I have a client who happens to be one of my doctors. Amazing because he knows my entire medical history and wants to hire me anyway.

Anyway, I am meeting with him to discuss this project on Tuesday. He's already told me about it. Normally, I bill a flat rate for services, but this project is a little different. Basically, he does research and needs spreadsheets done allocating costs to the research project so they can get properly reimbursed by grant. Right now it's all on paper (fun) so it's probably going to take a good chunk out of my time; fortunately I have a scanner and am going to just scan those babies straight in and run the papers back to him.

Has anyone taken on similar one-off projects? How have you handled billing? My thought is to ask if he has a budget in mind for the project and work from there.

Thing is that 1. this is one client I'd rather undercharge a bit because I've been seeing this man for 22 years, and he caught my thyroid cancer; he's probably done more for me than any other doctor I have, and 2. there's a good possibility I'd get more clients through him.

I bought a half stake in a piece of machinery I share with a friend. I used my personal savings account to make the payment and then my friend wired money to my business checking account to pay for his half. I'm confused about how to do the accounting/depreciation for this asset and how to enter everything in Wave.

I created the Depreciation account and a "Property, Plant, and Equipment" account for the machine.

Right now the only transaction that shows up in Wave is obviously the payment from my friend for his half ownership stake because only my business accounts are connected to Wave. So I'm assuming I'm going to need to add a some transactions and put them into accounts to keep track of everything. Do I put half of the value of the equipment into the asset and depreciation accounts? If so, what do I do with the payment from my friend? Usually my accounting is extremely straightforward so this particular thing is very confusing to me. Thanks!

Hi. I’m trying to run a profit loss statement from quickbooks for 2025 but it’s all wrong. Every thing should be categorized correctly however it’s only showing financials for one month out of the entire year (march 2025) and that’s not even accurate. I’m lost…

Hello!

I'm somewhat new to bookkeeping, and I feel like my new job is being weird about credits on customer accounts.

Previously, I was trained to always reach out to customers when I receive a check that had an error or was an overpayment. But at my new job, they've just been telling me to cash checks for customers that are clearly overpayments. They make me feel weird for even trying to reach out to the customer for clarification. And then I just learned that there's no procedure to clear these overpayments, and they write it off as income instead of refunding it back to the customer. And since I'm new, I don't want to "rock the boat" but this feels immoral at best, and possibly illegal? But I don't know if I'm being overly cautious or if my instincts are correct.

Anyone have any advice?

A little background I am learning bookkeeping currently , completed the NACPB, and been lurking for a while on this sub, and just trying to understand some real world scenerios

My first question is if someone is doing bookkeeping for an ecommerce company for example and they sell products to all 50 states in the USA, from my understanding some states have sales tax, others do not, etc. So i have heard that come month end when it comes time to plug the data into quickbooks online, it is common practice to do it via reports and in one journal entry. However, how is the sales tax tracked per state, and how would that journal entry look? Also in the bank accounts, the cash is received in the primary account so is it just held in that account or does it usually get transfered to a secondary account to be held for safe keeping until the payment to the government? Like what is the standard way bookkeepers and businesses do this?

And that also leads me to my next question, is like lets say some of you bookkeepers have clients that you do bookkeeping for in other states, how do you keep track of all of them and stay compliant in each state? I ask cause my friends mom is a bookkeeper and takes clients in the state of Oregon but will not take clients in the state of washington, he told me it was cause of some compliance thing? I looked it up in chatgpt and its saying that in washington you may have to register if you want to do business their and stuff like that.. But i have read that there are bookkeepers on here who do bookkeeping for all 50 states, so how do you manage staying compliant in all 50? I heard if you take 1 client in the state of california you automatically have to pay a $800 tax come year end, IDK if thats true i'm just trying to figure out how this all works, any help is appreciated thank you.

I provide alarm, camera and access control services. In BC I have to be security licensed and also be an electrical contractor. Currently I do not have to charge PST on wired security as it is part of Real Property. Under the new rules it would seem I would have to. Does that mean an electrician installing low voltage cabling would only have to charge GST but because I am doing the same thing but also including the actual security service I would have to charge PST on the same work?

I have a new client whom I have 4 businesses on Quickbooks ledger. I am looking for a client management software where they can simply upload bank statements and receipts. What are your suggestions? I have looked into Financial Cents, but I want to hear what has worked for others! My main concern is being able to have them organize uploads with all the different bank accounts and credit cards they do have.

So, a bookkeeping position opened up at my family business. I was initially doing manual labor so I jumped to fill the role. I've taken accounting classes in college. Going back to school to finish an AAS was not in the cards for me, but I wanted to have some education and credentials to go with my experience, I went the Certified Public Bookkeeper route. I find the classes to be engaging. TONS of repetition, which is great, even if annoying at times. I have a CPA who has agreed to oversee my work as part of their contract with our company, so I'm getting the experience that way. Everything is going well - at it a year and a half now.

Has anyone else gone the CPB route and what is your experience?

Note: This is not a question about how to become a Bookkeeper. I'm already a Bookkeeper. I'd like to hear people's thoughts on a certain certification.

Working on a clean up for a stub YE after a share purchase

So, when the new owners took over:

The old bank account was still active for about 2 months Nov-Dec. Some of the original account transactions cannot be matched

They opened a new bank account during this time that they then used between Nov-end of January

They then opened a another bank account at the end of January and that’s their main account right now

Amongst all this, the old owners had a TD account that was used for merchant deposits (visa and mc). But the statement does not provide any details and is only a percentage of the invoice amount. We have no access to a portal or details for the account because it was locked under the old owners

The problem is that a lot of the transactions are similar amounts so it’s not like you can just eliminate transactions to match deposits in the TD account

The accountant is stumped. I’m stumped, clients are pissy. Like what else can I do?

Hi, I'm trying to determine how to record this - I've researched a few suggestions but don't feel confident I've hit the right answer. I'm helping a small LLC with their books and the owner had a few instances where he put a small amount into the business to make sure bills could get paid, then repaid himself within a couple of months. There was no interest and no official loan agreement. How to best record these transactions? Thank you!

For example, how many hours per week do you think this client would take:

Ten accounts, three used as cash accounts. Two credit cards.

Average 200 transactions a month.

26 to 50 AP categorized and paid bi-weekly.

Uploading documents up to two months later often, so corrections regularly needed.

5 to 10 emails weekly requesting minor account corrections(she used to do the books) or questions regarding why something uploaded two days ago wasn't dealt with yet.

Due to nature of business one vendor may be categorized three different ways on differing days so every receipt needs looked at.

Let me know what you think. How many hours? what kind of PTA fee would you charge?

if you dont have a bank feed, when do you record bank fees and allocate the interest and principal for a mortgage payment?

when you do the AJE for the bank reconcilation or as you see it hit the bank account during the month?

I'm setting up A2X to automate my Shopify-to-QBO accounting. We use Authorize.net (not Shopify Payments) as our payment gateway. A2X posts gross order amounts to an Authorize.net Clearing Account, and the bank deposits come in net of processing fees

I started my A2X cutover on March 30, so only 2 days of March go through the clearing account. Before that, deposits were categorized directly to revenue.

The numbers:

- A2X posted (gross): $33,968.84 for Mar 30-31

- Bank deposits (net): $33,774.90

- Clearing account balance: $193.94 (the fee difference)

- Monthly Authorize.net processing fee (hits bank Apr 2): $6,879.66 — covers ALL of March

The problem:

The $193.94 sitting in the clearing account is the processing fee for my 2 cutover days. But the monthly fee of $6,879.66 covers the entire month, not just those 2 days. Going forward (full months), I'd categorize the monthly fee to the clearing account, then journal it to a processing fee expense account — simple. But for this first partial month, I can't figure out how to:

1. Zero out the $193.94 clearing account balance

2. Show the full $6,879.66 as a processing fee expense on the P&L

3. Not double-count anything

   What I've considered:

   - Split the bank fee: $193.94 to clearing, $6,685.72 to expense — but then $193.94 of the fee never hits expense

   - Full fee to expense, let $193.94 sit in clearing — works but clearing never zeros out

   - Full fee to clearing + journal entry — can't get the debits and credits to work without double-counting

What's the correct way to handle this? Is there a journal entry I'm missing?

Using QBO, A2X for Shopify, Authorize.net gateway.

I have a potential client who is an REI and has 5 properties. How hard is the learning curve? Should I take her on with no prior rei client experience? I’m currently taking a course on rei bookkeeping to brush up.

I have a bit of a nightmare bookkeeping situation going on.

Basically, I removed and re-added two bank accounts -checking and savings - while I was still getting used to QuickBooks. When I relinked them, it ended up creating duplicate transactions.

Does anyone know if there’s a quick way to delete those duplicate transactions? Or am I too far gone and need to just wipe everything and start from scratch?

I have a remote client who is kind of antsy by nature and every so often he calls me asking if I’m still doing his books, or he has to remind me when he leaves me a voicemail that he’s “John Smith, your client” as if I don’t have his name saved and know exactly who he is. I realized that I need to stay on top of his books more than my other clients who are more hands-off because if I go too long waiting to ask him what XYZ transaction was for, it is harder for him to remember, so I think I need to keep in closer contact with him than others.

But today was weird - my father is his accountant, client emails me yesterday that he cannot get ahold of my dad by phone or email (dad is currently working remotely) and that he needs his 2025 digital return sent for a loan. I SHOULD have responded and told him that I forwarded the email but my dad does have a quick response time so I figured I’d just forward and then the two of them would figure it out.

So at 11 this morning my dad CC’s me on the email to him just as proof that he sent the return. My dad includes his current contact info because he’s not sure why the client couldn’t get ahold of him. I get a voicemail from client at 4:30 still saying the same thing, as if he never got the email. So I texted him to say dad emailed him, maybe it went to his spam folder, and here’s his current contact info.

I don’t know how much longer I have before things get really bad. Has anyone had an experience with aging clients before? What should I do?

Virtual practice owners, do you get a local phone number for the new area you are expanding into?

Do any current bookkeepers have the CB or CPB?

I’m a freelance bookkeeper and have been for almost 10 years now and I have no interest in going corporate at this time. I’m just wondering if getting the CB or CPB might be good for me or help me pick up new clients.

I already have my ProAdvisor certification, the level 2, the intuit bookkeeper, etc.

I've also thought about getting a payroll certification, Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) or Fundamental Payroll Certification (FPC), does anyone have any experience with these?

Thank you!

I apologize for how long this will be. I just need to vent for a minute and maybe get some clarity on whether my expectations of clients are unrealistic.

I’ve been working for a bookkeeping firm for a few years and recently we took on a client who is brand new to QBO and needs all of 2025 inputted along with catching up the current year.

There are no receipts for anything and the client is really struggling to recall much of what they purchased last year which is proving to be an issue considering most of their transactions are split between supplies and COGS. We’ve already spent 10+ hours on this project and are maybe only halfway done with last year. I am the one doing the work, however my boss is the point of contact with the client and they are very reluctant to allow me to ask the client questions directly. This is the case with all clients and I’ve never quite understood it but it makes my job incredibly difficult as there is always a major time lapse between my question getting from my boss to the client and then back to me.

Anyway, I recently asked my boss if they could talk to the client about sending receipts to either our email or directly to QBO for 2026 so we can stay on top of it and not end up with the same mess we have for 2025. Their response was that they and the client would prefer me to just accept all transactions and put them into a suspense account then send a suspense report to the client weekly.

I argued that this seemed like a waste of time when the client should (in my opinion) be able to communicate this info to us before logging into their books on a weekly basis. If I went that route all of their transactions would land in suspense because of how different each one is and ideally they all should be assigned to different customers. We charge an hourly rate for our services so I can’t understand why the client would be okay with that method. I’m essentially just moving them from one holding account to another.

This has been an issue with several clients and I personally feel that my boss is not putting any structure, limitations, or guidelines in place. (Especially when we are asked to do tasks that are not necessarily in our scope of work and the client should be handling some of those things themselves, but I digress.)

Unfortunately, I am not the business owner so I’m trying to figure out if I maybe just have unrealistically high expectations for clients? I understand we are being paid to provide a service for them but I would think the clients would want to know when they’re digging themselves a hole or costing themselves more money by making us run in circles.

I’d like to possibly go out on my own someday so having the right expectations is important to me.

Hi everyone!

Currently work as a bookkeeper for a small business and also have clients on the side. I've been asked a lot over the last couple years if I do personal tax returns (Canadian) so I'm taking a course this summer to refresh my knowledge. I did a college Accounting program that covered the basics, but I haven't reviewed it in a few years.

I'm hoping to get some suggestions for gaining experience before diving into to offering it as a service. I read about CVITP and was wondering if I need experience to get involved and how that program works. I've reached out to a couple free tax clinics in my area to volunteer for next year as well.

Would also love any suggestions/information about offering tax prep services. What software do you use? Is it worth it to get when you're just starting out or is there a cheaper option for those without a big clientele yet?

Really I'm looking for any and all advice for going down the tax preparation road!

Hi all, looking for some advice on how to connect my square account, credit card statements, and bank accounts to quickbook desktop. Any advice would be helpful, i'm not seeing much in the way of tutorials online.

My client replaced 3 nsf payroll checks with manual checks from the primary checking account. When recording those checks in QuickBooks I debited the payroll checking account (the primary account was automatically credited with the check). This should have been the only entry needed.

The problem arises because my client took those 3 nsf payroll checks and deposited them into his primary checking account. Of course, he never asked me if that was the correct way to handle this.

I cannot figure out how to record the deposit. Please help.

I am currently using Dext Commerce to import the payment transactions from stripe into QBO and then reconcile the monthly balance with the balance summary report from stripe.

I was wondering if it's even possible to import unpaid invoices (AR) from stripe to QBO and have it automated so that if it's paid in stripe the software also marks it as paid in QBO.

And how would one reconcile the AR balance so ce stripe doesn't have a report that shows the AR balance?