Do I Need a QuickBooks Bookkeeper Near Me?
Having a QuickBooks bookkeeper near you can be great, but it’s far more important that your tax professional is either local or has expertise in your city and/or state.
Our founder, Jacob, is a QuickBooks ProAdvisor who specializes in complex cleanups for S-Corps.
We work with companies across the country, because we are a bookkeeping firm – not a tax firm.
Established companies with employees typically hire a professional tax accountant as well as a professional bookkeeper.
This ensures that the business has accurate financials for strategic planning and provides the foundation for tax strategy and a smoother tax season.
Why many clients look for a local firm
The primary reason some entrepreneurs want a local accounting firm is to outsource both taxes and accounting to the same company.
It’s much easier to have a single point of contact for any accounting questions you may have.
However, tax firms usually want to focus on taxes. Some offer bookkeeping to smaller clients who would otherwise send bank statements at the end of the year or outsource bookkeeping to a 3rd party firm.
When you need a QuickBooks specialist
Sole proprietors who don’t have W2 employees or other accounting/tax complexities may be fine with having a generalist handle their books.
Many clients hire us for one of three reasons:
1) Sales transactions:
- E-commerce companies often need a specialist, since it’s difficult to account for the high volume of sales across multiple platforms – especially when there are returns, platform fees, timing issues, etc.
- Companies who invoice clients using QuickBooks often keep track of who owes them money manually, because inadequate bookkeeping often fails to tie every deposit, check, or payment to the right invoice.
2) S-Corps: Having an S-Corp, C-Corp, or partnership tax entity requires maintaining an accurate balance sheet. LLCs who start making 6-figures in profit or more often find out they need a professional to cleanup their QuickBooks in order for their CPA to make the S-Corp election and adequately track their basis.
3) Growth: When a cash-hungry business grows, it causes a cash crunch. When you pay for materials and labor upfront and wait to get paid, this can become a severe problem. It’s also tough to decide whether to hire another employee or expand the business without accurate financials.
**Tax issues: when the IRS or state/local tax authority sends a letter in the mail, it’s often time to upgrade your bookkeeper and/or tax professional. Unfortunately, we have folks reach out for this reason as well.
What to look for in a QuickBooks bookkeeping specialist
QuickBooks is a corporate accounting platform. It’s probably overkill for a handyman’s side hustle. Every financial “transaction” in a business affects two accounts, so it is far more complicated than the ads make it seem.
When you interview QuickBooks specialists, we think you should get to know the person who will be handling your financials.
You should be comfortable with their QuickBooks, tax, and accounting expertise. It goes without saying that you must trust the person and firm to do what’s right.
If you want an inexpensive offshore firm, you can expect to pay $200-300/month, but that is not us. These firms often focus on tallying up expenses each month, coding whatever else is in the bank feed, and hopefully reconciling the checking & credit card accounts each month.
Don’t expect to have payroll reconciled each month, maintain an accurate balance sheet, or have an updated view of which invoices are overdue/partially paid.
Why does every transaction need to be in QuickBooks?
Two reasons: the tax code and data analysis.
Taxes: The tax code is not friendly to business owners. The IRS doesn’t have to prove that you’re wrong; instead, you generally have to prove that you are right by providing proof.
Having a professional bookkeeper that helps you manage your receipts helps establish a baseline of truth. The tax code also generally requires adequate recordkeeping and an accurate method of accounting.
Ask your tax attorney or tax accountant for more information. (Bonus points if you read the IRS’s Revenue Procedure 98-25.)
Data analysis: if you’d like to forecast your future cash flow needs, determine the profitability of jobs, analyze your spending, calculate your overhead, or use your own financials to make better business decisions, you need adequate bookkeeping.
AI can help you understand your financials, but AI as well as any other method of analyzing data requires accurate, clean data. Potential buyers and investors also require detailed bookkeeping to analyze the health of the business.
Why hire Orderly Bookkeeping?
If you read this far, you’re looking for a firm that you can trust and has expertise. New clients start by scheduling a free call with our founder, Jacob.
If it makes sense, we do a paid review of your QuickBooks so that you know the price and scope of work upfront.
The amount of cleanup or catchup work is detailed in a ~15+ page report that you can go through with your CPA before deciding whether to hire us.
We focus on working with clients over the long run, so if you’d like to learn more, click the button below to schedule an appointment:
If you’re not ready yet, check out Jacob’s TikTok where he goes live every day: https://tiktok.com/@jacobbookkeeping
You can drop in, ask questions, and get a feel for his approach and expertise. (Bonus points if you comment “C-Corp all the way” to raise his blood pressure.)