Lisa London

The Accountant Beside You series started after Lisa was helping her church convert their accounting system and could not find resources to explain how to make QuickBooks work in a religious environment. As she worked through the process, it dawned on her that other churches and nonprofits needed this help also.

Because small nonprofit and religious organizations often have non-accountants doing the bookkeeping, Lisa wanted to develop a series of resources that would translate the confusing accounting jargon and tasks into step-by-step instructions in plain English. The books took off and now The Accountant Beside You series is recognized globally and being used by tens of thousands of organizations across the world. Lisa is looking for a nonprofit in Antarctica, just so she can claim it has been read on every continent.

At her website, AccountantBesideYou.com, she has free videos, checklists, and other resources to help. Lisa offers online accounting classes to help small business, churches, and nonprofits understand their accounting at NonprofitAccountingClasses.com. She has been quoted in US News and World Report, featured on CBS and ABC news stations, and is a popular guest on radio stations around the nation.

Lisa also speaks to groups and at conferences about various accounting topics, including Taming the Paperwork Nightmare, Making Bookkeeping Automation Magic, Audit Proof-Sleep Well and Stay Out of the IRS Crosshairs, and Easy Ways to Protect Your Nonprofit and You from Fraud.

When she needs a break from accounting, she loves to write historical fiction. When an elderly neighbor mentioned how much she had enjoyed her Hitler Youth group back in Germany, Lisa was shocked and intrigued. Not long after that, Lisa was helping her 100 year-old Granny pack up things and found a beautiful embroidered tablecloth that looked almost new.

"Granny, I've never seen you use this. Why not?"

Sadness engulfed her grandmother's face. "My brother, Bud, told me he got it off a German family when he was in the war. Every time I used it, I pictured that poor German family with a bare table."

Needless to say, it broke Lisa's heart to see her grandmother so sad. When she mentioned it to her German neighbor, Hilde stopped her. "Tell your grandmother her brother helped a German family. We were starving after the war. So people would trade their table linens for food. If the American soldiers had not ignored the non-fraternization rules, many of us would have starved."

Not only did this make her grandmother feel much better, at that point, Lisa knew she had a novel that had to be written-a World War II novel written from the German civilian perspective.

Lisa's husband Skip and their four children think her writing has made her completely forget how to cook or to help on their small farm in North Carolina. When not writing, Lisa enjoys spending time on the coast, paddle boarding, kayaking, and boating with the family.

Connect with Lisa on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/darkerthenight or https:facebook.com/quickbooksforchurches or on Twitter at lisalondon3.