Kelly Gonsalves: Becoming Totally Booked

Written by Michael McLean

Getting fired was the best thing that ever happened to Kelly Gonsalves.

“I was working as a project manager, and I was absolutely miserable. I hated it. It was kind of a ‘who’s going to call uncle’ type situation.”

To her relief, Kelly’s boss politely showed her the door. “We were both really unhappy.”

She didn’t really have a plan, but was determined to do something new.

In the meantime, she started bartending. That is, until her aunt, Deborah Miraglia, took her out to dinner and started asking some tough questions.

“She’s like, what’re you gonna do, you know, in life? You didn’t go to school to become a bartender, so what’s the plan?”

Kelly was open to anything, but was indeed planless. Her aunt Deborah happened to teach QuickBooks desktop at a local university in New York and got her to enroll.

“She said that her class was starting the following week, so I needed to free up my schedule, and get to class. She said ‘if it’s something that you like, and something you wanna learn more about, then maybe we can talk about building your own business’.”
And that’s what she did.

In the Cloud


After nailing the first class, Kelly pursued her advanced certification, and started taking on customers.

“I’ll be honest, I’d never had any interest in having my own business before. There were no small businesses in my world, so I didn’t know much about being able to do it by yourself.”

But, she did it anyway. Her aunt Deborah helped her find clients while Kelly was still in school. But, she soon discovered a way to grow her business in a different way.

“I came across a business that had QuickBooks online, and I was blown away. The main parts of QuickBooks desktop were available on the internet. Who knew?”

The world of virtual bookkeeping was opening up.

She wanted to know everything about QuickBooks online, and went to some industry conferences to seek out peers, and to get face to face with the minds behind QuickBooks Online.

“I really started to explore how to grow my business. I started changing my billing prices, my policies, built my website, and that was the beginning of my virtual bookkeeping-type service.”

She was creating what she called her “ecosystem.” She was creating Totally Booked.

Soon after, she quit bartending.

“That was my ‘go.’ I thought, if I’m gonna do this, I have to commit to it. It was my big step. That’s when it really started to happen.”

 
A Business is Born

Kelly began organizing her clients to optimize her services to fit their needs.

“I took everything online, and I didn’t give them much of an option. This is how we pay bills. Everything goes virtual, everything has to be scanned in, no buts about it.”

There was some push back, but everyone got with the program pretty quick. To make her business as valuable to her customers as possible, Kelly had to look elsewhere for companies and services to help save time and money.

 
“If we need to pay bills online, send a check, or whatever, there’s a specific way we do it.” These companies and their services allow Kelly to run her business smoothly, and on her own. She wasn’t taking no for an answer, from anyone.

“Streamlining my process has allowed me to become better at my job, stronger at what I do, and do things my way.”

Since starting her business in 2015, Kelly has continuously worked to find the best ways to provide her clients with the best service possible. But, some mountains are harder to climb than others.

That’s when she found Veem.

A Better Way


Kelly is an end to end advisor. She facilitates and sends payments domestically and internationally, taking the weight off small business owners’ shoulders.

As a small business owner herself, Kelly is well aware of the challenges of payments. Sending money costs money.

“A client of mine is a graphic design broker, and he’d been using AMEX to send international payments.”

The companies Kelly and her client were using just weren’t cutting it. “The payments were taking five days to get there, I had to upload a copy of the invoice or check, just so I could actually make the payment.”

So, she checked the app store. “I wondered if there was another service that does this.”

She searched for foreign payments, and “Veem popped right up.” Her interest was piqued.

“The fact that it integrated with QuickBooks was a huge deal for me. It just makes everything so much easier. I scheduled a demo, and immediately I told my clients that we were switching to Veem.”

Kelly then inquired about the Channel Partner Program, where bookkeepers and accountants can receive commission for referrals. She was all over it. “From there, anyone else I could sign up, I did. It worked great, and they all loved it.”

The switch was great for Kelly and her clients. “They’re ecstatic, and I couldn’t be happier. It saves everyone money, and their suppliers appreciate actually being paid on time. They just Veem it.”

That’s what it’s all about. Totally Booked provides bookkeeping services in a specific way, and everything’s done in the client’s best interests. Plus, Veem makes bookkeeper’s lives easier.

“It’s about ease of use, and not having to send unnecessary documentation and information. It’s faster, and really helps establish trust with a client.”

Kelly knows the ropes, and does everything she can to help others do what they love.

“I just wish I had discovered QuickBooks Online sooner, so I could’ve learned to build all of these things into a service you can offer. Veem is part of that, and just saves me so much time that I wish I could have back.”

Totally Booked strives to help clients get their numbers straight so they can focus on what matters most, their businesses. Kelly is a small business owner helping small business owners.

She gets it. Go Veem.

Kelly Gonsalves