FAQ
A few straight answers.
How the work runs, where to start, and the lines Kelly does not cross. If your question is not here, ask it directly.
Working together · Billing, AI, people and back office · Job Cost Ready · What Kelly does not do
Working together
What does Kelly Claiborne do?
Kelly Claiborne is a business operations and systems integrator for contractors and growing service businesses. She sets up, cleans up and connects the systems behind the work: job costing, QuickBooks Online, CRMs, project and field tools, invoicing and progress billing, vendor onboarding, practical AI and automation, and customer financing setup.
How do I get started?
Book the free 15-Minute Systems Fit Call. Kelly learns what you need and how you want to solve it, tells you whether and how she can help, and if it is a fit sends a fixed-scope proposal.
What does a project cost?
Every project is fixed-scope with one price in a written proposal, so you know the cost before work starts. Job Cost Ready projects start around $4,000 depending on what we find.
Do you advise or do the work?
Kelly does the work: setup in your tools, testing on real work, SOPs and training. Every project runs the same five steps: diagnose, design, implement, verify, stabilize.
Is ongoing support available?
Yes, after a project, for businesses that want help keeping systems current or taking on the next priority.
Do I need new software?
Usually not. Most work starts with the tools you already pay for. When a tool truly does not fit, Kelly helps define requirements and compare options. She does not resell software.
Do you only work with contractors?
Contractors and job-based service businesses are the strongest fit. Other growing service businesses, including professional services and property operations, can be a fit when the work matches.
Billing, AI, people and back office
Can you help us get paid faster?
Yes. Get Paid Faster covers invoicing workflows, progress billing, AR follow-up, choosing AR and AP software, and vendor and subcontractor onboarding with W-9 and certificate of insurance collection. No payment result is guaranteed.
How do you use AI?
Practically. Kelly helps find the use cases worth doing, sets them up in your existing tools with review checkpoints and written guardrails, and trains your team. She does not build custom software.
Can you help with hiring, payroll and HR systems?
Yes. People and Hiring Systems covers the hiring process, role definitions, Rippling, Gusto or Lever setup, onboarding, employee reviews and bonus structure design. Employment law and payroll tax questions go to your attorney, CPA or HR professional.
Do you do bookkeeping?
Kelly offers bookkeeping support and back-office help, and can bring in and coordinate outsourced help when the work calls for it. She is not a CPA; tax preparation, filing and accounting judgment stay with your CPA.
Do you provide customer financing?
No. Kelly is not a lender, broker or financial advisor. She helps a business research and compare third-party customer financing programs, set up the one it chooses, and build it into the quote-to-close process.
Job Cost Ready
Do I need specific software?
No. We work with the systems you already have where they can support reliable job costing, and recommend changes where they can't. You do need a real accounting platform with a proper chart of accounts.
Is the Job Cost Control Center a separate software product?
No. It's a job-cost report or view and a weekly review routine set up inside the systems you already use. There's no proprietary software to buy or learn.
Will you replace my bookkeeper or CPA?
No. We build the operating system that gets clean, job-level information to them and back to you.
What if my team won't track time?
That's the most important thing we talk about on the call. We help set the routine and the follow-up, but leadership has to back it.
What is Test Job Verification?
Before final signoff, we run a real job through the implemented workflow with your team. If something I configured doesn't work as documented, I fix it at no additional charge. It depends on you providing the access, records and participation it needs; the details are set in your written agreement.
Do you guarantee results?
No financial results are guaranteed. Test Job Verification confirms the system we configured works as documented, and we fix anything we configured that doesn't, at no charge. The details are set in your written agreement.
How do payments work?
Fixed price, paid in three milestones: 50% to start, 40% when the system is set up and your team is trained, and 10% after Test Job Verification. Review timelines and the exact terms are set in your written agreement.
What happens to my scorecard answers?
They stay in your browser. They're only sent if you enter your email and press Email my results. Then your name, email, type of work, your answers and a summary of your readout go to me, and a short summary (name, email, type of work, how many gaps and whether you ticked the tips box) is stored in MailerLite, the email service that sends your results. You only get other emails (job-costing tips and occasional emails about Job Cost Ready) if you tick the separate, optional box, and you can unsubscribe anytime.
What Kelly does not do
Are you a CPA or lawyer?
No. Kelly is not an accountant, CPA, tax advisor, attorney, lender or financial advisor. She offers bookkeeping support and back-office help, but tax, accounting judgment and legal questions stay with your own CPA or attorney, and she coordinates with them.
Do you provide legal, tax or insurance advice?
No. Kelly can help organize information, identify business requirements and coordinate next steps. Legal, tax, insurance and other licensed matters belong with the appropriate qualified professional.
Do you sell software?
No. Kelly does not push software because someone pays her to sell it. When a tool decision is needed, she helps define the requirements and compare options against them.
Are the portfolio projects real clients?
No. The portfolio shows sanitized sample projects with fictional companies and illustrative data. Each carries a label (Real capability, Sanitized recreation or Illustrative sample project) so you know what is shown.
A note on advice
Kelly is not an accountant, CPA or lawyer. What she provides is operational guidance and implementation based on her personal experience running businesses and operations departments, not accounting, tax, legal or financial advice. For those, please talk with your own CPA, attorney or financial professional.
Bring me the problem
You do not have to figure it out alone.
Book the free 15-Minute Systems Fit Call. I learn what you need and how you want to solve it, tell you whether and how I can help, and if it is a fit you get a fixed-scope proposal.