@jes1023 Not necessarily, at year end, the accountant will ask for your quickbooks trial balance. It’s an automatic report that generates for you and the tax preparer will need it. Other than that, just make sure your cash in quickbooks tie to your bank statement at 12/31 and your receipts in quickbooks tie to Square. Your accountant will have more specific questions for you, but those are the basics we expect.
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The importance of bookkeeping
- Thread starter alangeh
- Start date
@i4e Trial Balance is the summary of your assets, liabilities, equity, income, and expenses. It provides most information necessary to prepare your 1065 or 1120, even Schedule C. It ensures your numbers are somewhat accurate, if it doesn’t zero there’s a problem! Maybe you’re more familiar with Schedule C if you’re a sole proprietor, that would make more sense to have mileage information as you suggested.
@alangeh Probably don't wait till 12/31 to reconcile cash. Also if you have checks outstanding, cash in QB won't tie to the bank statement. Monthly reconciliations save you time later and help you identify earlier when things have gone awry. If you have multiple transactions of the same dollar amount, waiting till the end of the year to identify which is which can be nightmarish.
@alangeh What is preventing me? Not knowing what I don't know.
I'm just trying to get a couple of businesses off the ground, so I've filed for some LLCs and am in the startup and investment phase, not actually making any money. So it's difficult for me to want to hire a CPA or bookkeeper.
For CPA's I've looked at 3 companies and they all quote around $3k to $4k. As someone who isn't making any money, that's a hard sell. 1800Accountant seems like they have the best offer, but I'm afraid they won't offer a tax strategy, or help me be proactive in taking advantage of deductions.
For bookkeeping, I'm not even sure what software I should start with. Quickbooks Online seems to be standard, but then I'm looking at $80/month for each LLC. Seems expensive. Start with Xero instead to save? I've called some bookkeepers and they all charge $300/mo minimum and don't include tax software, most don't work with Xero, and yes, they have told me they can get me a QBO discount. I'm thinking about just going with Manager.io, or maybe even Tiller, for now. I have no idea where to start, really. And then there's the training ... okay, if I get software, I'm still not going to know what to do. I did find a $600 course called Bookkeeping Academy Online. I found some free courses on Coursera, too, so maybe that would suffice. Most bookkeepers I talked to said they'd help train me for about $50/hr.
I did ask in this and some other subs, but only got moderately helpful advice.
I'm just trying to get a couple of businesses off the ground, so I've filed for some LLCs and am in the startup and investment phase, not actually making any money. So it's difficult for me to want to hire a CPA or bookkeeper.
For CPA's I've looked at 3 companies and they all quote around $3k to $4k. As someone who isn't making any money, that's a hard sell. 1800Accountant seems like they have the best offer, but I'm afraid they won't offer a tax strategy, or help me be proactive in taking advantage of deductions.
For bookkeeping, I'm not even sure what software I should start with. Quickbooks Online seems to be standard, but then I'm looking at $80/month for each LLC. Seems expensive. Start with Xero instead to save? I've called some bookkeepers and they all charge $300/mo minimum and don't include tax software, most don't work with Xero, and yes, they have told me they can get me a QBO discount. I'm thinking about just going with Manager.io, or maybe even Tiller, for now. I have no idea where to start, really. And then there's the training ... okay, if I get software, I'm still not going to know what to do. I did find a $600 course called Bookkeeping Academy Online. I found some free courses on Coursera, too, so maybe that would suffice. Most bookkeepers I talked to said they'd help train me for about $50/hr.
I did ask in this and some other subs, but only got moderately helpful advice.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/qasxcy/where_can_i_get_a_primer_on_accounting_and_taxes
@613jono Ok couple things.
1) You will only a CPA for one thing as an early stage startup and that’s taxes. My advice is shop local. Don’t Google because you’ll find the biggest companies that will only find it worth it to do your return if they charge $3k, start with Jon Smith, CPA down the corner. He’ll charge
1) You will only a CPA for one thing as an early stage startup and that’s taxes. My advice is shop local. Don’t Google because you’ll find the biggest companies that will only find it worth it to do your return if they charge $3k, start with Jon Smith, CPA down the corner. He’ll charge
aussiecatholicboi
New member
@613jono
I would suggest to do what we did and find a few of your customers / friends you trust who also have their own businesses and ask which CPA they recommend. At least that would be a starting point.
For CPA's I've looked at 3 companies and they all quote around $3k to $4k. As someone who isn't making any money, that's a hard sell. 1800Accountant seems like they have the best offer, but I'm afraid they won't offer a tax strategy, or help me be proactive in taking advantage of deductions.
I would suggest to do what we did and find a few of your customers / friends you trust who also have their own businesses and ask which CPA they recommend. At least that would be a starting point.
@613jono Please do not use xero. Decent UI especially for people who don’t know / are intimidated by accounting (which I imagine is why they’ve been able to gain so many users) but it is literal dog shit in terms of being able to handle any significant transaction volume and/or more complex accounting/transaction scenarios. You’ll basically end up trying to find third party plugin software to handle incremental volume or complexity that you wouldn’t have needed if you just started with quickbooks. You’ll end up paying much more monthly and every time you implement a new process / change functionality / how a certain transaction is handled you’ll lose comparability period over period. Comparability is honestly almost more important than recording things properly (I.e., it’s easier for a CPA to fix a few isolated errors in the way things are recorded that are pervasive / present in each month than to have to figure out in what month was something recorded right/wrong/not at all etc.)
But really - just use quickbooks. You won’t run out of capabilities or features needed until you’re around $100m in revenue. Even then I’ve seen plenty of $120-$150m+ revenue companies using it but likely with other programs custom-integrated into it and/or running in parallel and then a bulk entry is recorded in quickbooks each month from the other system (not ideal)…next step up from QB is Sage, Great Plains / MD, NetSuite, Oracle, SAP. Even multi-billion $ companies find the complexities of Oracle/SAP unnecessary, and netsuite has had some bad misses / failed updates of recent IIRC.
QB really is the F150 of accounting info systems - can do most jobs and you can get as bare or nice of a model needed to suite your basic work needs, and would only need a F250/350 or other heavy duty machinery once you’re at a whole other level of workload requirements.
Also - maybe not the best practice and not sure if even much more economical but you could in theory just get 1 QB Enterprise subscription and put each LLC as its own “class” but then you’d have to be sure to label every transaction to the right class and if there’s any shared expenses you’d then have to create a manual journal to allocate between classes.
But really - just use quickbooks. You won’t run out of capabilities or features needed until you’re around $100m in revenue. Even then I’ve seen plenty of $120-$150m+ revenue companies using it but likely with other programs custom-integrated into it and/or running in parallel and then a bulk entry is recorded in quickbooks each month from the other system (not ideal)…next step up from QB is Sage, Great Plains / MD, NetSuite, Oracle, SAP. Even multi-billion $ companies find the complexities of Oracle/SAP unnecessary, and netsuite has had some bad misses / failed updates of recent IIRC.
QB really is the F150 of accounting info systems - can do most jobs and you can get as bare or nice of a model needed to suite your basic work needs, and would only need a F250/350 or other heavy duty machinery once you’re at a whole other level of workload requirements.
Also - maybe not the best practice and not sure if even much more economical but you could in theory just get 1 QB Enterprise subscription and put each LLC as its own “class” but then you’d have to be sure to label every transaction to the right class and if there’s any shared expenses you’d then have to create a manual journal to allocate between classes.
Also there are so many tutorials available on YouTube for QB you shouldn’t have any issues finding free training at all:
QB also offers free training / certification for accounting professionals but idk what you’d have to show to prove you’re one or not (probably nothing - as there’s no real certification for bookkeeping / accounting clerks below CPAs…other than being QB certified lol).
https://quickbooks.intuit.com/accountants/training-certification/
QB also offers free training / certification for accounting professionals but idk what you’d have to show to prove you’re one or not (probably nothing - as there’s no real certification for bookkeeping / accounting clerks below CPAs…other than being QB certified lol).
https://quickbooks.intuit.com/accountants/training-certification/
raycrossley52
New member
@raycrossley52 Quickbooks Pro Plus for Small Businesses is $80/mo.
raycrossley52
New member
@raycrossley52 I don't know either. But that's what a bookkeeper recommended.
friendoffrancis
New member
@alangeh I guess being a bookkeeper myself, I may be biased, but I've always found it interesting how bookkeeping is generally ignored until things get too messy.
We put a lot of effort into marketing, sales, and operations. Perhaps it's because those are more associated with direct revenue generation, they're regarded as more valuable and worth spending on.
But time and time again, a lack of bookkeeping generally eats away profit margins. Every activity has a certain level of value. A business owner spending hours maintaining books is the opposite of value add.
Low to no insight on business performance, slew of missed deductions because of poor record keeping, and inefficient back end processes (AP / AR).
There's definitely a certain revenue / transaction volume threshold where the efficiency gained outweighs the cost of a bookkeeper, and that threshold is really not that high.
We put a lot of effort into marketing, sales, and operations. Perhaps it's because those are more associated with direct revenue generation, they're regarded as more valuable and worth spending on.
But time and time again, a lack of bookkeeping generally eats away profit margins. Every activity has a certain level of value. A business owner spending hours maintaining books is the opposite of value add.
Low to no insight on business performance, slew of missed deductions because of poor record keeping, and inefficient back end processes (AP / AR).
There's definitely a certain revenue / transaction volume threshold where the efficiency gained outweighs the cost of a bookkeeper, and that threshold is really not that high.
sonofthecrucified
New member
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