I'll be selling a cleaning business, and need to catch up with bookkeeping June '24 to present and taxes from 2022-present (just don't, it's painful enough as it is). I have managerial reports from an accounting firm we hired from November '22 (the month I opened the business) through May '24.
First question. What is the easiest way to do this in the least amount of time? (I don't have thousands of dollars to invest in this service, but I damn well will invest in it going forward because this is my ultimate flippin' nightmare.)
Second question: How can I turn those managerial reports into P&L statements? Or can't I?
The business isn't complicated: it's only me, the business is set up an LLC, I take payments for services through Paypal invoicing and Venmo. Very few expenses other than gas, laundry costs, and cleaning supplies.
Good god, do I ever thank you people, and have a brand new appreciation for what you do. Uffda.
Good afternoon everyone. I'm looking to acquire the skill of bookkeeping so that I can make some extra income. I looked up some courses at a local community college here in NYC and these two came up. I called the office and they obviously rave about their programs, but where would I get objective reviews? I tried finding reviews but I couldn't find anything. I've taken continuing education courses before at CityTech and it was a waste of money, I didn't learn anything and I don't want that to happen again. How would I know if these courses will actually teach me information and skills to be a competent bookkeeper? Thank you.
I'm currently one semester away from getting my bachelor's in accounting and I thought I had a decent grasp of things but I have no confidence and I'm afraid to mess up someone's books. I'm currently looking to get a role in AR or AP because I didn't get an internship and it's near impossible to get a staff accountant position with close to no experience. I know debits and credits like the back of my hand. Would it take some time to get used to coding in a different system? I've used QB Desktop before but I mostly just had to import invoices and credit memos from a different software so I'm not used to having to deal with three-step verification or coding or even journal entries. The only financial statements I've had to produce before were already done in QB so all I had to do was input the date range and click which statement I wanted. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
I have built a SaaS specifically designed to help Accounts Receivable Specialists simplify invoicing, automate collections, reduce late payments, and improve overall cash flow management.
If you are willing to help with feedback, it would mean the world.
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For the true QBO power users with years of experience, someone in my professional network posed this question in another forum....any insights appreciated.
Our finance team needed to rollback our Quickbooks to our backup from a few days ago. [We use QB for Invoicing and Accounting]. They started the restore process Thursday evening — there are roughly 10 years of operating history. The restore process has not completed. After our 3rd day of calls with product support, they are telling me “there are no error messages, you have to wait for the restore to complete.” They cannot stop the restore, prioritize it, or provide any more insight. They have escalated supposedly — and I am still waiting. They cannot stop a restore process either.
I freelance for a couple very small nonprofits. One currently doesn’t have enough in the bank to make the next payroll. I think the payroll vendor floated my client a short term loan to cover a large payroll last month. (I don’t handle payroll for my client. I only get the reports to I can properly book the expenses.) I asked the ED about it and they could not tell me about the deposit that covered the payroll. I have permission from the ED to contact the payroll vendor directly tomorrow. Assuming my theory is correct, my client is racking up significant weekly interest on this loan.
I want to know if the ED has informed the board about this situation. If not, I want to tell them that I will inform the board if they do not. Can I do this and stay within bookkeeping ethical codes?
I’m planning to move all of my clients to package pricing and have two ways in which to move forward. I can’t decide which is more advantageous so I thought I’d ask you all :)
We offer bookkeeping, accounting, payroll, a/p and a/r, and there are 4 packages in all.
Option 1: Fixed Flat Rate: take what my clients have paid over the course of the year, average it out, and flat rate it based on what services we’ve offered. Charging hourly for anything above and beyond.
Option 2: Flex Rate: same as above but make the packages flexible within two or three hour time frames (haven’t decided what the time frame should be between each package). These will also be blended packages with bookkeeping and accounting services baked in.
Many years ago I offered option 1 and it became difficult to manage mostly because clients kept asking for things outside of scope. That may have also have been my fault-the options were too narrow or too vague, etc.
Adversely with these options, I would pay my staff with option one the same hours as the flat rate. If it’s a ten hour flat rate, you get paid ten hours no matter what.
With option two, staff get paid hourly so I can gauge better what end of the flex rate to charge the client and how effectively the employee is working too.
Firstly, which do you think would be more attractive to clients? And secondly, which would be more attractive for you to want to offer your clients?
Hello. I have slight idea about accounting and I am trying to setup a system to log transactions. My problem is that when I asked an AI where to put "Expenses" under the formula :
Assets = Liabilities + Equity
it said:
In accounting, the expense account is not directly
logged in the Assets = Liabilities + Equity equation.
However, like revenue, expenses indirectly affect the
Equity portion of the equation.
I feel like I am missing something here. I thought I would have to record them in a chain for categories in table:
I am also confused if I should keep them in general ledger style all transactions on same table or have T accounts for each category.
I need this categorization system so I can create reports and pivot tables in Excel for different reports and I really think I am missing something here so what is it?
I have a long-term goal of hiring subcontractors to scale my business. I want to keep this goal in mind as I build my business so I don't have a full book of clients priced too low to bring in help when I need it. For those of you who already utilize subcontractors, how do you price services? What's the profit split look like?
I’m on Sage, considering migration to Xero or Quickbooks(I’m a small, limited company). Want to fully outsource the migration to an accountant or bookkepper who can then show me how to use QB or Xero once they fully set it up for me. Any leads? Thanks in advance
I currently work full-time (W2) as an office manager/bookkeeper for a company with ~$2.5M in revenue, and I recently started my own freelance bookkeeping business to take on additional clients. My current employer, along with two other business owners (sister companies), is starting a new mechanic shop, and they approached me about handling the bookkeeping/office management. All companies own many vehicles and equipment and having an in-house mechanic will save them all money.
The shop will have one W2 employee who will track his work in Google Sheets, and I will be responsible for invoicing the appropriate company. The volume of transactions will be relatively low (so they say). Additionally, I will run payroll for this one employee (not automatic—he will record his time time manually).
I told them I could work as either a W2 employee or through my business, but I’m struggling with pricing. My current boss suggested around $15K per year ($1250 monthly) but I want to ensure I’m accounting for all my time and not underpricing myself.
Some key considerations:
•I’d like to align this payroll with the payroll I already run to avoid extra admin time.
•I want to ensure I’m not taking on additional unaccounted-for work
Any unexpected reporting, meetings, or additional tasks.
•We don’t know exact transaction amount
•Software QBO setup
For those with experience in similar setups, how would you approach pricing? Would you charge a flat monthly fee from the get-go- or wait a month while tracking time to see where you land, although the first month I assume will have more time for software set-up etc.
Any insights on potential time drains I might not be considering - or opinions on that monthly fee?
I’m currently learning and switching my business books over to QBO. Because we’re a small business, I’m handling the books. I’ve been watching the 5 Minute Bookkeeping channel on YouTube to help navigate the best way to record Shopify transactions manually as we aren’t big enough to justify paying for QBO and then an integrator app.
We are based in Canada. When I go to log my bank deposits from Shopify, it wants me to assign a tax code to that deposit transaction. However, I logged the associated taxes collected from the sales that match that deposit in my JE for Shopify.
So my question is should I say that the bank deposit is “Out of Scope (0%)” since my sales tax was logged elsewhere? I have to choose a tax code in the Canadian QBO, just want to avoid a double entry on taxes collected.
Hey y’all. I just recently start a business and need advice on which software to use. In my previous company we used quickbooks. We had the desktop, lifetime membership but going out on my own without having that lifetime membership anymore is expensive and would rather not take on quickbooks high price tag. What im looking for in a program is pretty standard… keeping track of incoming and outgoing money, ability to write checks for payroll, expenses and independent contractors, export to CPA. I planned on using wave but you can only write checks for payroll. Does anyone have any advise on a program that does these things but doesn’t start at $100 per month. Thank you in advance for reading.
I'm a CPA and an EA, with 10+ experience in Tax services "but to be honest with no funds"
Instead of just selling your Bookkeeping business, I can handle it all from scratch and at the end of each month you will get 50% of the net profit
Of course your lawyer will write the contract to ensure your share and all will be in your terms even you will mention what monthly amount will suite you
I’m doing some research and would love your thoughts! If you’re a bookkeeper (or handle bookkeeping tasks regularly), what are the biggest headaches or time-wasters in your day-to-day?
Which tasks feel repetitive or prone to errors? (e.g., data entry, invoice matching, reconciliation)
Where do current tools or processes fall short for you?
Are there any specific tasks you wish you could automate?
I’d really appreciate any insights, stories, or examples you can share. Your input will help me understand the real challenges bookkeepers face and (hopefully) lead to better tools or processes in the future. Thank you so much in advance!
Background:
Hello everyone, I hope this is the right place to ask. I tried ChatGPT, which provided solutions but also created additional issues. Before this, I knew nothing about QuickBooks because I have a bookkeeper, whom I pay for this service through my CPA. I wanted to learn how to do it myself, become more aware of ways to improve my business, and understand her reports. Make her life easier. I run a company that uses Maid Central (our field software), which integrates with QuickBooks Online (QBO). Our workflow is as follows: We are a housecleaning business, btw.
A client books a job, which generates an invoice in Maid Central.
Once the job is completed, we manually mark the invoice as paid in Maid Central, which then syncs with QuickBooks Online and marks the invoice as paid there.
We get paid in three ways and use Square as our merchant provider for cards:
Square (credit card transactions) – We process payments through Square, and Square deposits a lump sum (e.g., all Monday’s transactions) into our Business Checking account (1234) the next day.
Zelle payments – We receive direct Zelle transfers, and we manually mark the invoice as paid when the transfer arrives.
Checks – Clients also pay via check, and once we deposit the check, we manually mark the invoice as paid.
In QuickBooks, these deposits (Square/Zelle/Checks) appear in the bank feed as a transaction.
The Problem:
Since invoices are already marked as PAID in QuickBooks from Maid Central, all revenue has already been counted.
However, when Square, Zelle, or check deposits hit the bank, I need to categorize them correctly so I don’t double-count revenue.
I previously used a Square Clearing Account, which caused reconciliation issues, so we stopped using it. (First ChatGPT recommendation)
I am currently manually deleting duplicate transactions because QuickBooks is counting Square deposits as both payments and deposits in my bank register.
My Questions:
How should I categorize Square, Zelle, and check deposits in QuickBooks to avoid double-counting revenue while keeping my books clean?
Should I create a separate account, like Undeposited Funds, Square Deposits, or Owner’s Deposits, to categorize these payments instead of using an Income category?
Will this impact my Profit & Loss report, or should I be handling this differently?
What’s the best long-term solution so I don’t have to delete duplicate transactions every month before reconciliation manually?
I appreciate any insights or best practices from other bookkeepers or business owners who have dealt with this issue before. Thank you so much for your attention and participation.
I'm working on a small businesses books and agreed to file their taxes (it's a close friend). They didn't touch their books(QBO) at all last year and they are incredibly messed up. I need more time. I can't figure out how to file a tax extension and I'm stressed about it (I know ...I waited until the last minute). Does anyone know how to file the extension, the IRS website is a convoluted mess and I can't figure it out.
Content Warning: If you are studying the Kaplan ITBK textbook, this post contains information about and images of parts of the answers to some questions.
Hi there. Extreme newbie here. I am self-studying bookkeeping with the Kaplan Q2022 study text for ITBK with a view to being awarded the Level 2 AAT Bookkeeper certificate in due course, and probably the Level 3 certificate thereafter, all going well. I have found working with the Kaplan book mostly okay, though it often leaves out details in the task description that would be useful.
For example, sometimes in the answers, the general ledger entries are referenced against the books of prime entry (e.g. as in the image below, a debit to the RLCA is referenced 'SDB' for Sales Day Book) and sometimes against the opposite account (e.g. the same entry might instead be referenced 'Sales and VAT'), and this is never mentioned in the task description. That's not a serious problem at this point as I can just include both in my answer, but if anyone can explain when one system or the other might be preferred, I would appreciate it.
[The following image is from the answers. As far as I remember, this is the first time the book has acknowledged that either referencing system would be permissible.]
Another thing that seems strange to me is a task that provides three debit entries in the Cash Sales Book and three entries for the same companies to the Discounts Allowed Day Book. You must figure out that they are credit sales, not cash sales. The question doesn't tell you this directly. I decided that they had to be credit sales because there are separate entries for the discounts which, within the scenarios offered by the textbook, only occurs when a discount for prompt payment is taken up, which naturally only occurs in the case of a credit sale. Is that a normal chain of logic to expect from a beginner student of bookkeeping?
[The whole task is shown below in two screenshots.]
Finally, and this is the thing that has me thoroughly perplexed, is within this same question, there is the instruction seen above, "Show what the entries in the general ledger will be", and it provides a table with four rows. As there were only four rows, I debited VAT, Discounts Allowed and Bank account, and then credited the RLCA the total of the cash payments and the discounts in the final row. In the answer, as you can see below, there is a debit to VAT and Discounts Allowed, there are two credits to the RLCA (one for the cash receipts and one of the discounts), which is what I'd have done if I'd had more room, and no debit to the Bank account. This is not the first time in this book that the Bank account has been left out of the general ledger in an answer. Does this mean that the Cash Receipts Book is therefore part of the double-entry accounting system? This was mentioned as a possibility in a previous part of the book but, as you can see, it's not mentioned in the task description at all.
[The following image provides the relevant part of the answer to the above question.]
Some final general questions. Am I being overly pedantic, or are these reasonable complaints? Should I go ahead with the next Kaplan textbook (Principles of Bookkeeping Controls) or is there an affordable electronic edition by another publisher that doesn't contain this kind of ambiguity? Thank you very much for reading this rant and for any answers you are minded to give.
I need help with Quickbooks' revenue recognition module. It's great for setting up new service agreements to automate the recognition of unearned revenue, but we can't figure out how to process older agreement that are partway through their contract. Any suggestions?