Avoiding your bookkeeping is far more common than most entrepreneurs admit. If you’ve ever caught yourself saying “I’ll deal with my books later,” or feeling a wave of stress when you log into your accounting software, this episode will likely feel familiar.

In this conversation, Aimee walks through the deeper reasons many business owners avoid their books. Sometimes the issue is practical—no one ever taught you a clear framework for what bookkeeping actually involves. Other times the resistance runs deeper, tied to shame, fear, or the emotional weight many people carry around money.

This episode gently explores both sides of the equation. Because bookkeeping isn’t just a technical task—it’s often connected to how safe, confident, and supported we feel when facing our finances.

If your numbers have been sitting on your to-do list longer than you’d like to admit, this episode offers a grounded perspective on what might actually be happening beneath the surface—and how to begin reconnecting with your finances in a more sustainable way.

Money Mindset Playbook: https://aimeecerka.com/mindset

For the full transcript and all links mentioned, see the blog post: https://aimeecerka.com/245

Ready To Take Action: https://aimeecerka.com/podcastlinks

Have you been avoiding your books, avoiding the Bookkeeping?

Today we're gonna talk about the three to four reasons why you

actually are avoiding your books.

So this episode is gonna be for you if you find yourself like continually saying,

you're just, I'll do the books later.

If you avoid logging into QuickBooks or whatever your accounting software

is that you're using, you're feeling behind and you don't know where to start.

You've outsourced.

Maybe you've gotten help with this, but you still feel very disconnected

from it, or you just keep telling yourself, I'm not good with the numbers.

We're gonna dive into all of those things today.

Again, three to four reasons why you're actually avoiding your books.

So let's get to it.

This is Money Simplified, the podcast where I help female

entrepreneurs go from stress and struggle to unstoppable with money.

Money is more than just budgeting and p and Ls, and we're gonna

take you through all of it here.

We blend proven financial strategy with mindset work and energetic

alignment, so you can create unstop.

Finances, build an unstoppable business and truly enjoy your unstoppable life.

It's time to take my wisdom and my expertise to help you simplify

money and go beyond the numbers.

I'm your host, Aimee Cerka.

Welcome.

I'm so glad you're here.

Welcome back to Money Simplified.

We are talking today about, there's like three to four real reasons why you are

avoiding your books, and there's like key reasons why we do this, and that's

really like the root of this episode.

But before we dive in, if you are already like, I just know I need

help with this, Aimee and I need help with this now bookkeeping simplified.

Is still in pre-sale.

Okay?

So Bookkeeping simplified is going to walk you through the entire step

by step of how to take care of your books so that they're up to date.

But more than that, we're gonna go into the why, like why do we

do the things that we need to do?

Why is this important?

This is what we're looking for.

Why are we doing that?

That way when something comes up that's a little out of the norm or

QuickBooks updates their interface, yet again, you're not thrown off

because you're equipped to handle it.

And you might be thinking, okay, that sounds great, but I

just wanna hire a bookkeeper.

I wanna have somebody else do it for me.

I would still challenge you like this is still beneficial because as the CEO, you

need to have a foundational knowledge.

Of what's going on, and we're gonna kind of get into that today If we

just hand it off completely and we are totally disconnected from it,

it's not a great place to be either.

It's still in a form of avoidance.

So grab the course, it's on pre-sale.

We are starting beginning of March, I think, March 2nd.

The first module is going to drop, but that link is gonna be

in the show notes for you, Aimee Cerka.com/bookkeeping simplified.

So let's get to it.

First key real reason here that we're avoiding our books

is we don't have a framework.

We don't know what to do.

We don't know what order things need to go in.

We don't know what actually needs to be done.

Like what is the important part when I'm recording a sales, what do I need to do?

What do I need to know?

What do I categorize this expense as?

Like, I don't know.

And there's.

Fear in here as well.

I think built in, um, with the IRS, like we don't wanna mess it up.

And we get into that inside the program.

That's a whole nother thing.

So we don't know what to do.

That's like the first thing.

We don't know what's essential.

We don't know what's optional.

We don't know the right way to do things to make sure it's done correctly.

And if you've tried to go to YouTube.

And YouTube video, figure it out.

Then you're on a YouTube rabbit hole, and that's just recipe for overwhelm.

Like, just keep it simple, right?

You know, that's the whole point of what I do here, right?

So at the simplest, if you don't know what to do, like you don't have

the structure in place to know the tactical things that you need to do.

Second key reason here is more emotional.

And these can layer together because we can not know what to do tactically because

of the emotional shame that's showing up.

Maybe you've made a mistake in the past.

Maybe with the books, maybe you feel like the investment

that you made was a mistake.

Maybe there's shame that you haven't turned as big of a

profit as you would like to have.

Maybe there's pressure or shame or guilt with your significant other

and you don't want them to know.

And if you don't know, then like you don't have to share with

them what's actually going on.

You just, I don't wanna know, like I don't know what's going on.

Like

this avoidance here, this is a form of self protection.

And again, we can.

The guilt and the shame and all of those things are often at the root of

we don't know what to do tactically.

And there's also, maybe you're not ashamed of the choices

that you've made in the past.

Maybe it's the emotional thought.

We talk about fear of fear of failure a lot.

Fear of success is a real thing.

Like if you are barely staying afloat right now with the workload that you've

got, if you create the next level of success, how are you gonna handle that?

Like, I don't wanna have to have more on my plate and we freeze and

we don't do the things that we know we need to because we're scared.

What if it works?

What if it works and I have to do all this stuff and I'm just, I don't wanna do it.

Okay.

Still a form of avoidance at its root.

That's what we're doing.

Okay.

Reason number three.

Oh, okay.

This one kind of drives me crazy.

It really does.

This is the bank feeds are set up within QuickBooks and

we just let the AI handle it.

We let it categorize everything.

I'll put it off until later.

We'll do this later.

Th those are really two different things.

Okay.

So the first one here is like, we let the AI and the automation do it.

And I know, I see the advertisements for the AI bookkeepers.

AI is great for a lot of things.

I feel like we talked about this recently on the podcast as I'm saying

this, but AI can't do this yet.

It sucks.

At categorizing things for you.

It makes so many mistakes.

I still let it prompt me with like what it thinks it is, and then I go in and

fix it because a lot of times it's wrong.

And if you use PayPal for transactions, uh, like I guarantee you things are wrong.

I had a client that we were doing a cleanup project for before, and

she loved, we used a lot of the rules, a lot of the automation.

But it ended up that it had double categorized expenses because of the

way that she structured her business.

So she was claiming double the expenses that wasn't accurate.

And like, we'll talk about like when to be, you don't

need to be afraid of the IRS.

We need to do what?

As long as you're doing what's legal, moral, and ethical, like you

don't have anything to be afraid of.

But when we are not being the CEO taking charge.

That's when there's problems and just passing it off on ai, like this is

important and we're gonna get to that with reason four here in just a second.

You can't count on AI to do it all?

Not, not yet.

Maybe one day.

Maybe one day this will be completely obsolete.

Who knows?

As of right now, when we're recording this in 2026.

Not the case.

It's not there yet, and when you rely on it,

you're giving away the power in your business.

All right.

The fourth thing is we don't feel like we're there yet.

This can wait.

I'll do it later.

I'll clean this up later.

I don't have an accounting software yet.

I'm not quite there yet.

And I'm not saying you have to necessarily go out and get QuickBooks online set up.

There are other softwares out there.

We're actually gonna talk about that.

Inside Booking bookkeeping simplified QuickBooks Online is the number

one for a reason most popular.

We're gonna have all the step-by-step walkthroughs.

All of my current bookkeeping clients are on QuickBooks Online, but I know

not everybody is ready for that.

Not everybody wants to pay that monthly fee.

So we're gonna talk about the other option that's much more affordable.

But this.

I'll do it later.

I'll clean it up later.

I'll set up my books later.

That's not operating as a CEO

and it's causing mental disconnects in your business because just like

we talk about within prosperity, simplified my business budgeting

system, you have to be ready.

Ready now.

Um, I can't remember who, what the, blah.

I can't remember who came up with the saying or who's the saying is Attri

attributed to, but you know, be, do have, be the person that is going

to have those things that you want.

Not from like a fake it till you make it, but are you the person,

are you the business owner?

Like how would the business owner that you wanna be, how would they operate?

Are you operating in that manner?

Would that business owner be a good steward with their money so they can

have a bigger impact so that they can go do more things with the money?

Or would they blow it all?

Like be that person now.

So if you're gonna be a good steward with your money, when you have it,

prove it, be that person now and be a good steward with what you have.

Now we gotta shift out of all of the emotion shame, the the struggle, all

of the things that we feel guilty about with the money that we have now.

We've gotta handle that now.

Stop waiting to put it off.

Stop waiting to have an accounting system.

This is where like get support.

It's not as expensive as you think, as it's made out to be.

And I understand not everybody is ready to do that yet.

That's why we've got bookkeeping simplified coming out.

That's why I've got execution lab.

That's $11 a month.

It's on the first Tuesday of the month because this is when we're supposed to

be doing our month in process, right?

So I'm there to support you, to help you do the things that you know

you need to within your business.

And when you get to the point that you don't have to do

it, then don't do it anymore.

Maybe if you prioritize that support now, what will show up

for you if you are in the mindset?

I can't do it now.

It's not yet.

Not yet.

We have to keep pushing it off for later.

Money later.

Money later.

I gotta work on the money later.

I gotta do this first.

This has to happen first.

You're pushing away things energetically.

What if you just play with the possibility?

What would it feel like to not have to worry about your books?

How could that be possible?

I did this recently with my va. I was really looking on to bring on somebody

within the business to get some administrative help and it kind of felt

like it was not feasible at all right now.

'cause you know, I have a budget as well, and it was like a not yet.

And I sat there and I played with the possibility.

I'm like, what if this showed up?

What would that feel like?

And just kind of set it to the side.

It was open to the idea that it could show up Now.

And it showed up within two days.

Like how freaking powerful is that?

So that's the fourth reason there.

Putting it off to later.

It can wait.

It can wait.

Really can't.

We could go into like the overwhelm and this really.

We touched on this in the first one.

You know, we got the podcast, we got all the things.

You got conflicting advice.

Um, going on down the YouTube rabbit hole is the one that I hear most frequently.

But more information isn't gonna fix it.

Like you've got to narrow in

because when you're avoiding it, regardless of which reason we

walk through, you're avoiding it.

Right?

And when you avoid it.

To some degree you feel guilty, and then we gotta rush through tax season.

When we rush, we make mistakes, we feel worse, or you're uncertain.

And then we do the whole thing all over again next year and we avoid it yet again.

This isn't about getting more motivated to go do it.

This isn't about like.

Being lazy that that's not what any of this is about.

We're all busy.

We all have a lot going on, right?

Not discounting that at all.

But this is not a motivation problem.

This is not a time capacity problem.

This is not, this is a mindset and a system problem.

It's not gonna be a new spreadsheet.

It's not gonna be like getting clear, like I'm just gonna

willpower my way through it.

Like, no,

this comes from getting solid and understanding the bookkeeping under,

understanding how important it is, and again, you don't have to do

the tactical stuff, but we have to understand the whys behind it.

And look at the numbers when we have them.

If we're just avoiding them and we're just flying by the seat of

our pants, that's not a long-term strategy, and I know you're a CEO.

That's not what you're looking for.

Okay.

All right.

That's what I've got today.

Um.

Bookkeeping simplified.

It's open for presale, right?

It's designed to give you the framework.

It's designed to give you the why's.

It's designed to give you the support, again, whether you're planning on doing

your books or you want to have somebody do it, which again, I do bookkeeping.

So like that, that's all on option, right?

Um, while it's in presale, this is the lowest price it's probably ever gonna be.

It's already went up once.

It's gonna go up again because there is so much that's gonna

be included inside this course.

Um, you've also got a chance right now to ask questions within the Telegram

channel that we've got established.

Okay.

So if you're ready, I'm here to support you bookkeeping simplified

Aimee Cerka.com/bookkeeping.

Simplified link's gonna be in the show notes as well.

Next week, we're gonna kind of dive deeper into why QuickBooks.

alone doesn't replace the bookkeeper a little bit deeper

on the whole AI thing, right?

Um, and why the misunderstanding of that keeps us stuck.

So that's what I've got for now.

Remember, you've got this and I've got you.

We'll see you next time.

Bye for now.

Thank you so much for listening to Money Simplified.

My favorite place to hang out is on Instagram.

You can find me at Aimee Cerka to catch all the behind the scenes of my stories.

Send me a message to share your biggest takeaway or just to say hi.

I love hearing from podcast list.

Nurse, when you're ready to take action on your mindset, your money, or the

systems behind it all, I'm here for you.

Whether you're snagging a free resource, exploring a mini course, diving into the

fundamentals with Money Mastery Academy, getting in-depth support inside the

unstoppable experience, or scheduling a complimentary bookkeeping consult to

finally get hands on help with your books.

Your next step is waiting for you, Aimee Cerka.com/podcast links has all the

information, and of course, that link is hanging out in the show notes for you.

We'll see you next time.