SHARING QUICKBOOKS

Whether you use QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop, when we take over your bookkeeping, you won’t be working out of the QuickBooks file we are keeping for you. Instead, you will be using our easy client interface to interact with your financials, which is a much simpler system that can be accessed from any web browser.

If you are using QuickBooks to run parts of your business, you can continue to do so without any change.

We will be keeping a separate file for you that will have all of your actual business transactions as they appear on your bank and credit card statements, so you can see how much money you are making, spending, and how profitable your business is. This can be thought of as the “bookkeeping file”.

The QuickBooks file you are using would be a separate file that you use for whatever you need (issuing invoices, paying bills, running payroll, connecting with other applications, etc.). This can be thought of as the “operational file”. This file will not be updated by us. You may even find it easier to perform some of these tasks using other online software (such as Bill.com for your invoicing and bill paying).

No, there is no need for everything to be kept in one file. It’s totally fine for multiple files to exist, since they are serving different functions. Many people use various online services to run different parts of their business (like Bill.com to issue invoices, Square for credit card processing, etc) without needing those services to all be integrated into one central location. You technically can’t merge QuickBooks files anyways.

At any time, you can download the file we are keeping for you. But any changes you make to it will not be picked up by us. Those changes need to be made through the interface we provide.

First of all, the technical issue: Sharing a QuickBooks Desktop file doesn’t work, as you can’t both work out of the file at the same time (unless you host it on an expensive server). The other option, QuickBooks Online, is no good because it’s expensive (there is a monthly fee) and slow. Since we can’t do the work as fast, we would have to charge more for our services.

Secondly, the user issue: If we allow anyone but a trained bookkeeper in the file, it’s likely that something will get “messed up”. If another user who isn’t familiar with financial accounting even changes the amount or date of a transaction, for instance, it will throw off the reconciliations. We would then need to fix errors like these, which would be time consuming and costly. By us creating a separate user interface, it acts like a buffer, since we review all the suggested edits before applying them to your QuickBooks file.

If you file your taxes on a Cash Basis (which most people do), all of your income and expenses are reflected on your bank and credit card statements, as this is when the money actually went into and out of your accounts.

For instance, if you use QuickBooks to issue invoices, if they haven’t yet been paid, you don’t declare them as income. Or if you use QuickBooks to issue Payroll, we will see the payroll transactions on your bank statements.

But if you file your taxes on an Accrual Basis, you will want to show your Accounts Payable and Receivable balances on your financials for tax purposes. So each year, simply provide us or your CPA with your accrual balances as of December 31, and a simple adjustment can be made.

We send you all the financial reports you need on a monthly basis. These can be opened in any web browser, including mobile devices.

In between the time we send you updates, the report data doesn’t change. So even if you were accessing the QuickBooks file we are keeping, if you ran a report, the data would be the same until the next time we update it and send you the newest reports.

If you want more frequent updates, you will have to pay more money to have a bookkeeper who updates your books more than once a month.

We don’t need these connections on the file we will be maintaining. We work strictly off your bank statements, which has the actual record of all transactions that take place in your business. You can still keep those connections to the separate QuickBooks file you will be using if you’d like.