BELAY

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Owner of Italian Deli

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a multi-unit pizzeria chain.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire BELAY to accomplish?

• bookkeeping

SOLUTION

How did you find BELAY?

Online Search

Why did you select BELAY over others?

Close to my geographic location

What was the size of BELAY’s team?

1 Employee

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We were excited to sign up with Belay to have them help us with our bookkeeping needs. Belay hires contractors and then they assign them to clients (people like you and me looking for bookkeeping services online). Unfortunately, we were set up with a bookkeeper that was not qualified to handle a multi-unit restaurant chain.

Our Belay Bookkeeper set up 5 restaurants under one QB account, which I can only presume was due to laziness or her inexperience. This turned out to be gross negligence on her part as we now have to backtrack 12 months worth of incorrect data. She advised us this was common practice. She continually chose the path of least resistance throughout our time with Belay (12 months) as she did not properly reconcile any of our accounts and there were months found where she did not reconcile at all.

Payroll for each month was also not reconciled with double inputs due to her negligent accounting errors. We understand that companies have individuals that create issues within a company by not providing quality services, but how we rectify those situations is what helps people want to continue to do business with you. We were contacted by Belay regarding other complaints received about this same bookkeeper. At that time, our bookkeeper became less responsive and was not finalizing the data in time. However, that is all a moot point because the data she did produce was never (I repeat--Never) accurate.

Once we realized we needed to cut this business relationship and we brought this to the attention of Belay, they were apologetic. We appreciate that acknowledgement of services not being rendered but we found their offered solutions to be more costly and time consuming. They suggested our new bookkeeper advise a new Belay bookkeeper in making changes to what their previous bookkeeper mucked up. They also offered 20 hours of services for 12 months of havoc.

They denied our request to receive a 6 months refund as we now have to backtrack for 12 months. Belay stated it was essentially our fault for not communicating this sooner. However, we were not aware that everything was incorrect until as they say...it was too late. We were being given incorrect data and we were apparently also supposed to ensure that the bookkeeper knew what she was doing. We do not recommend BELAY for any multi-unit chains based on our experience.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Bad data presented as complete. Accounts not properly set up and numerous accounting errors found

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Initially responsive within minutes of sending emails, I'd receive a return reply. Towards the middle of our collaboration, became less responsive and towards the end nothing that was said they would do for the transition was done. Actually, anything they did do ended up creating more issues for our current bookkeepers to clean up. Bad accounting practices and I am not an expert, that's why I trusted Belay to help us in finding the expert

What was your primary form of communication with BELAY?

Virtual Meeting, Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They have a website.

Are there any areas for improvement or something BELAY could have done differently?

Belay could have resolved the issue that they acknowledged we had. However, they were only looking to resolve it in their favor. We paid them for services we expected to be rendered and done with accuracy and efficiency. We did not receive that and their offers to correct the issue were unreasonable and more costly for our company.