Many owners assume one replaces the other, but the two roles work best together.
Location is no longer a barrier. Based in Marlborough, Corinna works with clients across New Zealand using cloud based systems and online meetings. The only real requirement is that the business operates within New Zealand, due to tax and compliance rules.
The episode also touches on an often overlooked question. What is your time really worth? When business owners calculate their effective hourly rate, the decision to outsource bookkeeping often becomes far easier to justify. Tasks that might take a business owner an entire evening can be handled far more efficiently by someone who does it every day.
This discussion is a practical reminder that running a business is not just about the numbers. It is about the people behind them, the systems supporting them, and the time they get back when the right support is in place.
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Introduction to Go Beyond Busy Podcast
[00:00:00] Bernard: Welcome to Go Beyond Busy, the podcast for business owners who want to do things differently. Today, Christine Abela is talking with Corinna Bogenrieder, a bookkeeper based in Marlborough, New Zealand.
[00:00:13] She shares what it’s really like supporting small businesses behind the scenes, and what she wishes more people knew about starting and running one. Whether you’re just getting started or scaling up, there’s something in this episode for you.
Meet Corinna Bogenrieder: The Bookkeeper
[00:00:28] Christine Abela: Hi, I’m Christine from Go Beyond Busy. I’m here with Corinna Bogenrieder, who has a very difficult to pronounce name, but I’m working with it. And she is a bookkeeper running a business called CB Solutions. How are you today Corinna?
[00:00:42] Corinna Bogenrieder: Thank you. I’m well. How about you?
[00:00:44] Christine Abela: Very good. So tell me what’s something that you’ve learned about running a business that you wish you’d known earlier?
Starting a Business: Key Insights
[00:00:52] Corinna Bogenrieder: I think one of the key things starting a business is people are not waiting for you to start your business.
[00:00:59] So just starting a business and expecting that clients are waiting there and you can grow your business. I think that is one of the things that they’re not waiting for you, so you still gotta go out.
Balancing Passion and Market Demand
[00:01:13] Christine Abela: Do you find that it’s a good idea to start a business based on what you want to do or start a business based on what other people actually want to buy?
[00:01:24] Corinna Bogenrieder: I think it’s a bit of both, because you do need to enjoy what you’re doing. So just because there’s a market where people are looking for something, you might not enjoy that. So I think it’s a bit of both. It needs to be a balance. You do have to enjoy what you’re doing, but you also need to check the market if there’s a market for your product, your service.
[00:01:45] And yeah, go from there, yeah.
Supporting Startups and Established Businesses
[00:01:47] Christine Abela: So do you work as a bookkeeper with a lot of people who are just starting their business, or do you tend to work with those that have been around for a while?
[00:01:55] Corinna Bogenrieder: Both. So we do work with quite a few startups. So they’re really fresh in their journey before they even started working or running their business. So it’s setting everything up.
[00:02:07] But then there’s also the other side where there are established businesses and we join them midway in their journey and help them. Or after they’ve been doing everything themselves and they’re ready to move to that next level or that next stage, and that’s where we come in. Yes.
The Role of a Modern Bookkeeper
[00:02:23] Christine Abela: What do you actually do? I’ve got a rough idea of what a bookkeeper does, but I don’t think it involves actually keeping any books as such. What does a bookkeeper do?
[00:02:33] Corinna Bogenrieder: Not anymore, I should say. At least not for me since I’ve been working in that profession, we are not holding any books. Yeah, so there are various of things. I guess the bookkeeping is your day to day running of the business. So it’s working with your Xero or MYOB or whatever accounting software you have. For example your day-to-day reconciling of transactions, coding them correctly against your chart of accounts. That could be accounts payable and receivable. So all the invoices going in and out, entering bills. We’re sending out invoices. It could be when it comes to tax time, your GST returns.
[00:03:14] The other thing we do is payroll. So we do work with clients that want to outsource their payroll, and there could be a number of reasons.
[00:03:21] For example, you don’t wanna have someone in house knowing everybody’s wages. I think that’s the most common one that we see that they would like to outsource payroll and we run the pay runs for them. Do the PAYE and get all of the day-to-day things sorted for them.
Remote Bookkeeping Across New Zealand
[00:03:40] Christine Abela: You’re in New Zealand, despite your lovely German accent, you are in New Zealand. Where are you and where can you work?
[00:03:47] Corinna Bogenrieder: So I’m based in beautiful sunny Marlborough, in Blenheim, and we work with clients all over New Zealand. So it doesn’t matter if you’re based in Auckland or in Gore, Invercargill, West Coast, Wellington. Because these days everything is based online. So with the likes of Xero or MYOB you can connect your accounting system quite easily or anything like that remotely, wherever you are. So that makes it a lot easier for us as well, working with clients outside the region.
[00:04:20] Christine Abela: So you meet using Zoom or something like that, do you?
[00:04:24] Corinna Bogenrieder: Correct. So we either use Zoom or it’s often the initial connection could be just a simple phone call and then it could be a Zoom meeting. Or I do sometimes travel around the country. I try to make sure when I’m in Auckland or in Christchurch or on the West Coast to actually go and see our clients as well and have that relationship with them.
[00:04:46] Christine Abela: Are there any specific kinds of clients, any types of industries that you really like working with, or is there any that you don’t like working with?
[00:04:54] Corinna Bogenrieder: So in terms of industries, there’s no restrictions because the numbers are the same. So we are not specializing in just one industry or in some industries. We do work with all sorts of industries. I don’t have anyone there that I don’t like to work with. But yeah, I guess mainly it’s small to medium sized businesses, either sole traders or companies that need that extra hand of assistance. Yeah.
[00:05:21] Christine Abela: What’s the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant, and how does somebody know who to go to for help with both of those?
[00:05:31] Corinna Bogenrieder: Sure. So like I said before, bookkeeping is more the day-to-day running of the business, whereas accountants focus more on the end of year financials, annual returns, the tech side of it. Or there could be some financial advice, planning and things like that involved as well. So just to give you a bit of a idea of the difference between the two. I guess it depends on the client. So you always will need an accountant for your annual returns for the end of year financials to get this sorted. And the bookkeeper comes in during the year. So like I said with your monthly running of the business or your payroll, Xero organizations, things like that.
[00:06:15] So yeah, there is quite a difference. I think everybody calls anyone in that space, an accountant. There is a difference though.
[00:06:25] I guess how we work with clients or what the approach is that we seeing the whole picture and not just the numbers. We look at the business and the people behind running the business, and we wanna have that relationship with clients to build a better business for them.
[00:06:43] Because if they succeed, we succeed. And it’s not just about a ledger. It’s about the people that are running the business, what is going on in their life. And it could, yeah, there could be a whole another story in the background that matters.
[00:06:59] Christine Abela: How does somebody know if they need a bookkeeper? What do we look out for?
[00:07:05] Corinna Bogenrieder: If you are working at nights and on the weekends. I think that’s one of the key ones. If your day-to-day running of the business gets into way of doing the business. It’s that simple way of looking at your work in the business or on the business and where do you spend your time? Because you might spend every evening, two hours, or on the weekend, the whole Saturday, which cuts into your personal time. Or you could say I have to take a whole Friday off my business where I can just focus on the bookwork. So you are actually losing a whole day of time where you can do what you love and what you enjoy. And it might take a bookkeeper like myself half the time. So that’s also something I guess you’ve gotta take into consideration, the time you spend on something.
[00:07:54] And I think one of the things a lot of people don’t think about is what is your hourly rate? What is your actual hourly rate that you should calculate and take into consideration when you do things like that? Could it be more beneficial of outsourcing the part and save money and time as well?
[00:08:18] Christine Abela: Okay, so you mentioned you work with people all over New Zealand, but can you work with people outside New Zealand?
[00:08:27] Corinna Bogenrieder: Typically I don’t, no, I only work with people or businesses that are based in New Zealand.
[00:08:32] The reason is also tax laws and things like that. Clients need to do business in New Zealand.
Choosing the Right Accounting Software
[00:08:39] Christine Abela: If somebody was just new to business and is still thinking about setting it up and is ready to set it up, can you advise and help them to choose what accounting software to use?
[00:08:50] Corinna Bogenrieder: Yep, absolutely. I think that’s one of the key things we do as well, especially with new businesses or when they’re choosing a new tool that they would like to introduce into their business. That everything talks with each other.
[00:09:03] So typically we spend some time with the client to figure out what are their needs and how does their business operate? What does that look like and what is best suited to the operations?
[00:09:16] And what do we need? Do we just need the accounting software? Do we need a payroll software? Do we need another quoting or project management software? And ideally, we’ll wanna find something, or multiple software, that works and talks with each other to make everybody’s life easier in the end of the day. ‘Cause if you have three different programs not talking to each other, it’s not gonna be a lot of fun at the end of the day. Yeah, that is, I guess idea of having that conversation and figuring out what they need.
[00:09:51] Christine Abela: And for the more established businesses. I had a client recently that had all their accounting on software that is not on the cloud. It’s not online. I would assume that it would need to be cloud-based software for you to be able to work with them.
[00:10:06] Corinna Bogenrieder: Yes, absolutely. It has to be cloud-based software. But I think these days all the accounting softwares do have a cloud-based version. So even some of the systems that used to be based, they’re now cloud based as well, or you can switch if you’re still on the older version, you can switch it to cloud based.
Conclusion and Contact Information
[00:10:27] Christine Abela: Great. Thank you very much. So how would people get in touch with you? Have you got a website?
[00:10:33] Corinna Bogenrieder: Yeah, so I do have a website CBSolutions.nz or people can also have a look on Facebook and connect through there with me, or just simply yeah, get in touch via email or a phone call.
[00:10:46] Christine Abela: Thank you. I’ll put some links underneath this video or whatever it is that you’re listening to this podcast on.
[00:10:51] So thank you very much, Corinna, lovely to talk with you. Have a nice day.
[00:10:55] If any of those listening are interested in having a free business strategy session with me to discuss problems in your business and how I can help you with them, then get in touch.
[00:11:05] You’ll find the link at GoBeyondBusy.com. Thank you very much, Corinna.
[00:11:11] Corinna Bogenrieder: Thank you.
[00:11:13] Bernard: If you’re still spending nights and weekends trying to keep on top of your books, maybe it’s time to bring in some help. Corinna works with clients across New Zealand to simplify their systems, free up their time, and keep things running smoothly.
[00:11:29] And if you’d like help figuring out the next steps in your business, Christine offers free strategy sessions. Head to GoBeyondBusy.com to book yours.
