Ask the Accountant - Queen Ikechukwu, FCA

Ask the Accountant - Queen Ikechukwu, FCA ✅️ Accountant for Small Businesses
✅️ Bookkeeping • Business Advisory
✅️ Chartered Accountant | 17+ Years
✅️ Founder: YAP Africa
📩 DM “ASK” to get clarity

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16/05/2026

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Small business owners - STOP THIS!❌️❌️❌️This is exactly what you are doing WRONG. You check Instagram (or somewhere).You...
05/05/2026

Small business owners - STOP THIS!❌️❌️❌️
This is exactly what you are doing WRONG.



You check Instagram (or somewhere).
You see someone selling the same item for ₦15,000.
You set your own price around that range.

❌️❌️❌️❌️Stop pricing your products based on “what others are selling for.”

You don’t even know:
How much it costs them to produce or buy it
Their rent, staff, or logistics costs
Whether they are even making profit!

Some of those businesses you’re copying are actually struggling...seriously.
Some are underpricing just to get customers.
Some are even running on loans.

And now, you’re copying a broken system.

Here is a simple strategy you can use. See comments 👇👇

“I hired someone to handle my business money…and I still don’t trust my numbers.”A business owner (let’s call her Kemi) ...
03/05/2026

“I hired someone to handle my business money…and I still don’t trust my numbers.”

A business owner (let’s call her Kemi) runs a growing business with sales coming in, and her operations expanding.

She knew she couldn’t keep doing everything herself, so she hired a “bookkeeper.”

At first, everything looked fine.

Until she started noticing things like:

- Reports that didn’t make sense
- Missing transaction details
- “I’ll check it” responses that never came back
- No clear answer to: “How much did I actually make this month?”

She was still making decisions blindly…just this time, she was paying someone while doing it.

When we reviewed the books, the issue was lack of practical, real-world training.

The person she hired knew theory, but didn’t understand how to manage a real Nigerian business:

Practical things like: cash flow pressure, mixed transactions, daily operational realities, etc.

Did you know that most business owners don’t need “an accountant?”

They actually need someone who can:
- Track money properly
- Explain numbers clearly
- Spot problems early
- Support decisions and not confuse them

That’s the real deal!

Every month at the Virtual Accounting Internship, we train bookkeepers and accountants to handle real Nigerian business situations.

So when they work with you (in-office or virtually), they actually:
- Bring structure
- Give clarity
- Help you stay in control of your finances

If you’ve ever felt unsure about your business numbers or tired of doing everything yourself

Send “STAFF”.

We’ll connect you with our top bookkeeping or accounting talent trained from our team who actually understands your business.

Blessing’s salon is full almost every day. She runs a busy salon - braiding, wigs, treatments, nails.Her customers are ...
03/05/2026

Blessing’s salon is full almost every day. She runs a busy salon - braiding, wigs, treatments, nails.

Her customers are walk-ins, bookings, referrals. Blessing has constant activity.

From the outside, it looks like a successful business. She gave me a shocker.

“We work every day. Money comes in every day. But I can’t say how much I actually make.”

She has 4 stylists working with her. Each one collects payments from different customers throughout the day.

But at the end of the day, there’s no clear record of: total sales or services rendered or products used.

Just rough estimates and “it was a busy day.” That's what they tell Madam.

Also at the end of the week:

- Cash is mixed
- ransfers are scattered
- Expenses are unclear

When we reviewed her setup, the issue wasn’t lack of customers.

For Blessing and her bsiness, this is where the money was leaking:

- Staff collecting payments without proper daily reporting
- No fixed system to track each service rendered
- Hair products being used without monitoring cost per service
- No daily reconciliation to confirm what came in vs what should have come in

So even though money was entering, she couldn’t confidently say:

What the salon earned OR What it cost to run OR What was left as profit

The business was active but financially blind!

If your business is busy but you can’t clearly see your numbers, you’re operating on guesswork.

Even guesswork is expensive.

Send “SALON” and let’s put proper structure in place.

Ifeanyi runs a POS stand combined with a small provision shop in Lagos. Morning to night, people are withdrawing cash, t...
03/05/2026

Ifeanyi runs a POS stand combined with a small provision shop in Lagos. Morning to night, people are withdrawing cash, transferring money, buying small items.

The place is always busy.

Ifeanyi handles over ₦200,000 in transactions daily but still can’t explain where his profit goes.

This is a typical problem for small businesses like his. He reached out to asked for help.

“Money is always passing through my hand… but at the end of the week, I don’t feel anything is left.”

On some days, he makes more from POS commissions than from shop sales.
On other days, it’s the opposite but he never separates them clearly.

He keeps a mental record of transactions.

End of the week:
- Cash doesn’t balance
- He can’t explain shortages
- He dips into business money for personal needs without noticing

When we looked at his operations, the problem wasn’t lack of activity. It was Ifeanyi's complete mixing of money streams.

In his case:

- POS transactions and shop sales were lumped together
- No separation of commission income vs product sales
- No daily reconciliation of cash-in vs cash-out
- Personal withdrawals were not tracked as business expenses

So even though money was constantly moving…he had no idea what was actually profit.

The business was active every hour but financially unstructured everyyyyy single day.

If money passes through your hands every day but you can’t explain what you truly earn, something is wrong with your system.

Send “POS” and let’s put structure around your cash flow.

Damilola planned a ₦2.5M wedding…and still ended the project wondering if she actually made money.Damilola runs an event...
03/05/2026

Damilola planned a ₦2.5M wedding…and still ended the project wondering if she actually made money.

Damilola runs an event planning business in Lagos providing weddings, birthdays, corporate events. She coordinates vendors, manages budgets, handles logistics.

For this particular wedding, Damilola mentioned that she had everything planned perfectly on paper. Budget was approved early. Vendors were paid.

But during ex*****on… things changed drastically.

She had to cover “small urgent costs” on the day of the event. They included:

- Extra transport for decorators
- Last-minute items from the market
- Additional service requests from the couple’s family

None of these were properly tracked in real time.

At the end of the event, the client was happy, the vendors were paid, but her own earnings were unclear

When she sat with us, I broke it down CLEARLY!

It was cost leakage during ex*****on.

This is what I revealed to her.

- No real-time tracking of small event expenses
- “Emergency costs” were not documented properly
- Vendor adjustments were made without updating the budget
- Profit was calculated based on initial budget, not actual spending

So on paper, the event looked profitable.

But in reality, small, untracked expenses had quietly reduced her margin.

She wasn’t losing money in big chunks but in small decisions during the event. And those small leaks add up fast.

If you manage events but only calculate profit after everything is done, you may be missing what happens during ex*****on.

Send “EVENT” and let’s help you track it properly from start to finish.

Jennifer’s online store did over 120 orders in one week.But by the next week, she was already stressed about money again...
03/05/2026

Jennifer’s online store did over 120 orders in one week.
But by the next week, she was already stressed about money again.

Meet Jennifer, my client who runs an e-commerce business in Lagos. She sells skincare products, waist trainers, and beauty items through social media.

Orders come in daily. Her page looks active. Engagement is good.

But this is what she told me:

“I’m selling, yes… but I don’t understand why the money keeps disappearing so fast.”

That “big week” she was excited about actually had her busiest sales ever.

But it also had her highest complaints ever.

A large portion of her income from that week never stayed in her account because of:

- Refunds for wrong or delayed deliveries
- Replacement costs for damaged items
- Re-dispatching failed orders

But she wasn’t tracking any of it properly.

So, the above challenges led to sales looking very high, cash feeling unstable and restocking without knowing true profit

When we reviewed her business, the issue wasn’t demand. Honestly, it was leakage in fulfilment and after-sales costs.

Let me break it down for you very simply:

- Delivery costs were not built properly into pricing
- Refunds and failed deliveries were not tracked as losses
- Customer complaints were handled “casually” without accounting impact
- Profit was calculated from sales, not after all deductions

So, while her sales were growing, her actual retained income was shrinking.

She was losing money after the sale was already made.

This is the part of business most e-commerce owners actually miss.

Send “ECOM” and let’s break it down properly.

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