QuickBooks Consulting

June 4, 2018 by Gordon Advisors

Your first business plan may have been written on the back of a napkin.  For several years you’ve kept track of your finances on a simple spreadsheet.  Success occurs, and money is flowing in (and out), making the finances more complex.  It’s time for a true accounting system.  There’s several quality accounting systems available for small businesses and each are good for general ledger management.  The most common in the United States is QuickBooks. 

A small business owner doing his or her own books is similar to a house renovation.  You may have a level of comfort and time available for fixing up your home.  For the projects that you don’t have the expertise or the time, you bring in someone else to assist.  Handling your QuickBooks needs is similar.  You may want to do your own accounting or bring someone like Gordon Advisors in to assist you.  We have staff that are trained in QuickBooks, including QuickBooks Pro Advisors.

Short-term Assistance

In addition to traditional bookkeeping, there are four various times or stages when it may be useful to bring in assistance for a short-term period.  The first one is to setup your accounting system.  Perhaps your business isn’t large enough to warrant a professional for your accounting and you or a family member may do the limited entry that is needed.  It still may be a good idea to bring a professional in to set the structure up in the first place.  Cooking is a lot simpler when the recipe is already provided.

Training For Quickbooks

A second reason to bring in a professional is for training on QuickBooks.  Don’t disqualify a quality candidate for your accounting role just because they don’t know your software package.  QuickBooks is somewhat simple to learn and having an expert provide some initial guidance and be available to answer questions for awhile can make the new employee much more efficient.  A third use for a professional is during a conversion from one software package over to QuickBooks.  Transferring the historical data is important not just for the past, but also for the future.  A fourth reason to bring in an expert would be for what we refer to as “cleanup”.  Perhaps the reason you’ve brought in new staff is because the previous staff made too many mistakes.  Bringing in an expert with years of experience can help you untangle the web of errors created by the previous person.

If you find yourself experiencing one of these circumstances; system setup, training on QuickBooks, a system conversion to QuickBooks or cleanup, for the sake of your own sanity and future efficiency, it may make sense to bring in someone to assist.  Not all of us can do our own electrical and plumbing, so don’t feel bad if you’re not great at accounting – just contact someone who is.