Mark the tradie had many strengths:

• fixing things

• breaking things

• breaking things while trying to fix things

• eating sausage rolls at 8am after eggs, bacon, sausage, toast and coffee.

Bookkeeping was not one of those strengths.

Thankfully, Mark had a partner, Tessa, who loved him deeply, even when he said baffling things like: “BAS isn’t due for weeks, babe. It’s only the 19th,” when she knew BAS was due on the 21st.  

After years of watching Mark wrestle with Xero like it was a wild animal, Tessa decided she had seen enough.

Eventually, she snapped.

The Breaking Point

It was 6:42am. 

Tessa was making coffee when she heard Mark yell from the office:

“Babe! Do you know if this $38 charge from The Sizzling Rooster is a business expense? It COULD HAVE BEEN A WORK LUNCH?”

Tessa slowly lowered her mug. 

There were no words. Only a deep, ancestral weariness that lives inside the soul of every partner handed a pile of mystery expenses.

She walked into the office.

On the desk she saw:

1. Two laptops open, one with Solitaire on the screen, the other with a timed out Xero page.

2. Handfuls of highlighters, pens and pencils. More in the bin. 

3. A shoebox he had already agreed to retire because after every BAS, his accountants rang him to say they don't accept paper receipts any more and yet he still kept doing it. 

4. A sauce-covered Bunnings receipt Mark had helpfully labelled “TOOLS?” across the amount and date. 

5. And Mark, looking like a defeated meerkat.

Tessa took a breath. “Okay. That’s it. I’m joining that Unexpected Bookkeeper thing.”

Mark blinked.

“The what now?”

“You know, the one they keep telling you to do? The one that would’ve stopped you from coding Christmas lunch as ‘materials’?”

He winced.

Tessa grabbed the Xero laptop and signed up on the spot.

The First Lesson: The Moment Everything Clicked

Monday lunchtime, day one. Tessa sat on the couch with her notebook, not sure what to expect. The laptop was logged on, and she could see Jodi Porteous and a whole bunch of other people who appeared to know each other but seemed friendly enough.

Jodi smiled, and then welcomed Tessa specifically into the group, and everyone else smiled and welcomed her too. Unsure what to do, Tessa smiled back, and then stared at her notebook. Jodi set the ground rules. Some parts were recorded, but some parts were not, so that everyone could talk about their businesses safely. Then Jodi began sharing her own screen and started talking about the topic of this month – Business Activity Statements (BAS).

By the end of the session Tessa had four pages of notes, and some of the things she wished someone had told them years ago included: 

1. GST coding isn’t a guessing game (there's rules!) 

2. Fuel receipts don’t need to live in the glovebox (sigh) 

3. The ATO doesn’t care about your shoebox (yay!) 

4. "Asking questions" makes Jodi very happy (gosh!)

5. You can actually make money decisions based on reports instead of vibes 

6. Other people's businesses were diverse and sometimes weirdly put together but everyone had the same problems at the end of the day.

She walked to the office, and said:

“Mark. Did you know Xero can do half this stuff automatically?”

Mark blinked.

“…Like magic?”

“No, Mark. Like software.”

The Week Everything Changed

By week two of the Unexpected Bookkeeper, Tessa was on fire. She didn’t just:

• understand the BAS

• fix the GST codes

• reconcile three months of chaos

• clean up the suspense account

She actually made money appear.

Not fake money. Not Monopoly money. Actual, real, ready-to-spend money they had been losing without realising.

“How much do we owe the ATO this quarter?” Mark asked nervously.

Tessa opened the laptop confidently.

“Not as much as you think. Because we’ve been overpaying in two places and missing deductions in three.”

Mark stared at her as if she had parted the sea.

Then he said the words every bookkeeper dreams of hearing:

“Babe… you’re incredible.”

The Unexpected Profit Moment

The big win came in week three. Using what she’d learned in Unexpected Bookkeeper – specifically the bit about:

• cash flow visibility

• invoice follow-ups

• and tracking late payers

Tessa discovered four unpaid invoices from October.

She sent follow-ups. Three paid within 48 hours.

Mark held his phone up like it was a holy relic.

“That’s… that’s… actual MONEY.”

“Yes, Mark. It’s your money. That we were supposed to already have.”

He grabbed her hands and whispered:

“Babe… this course is the best thing that’s happened to us since the air fryer.”

Behind-the-Scenes Wisdom (That Tessa Learned and Now Teaches Mark)

Here are the real lessons Tessa absorbed from the Unexpected Bookkeeper course and used to turn chaos into clarity:

1. Bookkeeping is not about paperwork; it’s about process.

2. GST mistakes compound like gremlins, so have systems to fix them early.

3. Cash flow improves the moment you stop avoiding your numbers.

4. Receipt photos are fine. The ATO does not need your crumpled relics.

5. Automations exist so humans don’t have to suffer.

And the biggest one:

You make better business choices when the numbers tell the truth, not when you guess.

The New System (That Actually Works)

By the end of January, the system Tessa built looked like this:

• 10-minute weekly reconciliations

• Receipts photographed instantly

• A list of regular expenses coded correctly

• A schedule for checking invoices

• Data the accountant could actually understand without summoning ancient spirits

Mark no longer asked whether the dog’s vet bill could be claimed as “security.”

Progress sometimes came in small steps.

Final Thought (From Tessa to Every Partner Out There)

If you’ve ever sighed deeply while looking at your partner’s “system”…

If you’ve ever wondered why the BAS feels like Russian roulette…

If you’ve ever wanted to run the books properly but didn’t know where to start…

The Unexpected Bookkeeper might be the thing that changes everything.

It certainly changed their January.

They saved money. Stopped fighting the numbers. And Mark even bought a proper filing tray.

With his own money.

Unprompted.

Miracles are real.

Click below to sign up today. 

https://www.unexpectedbookkeeper.com.au/