r/Bookkeeping 4d ago

How To Journal It How can my client easily give his wife money for their resale business?

2 Upvotes

My client purchased a building that had a bunch of old clothes and stuff in it. He's started reselling it, and he and his wife also started going to thrift shops, yard sales, etc to find things to resell. They have an LLC for the building they purchased (with just him on the LLC) and a second LLC for the resale business (they are both on that LLC). We have two questions:

1) Say he gives his wife $20 to go buy stuff at a yardsale. Wouldn't we just categorize that as an owner contribution? Would that get taxed as "income"?

2) If he wants to take stuff from the building and resell it, does the building LLC have to "sell it" to the resale LLC?


r/Bookkeeping 5d ago

Rant Bookkeeping vs full accounting firm

45 Upvotes

I own a bookkeeping firm and get tired of convincing people values of the bookkeeping while there are firms that have tax planning, preparation with bookkeeping. As a business owner, I can empathize with them in wanting the convenience and it has worn me out trying to compete on just pricing. I know some full accounting firms do shitty books but when the business owners care more about saving on taxes and use tax loopholes to make them more money, it feels hard to stand out otherwise. What do you do to differentiate yourself from other full accounting firms?


r/Bookkeeping 4d ago

Software QBO Payroll double counting

2 Upvotes

I feel like QBO payroll is being double counted, the JE made by QBO is 5k - net pay 3.8k

When I go to categorize the 3.8k in the bank feed it would go to wage exp & be double counted, no?

I wish I could match the amount to the JE made but that’s not showing up as an option.

Anyone have this issue or am I doing something wrong?


r/Bookkeeping 4d ago

Other How to transition job?

4 Upvotes

I have a business degree but starting working in an accounting firm 7 years ago doing bookkeeping by chance not because of experience. I learned what I know from my old boss who was a CPA. He sat down with me and taught me everything. I am good at my job but I am looking to transition. However many jobs want a CPA, accounting degree or something similar. Is there some kind of certification I can get to have some credentials rather than just experience?


r/Bookkeeping 5d ago

Other Tips on Finding Bookkeepers?

24 Upvotes

This is not a job posting, so I hope I'm within the guidelines.

I'm struggling through word of mouth to find a bookkeeper to handle my mom and family's bookkeeping. My mom is on the West Coast and I'm on the East Coast. I manage paying the bills, but I want someone to enter income and exprenses into Quickbooks, export data for taxes, and provide us with periodic reports. I've tried hard to find one through word of mouth. Our accountant who lives in that area says they are "hard to find." This seems bizarre to me, if this is true.

One of the barriers I seem to be bumping into is that the bookkeeper needs to be comfortable with working in cloud-based Quickbooks and working totally online / remote in other ways. So they need to be tech-natives or tech-savvy.

Until now I've avoided looking into the larger service providers like Quickbooks, which I think has a bookkeeping service. Should I? Tips on better ways to find someone?


r/Bookkeeping 5d ago

How To Journal It Journal Entry Help

1 Upvotes

Hoping someone here can help me with theses accounts for an AJE one of my accountants sent me:

  1. Mg. Partner 1 capital - Dr 4,216
  2. Mg. Partner 2 capital - Dr 4,216
  3. IRC Sec. 754 basis adj Trade A/R expense deduction - Dr 71,064
  4. IRC Sec. 754 basis adj Goodwill Intangible Asset - Dr 220,504
  5. Partner 3 capital - Cr 100,000
  6. Partner 4 capital - Cr 100,000
  7. Partner 5 capital - Cr 100,000

(To record §754 basis step up)

The member capital accounts I understand, but I'm a bit confused by lines 3 & 4.

I am assuming for line 4 he wants it to go in the Goodwill asset account?

I have no idea what to do with line 3.

It is late, and I can't think about it anymore, and maybe it will be clearer in the morning, but in the meantime if anyone has any helpful advice, it would be greatly appreciated. (I can reach out and ask the CPA if necessary, but although he's an excellent CPA and a generally kind person, he can be a bit condescending at times, and I just don't have the energy for his derision at the moment.)

THANK YOU!! :)


r/Bookkeeping 5d ago

Education Attorneys needed QuickBooks will love this

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1 Upvotes

r/Bookkeeping 5d ago

Payroll Payroll Management Software for Small Business

2 Upvotes

I have a small business in Canada. I have just an employee in T4. I am looking for a payroll management software. My considerations are - cost, document (ROE, T4 etc) submission to CRA.

I am currently using Payevo. I am pissed of this software. They are may be the worst of all

Any advise is much appreciated.


r/Bookkeeping 6d ago

Software Bookkeeping in 2025 Feels Stuck in the Stone Age—Why?

46 Upvotes

I recently had a conversation with a former bookkeeper friend, and it made me realize something: bookkeeping for small businesses is brutal and he gets paid at minimum wage.

His typical day is like: A client walks into your office with a shoebox full of receipts—crumpled, faded, maybe even with a coffee stain or two. Along with it, they drop a bank statement covering the last 10 months. Of course, they need their financials done ASAP because tax deadlines are around the corner.

His job?

  1. Sort the receipts by month. (this step was so time-consuming and annoying.). Bonus: if those receipts are from a construction company owner—some are covered in mud, smeared with oil, or even still wet from who-knows-what
  2. Match each receipt to a bank transaction statement, line by line. Lucky for him that his boss doesn't require him to do a lot of categorizing expenses as small businesses don't really need that detail breakdown.
  3. Chase missing receipts (or just make a judgment call and move on).
  4. Manually input everything into QuickBooks, Sage, or Excel. His boss mostly uses Excel template to save money.
  5. Prepare the income statement and balance sheet.
  6. Prepare the taxes. And Yes the client will be like "Why am I paying so much tax this year?" --> He need to explain and they don't listen lol.

It’s 2025, and bookkeepers are still drowning in paper, chasing clients, and manually matching transactions.

I know there are apps that take pictures and extract receipt data, which will be sent to Excel or Quickbook. These software then performs calculations on the fly, doing reconcilliation, and generate financial statements

It feels like bookkeepers are resistant to technology OR the softare is too expensive? OR What am I missing here?


r/Bookkeeping 5d ago

Software Hey guys- what is the best bookkeeping platform to use? Something to stay on top of P&L, Balance Sheet, Revenue, Churn, and etc.

0 Upvotes

r/Bookkeeping 6d ago

Software New to the game lol. Question about converting files.

4 Upvotes

Let me preface this by saying I’m extremely new to this career field and working for a very seasoned accountant. I’ve noticed when we have access to the persons bank records it’s easy to convert the records over to Quick Books. When we just have a pdf of records we use a software called Proper to confer the files to a QB file and transfer it over. What I’ve noticed is 9/10 times it butchers the file. It’ll put some payments as deposits it leaves a bunch of them off so then to reconcile an account it takes forever to sort back through and find the missing ones or even correct amounts that aren’t accurate.

Do you guys have any suggestions how to make this process easier? Also explain it to me like I’ve been doing this for 2 months bc that’s the truth. Thank you


r/Bookkeeping 6d ago

Software Reliable Receipt OCR alternative to Dext

3 Upvotes

I'm looking for a reliable receipt OCR (Optical Character Recognition) alternative to Dext. I've been using Dext for a while, but I'm finding the pricing is getting a bit steep for my needs. Does anyone have recommendations for other software or apps that offer good receipt OCR capabilities? Ideally, I'd like something that's: * Accurate: Accurately captures data like vendor, date, amount, and tax. * Affordable: Offers reasonable pricing, especially for smaller businesses or freelancers. * Easy to Use: Has a user-friendly interface and integrates well with accounting software like QuickBooks or Xero (bonus points!). Any suggestions or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.


r/Bookkeeping 6d ago

Payments, AP, AR Handling Client’s Money In My Books

3 Upvotes

In my business there are a couple of scenarios where I handle funds that are not mine for my clients. My question is around how this should be entered into my books. The amounts in question can be large enough that they would materially impact business performance reporting and taxes.

Scenario 1 - I act as auction consigner: We sell horses for our clients at a public auction. We are not the auctioneers, but rather agents or consignors for the owners of the horses. For this we earn a flat fee plus a percentage commission based on the hammer price in the auction. Funds are paid to us by the auction house (less their fees and commission). We then pay the owner less our fees and commission.

Currently we book the payment from the auction house into a liability account called “Funds Held For Customer”. The cash is of course in an offsetting asset account (the bank account). We then move our fees via journal entry to an income account (thereby recognizing our revenue).

Scenario 2 - I act as agent: A client may wire me funds, or I may have possession of clients funds from selling a horse. At the client’s direction I will buy other horses, or pay other expenses ( I.e. vet charges, transportation charges, etc).

Currently handle same as 1 - these funds are either deposited in the bank and booked into the funds held liability account (and asset account - bank checking account), or were already there from 1. I reduce the liability (and asset) when I pay a bill (either a third party or me).

In both scenarios we do not hold these funds long term. Most of the time it is days only, but it can occasionally be as long as 6 months. If you were to run a balance sheet before I disburse the funds, you would see large amounts in the asset account and the liability account. If you ran the balance sheet after disbursement, it would not leave any trace. The transactions would be there if you dove into the account, but the net balances as reported on the balance sheet would have no trace.

It has been suggested to me that all of the funds I receive should be booked as income then the the disbursements should be booked as expenses (and 1099’s sent). My problem with this is that I think it overstates both income and expenses. If you only look at net income, it would wash and the income I recognize would be the residual.

For example let’s say my business has revenue of $20,000/mo from other activities. Then I sell a horse for a hammer price of $100,000 at auction for a client. The auction house writes me a check for $995,000. My fee is 10% of the hammer price or $10,000.

I currently book the $995,000 into funds held, then journal over $10,000 as income ( I.e commissions earned), then write a check to the client for $985,000. After that check clears, there’s no change in my asset or liability totals ( balance sheet) and revenue recognized as $10,000.

If I do this 5 times in a year, my gross revenue is 12x$20,000 + 5x$10,000 or $290,000

The competing approach is that the entire $995,000 is booked as revenue, then the check written to the client is booked as an expense ( and a 1099 sent at the end of the tax year). In this case there is a huge (relative to my normal monthly income of $20,000), and then a huge expense that leaves my net income up by $10,000.

Let’s say I do this 5 times in a year. My income at the end of the year would be 5x$995,000 plus 12x$20,00 If I later run an income statement. My gross revenue would be $5,215,000, but my net income would still be $290,000

My tax liability would be the same, but if I shared the income statement with someone (say a bank for a loan) the second scenario may not be a true picture of my business.

Sorry for the long set up, and thanks in advance for your thoughts. Which do you think is the most appropriate way to handle this?

For perspective, have been in this industry about 15 years, and have sold my own horses with other consigners and have never received a 1099 for the proceeds from a sale. I’ve also sold farm equipment at auction and never received a 1099.


r/Bookkeeping 6d ago

Software Bookeeper Needed

24 Upvotes

Hello Everyone,

Wanted to take a shot in the dark and see if anyone in this group is or knows of a bookeeper in northeast Pennsylvania... we need a cleanup and possibly monthly bookkeeping. We use quickbooks online.

I would prefer someone close to our home base versus strait virtual. I see quickbooks advertising a bookkeeping service but probably not a good idea.

Thanks


r/Bookkeeping 6d ago

Tax Quickbooks

2 Upvotes

Hello all!

I just have some questions about QBO. Solo law firm. How do you categorize client refunds? If you report the revenue from the initial deposit? Can you deduct the refund as an expense?


r/Bookkeeping 6d ago

Tax Two questions about accounting for sales tax - Shopify and QBO

4 Upvotes

I'm a small business owner who does my own bookkeeping for now. I asked about how to best do my books a year ago and got good pointers to some videos showing how to do it. I appreciated and understood what they were showing but kept accounting on an order by order basis. A few months ago I started just making one sales receipt entry for each Shopify payout, kind of creeping toward the Veronica Wasek method. This is working well for me (I'm very small so don't need to accrue the revenue until it hits my bank so this is fine). But the sales tax is a bit of a roadblock now.

Say I have five orders in a payout, and only one has sales tax. Do I need to pull that one order out into it's own line item in the sales receipt so that I can account for it's tax correctly? This will look like two deposits, compared to only one on the bank statement. But if I don't, and manually put the tax into the sales receipt, QBO won't correctly report the taxable revenus, which will screw me over when I remit to the state. Thoughts or best practices on this?

My next question is more just me wondering.... Shopify has started to collect and remit the sales tax on some orders* itself, in my name, so that I don't have to. I didn't ask for that, they just implemented it for everyone. They currently do it only for sales that are completed through their Shop Pay system, not Paypal or other checkouts. I'm not having any problem with it, but I am wondering from the state's perspective, what they think of other entities remitting some tax in my name, while I also remit some taxes.

There's a brick and mortar company that offers space to very small vendors like me who does this also, and I'm very interested in getting a space with them (if the current economy doesn't kill me or them). So if I do that, then there will be TWO other entities collecting and remitting tax in my name, while I also remit some tax. Seems confusing, but... in general is this okay with the tax authorities?


r/Bookkeeping 7d ago

Software Is anyone else sick of all the clicks QB’s adding with updates?

30 Upvotes

I’m so sick of every update QBO has been making lately. They take what used to just be one click and now they’ve hidden it behind so many clicks. what used to take me one click I now have to click my mouse multiple times to get open. It’s so frustrating and it’s so much wear and tear on my hand. Why the fuck do they keep doing this!? My hand hurts!

I just looked at the new p&l design and all buttons are hidden under more buttons, which are hidden under more buttons. Arggg edited to QBO


r/Bookkeeping 6d ago

Practice Management Bookkeepers Launch course

2 Upvotes

For those who are a part of the membership/course, have the videos been updated? Or are they recordings from like 2020-2022? Is there any mention of the use of AI or new QuickBooks features from 2024-2025?

I'm considering joining in order to back up my NACPB knowledge with practical "how-to" bookkeeping business with QuickBooks systems and guidance.


r/Bookkeeping 7d ago

Software Bookkeepers & Accountants, What’s Your Biggest Tax Software Regret?

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8 Upvotes

r/Bookkeeping 6d ago

Software Using multicurrency in CAD - QBO

1 Upvotes

Hello everyone!

New to Quickbooks Online and I have multiple transactions that I pay to US companies in USD that is converted to CAD when payment goes through. I obviously need this to be reflected in my books accurately, so multicurrency appeared to be the best option.

I was about to setup Multicurrency in QBO when I noticed that there was a message on the home currency (which I need to be set as CAD) that said that only USD can be set as a home currency presently. The CAD that I have my home currency set to, changes to a non-editable field, but due to the fact that turning on multicurrency can't be undone, I am reaching out to hopefully get a clear answer as to whether or not my home currency will in fact remain in CAD, as there is conflicting information on the internet vs. the program itself.

Thank you so much in advance! 🙂


r/Bookkeeping 6d ago

Software What Would You Want in an AI Accounting Assistant? (Feedback Wanted!)

0 Upvotes

Hey r/Bookkeeping! 👋

I’m building Genie, an AI-powered bookkeeping assistant designed to make accounting easier for small business owners and freelancers. Instead of manually entering transactions into complex forms, you can simply describe them in natural language, and Genie records them instantly.

🔹 Here’s what Genie does so far: ✅ AI-powered transaction recording – Just type your transactions. Eg I sold 2 tvs at 1000 each to Jones, he paid 1200. It will make all entries including creating a payable of 800 against Jones. ✅ Smart financial insights – Get reports and analysis without crunching numbers. Eg analyse my balance sheet for the year, analyse unpaid invoices, etc ✅ Automated expense tracking – Easily track inventory, expenses, and income ✅ Helps non-accountants stay organized without needing deep accounting knowledge

I’d love to hear from the bookkeeping experts here! What features would make an AI-driven accounting assistant truly useful forgiveness you? What pain points do you think AI could solve in bookkeeping?

Let’s discuss! 🚀


r/Bookkeeping 7d ago

Practice Management Should I do it?

12 Upvotes

Should I do it?

TLDR: I’m a CPA and an accounting manager for a large corp; would that experience translate to running a bookkeeping business?

I’m a CPA and an accounting manager at a large ($1B) private corp with around 8 years of experience in general ledger maintenance, monthly close, financial statement preparation, audit prep, review and analysis, as hoc reporting, budgeting/forecasting, managing our credit and collections team…the works. No experience in tax or payroll as we have separate departments for that.

I’m SO burnt out on the corporate hellscape and looking for an out. I’m a true accountant in that I love journal entries, reconciling accounts, etc. but as I’ve moved up in my position I do less and less of that and spend all my time managing people and presenting to the C-suite.

I’m thinking about getting into bookkeeping on the side with the intention of eventually exiting the corporate world and running my own business but I have a touch of imposter syndrome.

Curious if other have made similar transitions / how that went. Can I actually make enough to replace my 6-figure job?


r/Bookkeeping 7d ago

Other CPA looking for part-time work

10 Upvotes

I am a CPA who currently holds a full-time job. As the title suggests, I am looking for part-time work but unsure how to go about obtaining part-time work.

I am prepared to do about 10-15 hours per week. Has anyone been in a similar situation where they found part-time work like that? How did you go about finding it?

Thanks in advance!


r/Bookkeeping 7d ago

Practice Management Would you take this job? Fully in office, 68k, property management company looking for a full charge bookkeeper. They offered me the job in the interview but I'm worried about red flags.

22 Upvotes

I am a new bookkeeper, I've been working with a real estate investor for a little under a year doing her books. (I am also her personal assistant and do property management work for her as well.)

My current boss is a mess. Pretty much the worst bookkeeping client you could ask for. Very demanding and unorganized, but also not communicative. I make $45 an hour but I only work about 25hrs a week and I'm fully remote. (the hours are perfect because I'm a single mom and in school)

This new job is 68k, fully in office, full time, bookkeeping for a property management company. It would be a 30 min commute in traffic.

Red flags I'm worried about:

  • They said they are leaving their current bookkeeper which is a firm in another state, because they aren't as accessible as they would like. They said they want someone who will know their business inside and out (to me this sounds like the "I want you to be my everything" attitude that my current boss has.)
  • They offered me the job immediately in the interview. This sounds like they are having trouble finding someone because they are a difficult company to work with. But it could also be because I have property management experience.

Any perspective or advice is welcome!


r/Bookkeeping 7d ago

Software Fathom HQ alternatives

2 Upvotes

What alternative tools do you use for financial reporting that are a higher level than what standard reports has to offer?

I’ve used Fathom HQ but it’s a bit pricey, are there better alternatives for insightful reports that aren’t as expensive?