I will do most of your bookkeeping myself and all of your month end and GST checks myself. I do use a contractor on certain accounts. We would agree to that prior to starting.
My experience spans 14 years working in Xero, eight as Admin for Tradies, plus co-ownership of a trade business in sole charge of its admin. I know how the money moves in a small trade business and how fast a busy week buries the paperwork. I know the importance of good systems and good bookkeeping. This passion drives my business.
That is who I like working with most. Small and medium trade businesses are family businesses, one to five people, the owner still on site, a partner or a parent keeping the paperwork going in the evenings. I work directly with the owner and their staff, not through an office manager or a portal. I thrive on that relationship.
It puts me at the coal face: inside the workflow where the job, the bills, the payroll and the GST actually happen. That is where systems get implemented, not talked about — and it is where I can see what a small trade business gains from AI and where it should be left to a person. The bookkeeping keeps the business running properly. Exploring Tradie is where I help the owner run it better.
I have a diploma in Lean Systems and it runs through everything I do. The word I use to describe a lean state is ‘working in the zone’.
Your zone is when you are fully focused on the job in front of you, the work moves, you get a lot done and you finish the day satisfied with it. It is the day you are on the tools and the admin is not in your head, because it lives somewhere else. My systems and problem solving build that somewhere else — the books, the checks, the month end — so you get part of every day in your zone.
I get it from the coal face. Sitting with an owner, finding where the hours leak out of a job, setting the software up so the next quote is better, watching a month end become a habit instead of a crisis. Maintaining a tidy Xero and ensuring what is paid is what should be paid.
Ask me a question and you hear back, not next week and not in accountant language. If I do not know, I say so and go and find out.
I use AI every working day and I build my own tools with it, with guardrails, double checks and every key figure tied back to Xero. In the AI age you have to be in the workflow, using it, to know where it helps. That is what makes the mentoring real and the bookkeeping sharper.
I co-owned a trade business and ran its admin. That is where I learned how the money moves, which paperwork earns its place and why I never ask a tradie to become an office person.
Master in Business, Diploma in Lean Systems, Diploma in Accounting. Xero certified advisor and silver partner; NextMinute certified partner. The reason the systems work as well as the books do.
Seven years a volunteer mentor with Business Mentors New Zealand, mostly with trade and service businesses. It became Exploring Tradie. Bookkeeping is the foundation; mentoring is where I stretch my skills, keep learning, use my education and give something back.
I am parenting two teenagers, out in the Port Hills walking my little dog or perhaps floating in a magnesium float pod, a great place for business planning. This is Cooper, the office dog.
One phone call and you will know whether we fit. No pitch, no obligation.
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