There are a lot of benefits to trusting a professional bookkeeper to set up QuickBooks Online for your business instead of attempting it yourself. I’ll be the first to admit that, even though I LOVE QuickBooks Online, it’s not always the easiest product to figure out – especially if you’re not technologically savvy.
Have you ever stared blankly at a piece of software and wondered where to start? Yep…that’s QuickBooks in a nutshell for most small business owners.
When it comes to your bookkeeping and finances, accuracy is key. And accuracy, I hate to tell ya, can only be achieved with QBO if it has been set up correctly from the get-go.
There are several reasons why having a bookkeeping pro set up QuickBooks Online for you is a solid investment.
Consistency is Key
Being consistent with your bookkeeping is the #1 most important thing next to accuracy (more on that in a minute). This is often the place where many small business owners get tripped up. This happens for a multitude of reasons but often includes feelings of confusion and also, well, boredom (look, I know bookkeeping isn’t glamorous) – bookkeeping always, always gets kicked to the end of the To-Do list.
The great thing about QuickBooks Online is that you can automate a lot of your expense tracking as well as your invoicing. This makes managing your books a breeze! Hooray for systems + automation!
There are tools and tricks available inside of QuickBooks Online to help put your bookkeeping on autopilot, but...those tools can be tricky to figure out. The platform + software is always changing – trust me, I once spent 3 months developing a QBO course only for the ENTIRE interface to change the day I launched it!
Additionally, if you set up these options incorrectly everything that was on autopilot is going to be – gulp – wrong.
A professional QuickBooks Online Pro Advisor (like – ahem – every single bookkeeper on the Good Cents team!), will be an expert in setting up your QBO properly, so you can rest assure your bookkeeping software is doing what it is supposed to be doing – making your books easy to manage!
Added bonus? A pro should be able to customize QBO for you so it’s a complete and accurate reflection of your business.
A pro quickbooks online set up ensures Accuracy
Told ya it was coming! This one is a given.
As mentioned, QuickBooks Online is a fantastic piece of software. It allows you to automate certain bookkeeping processes, and it makes pulling essential financial reports a breeze.
But here’s the kicker: those financial reports will be rendered utterly meaningless unless the information in those reports is correct.
QBO can’t actually help you if it’s not set up correctly. And even more importantly – if it’s not set up correctly chances are the transactions you input into it will be wrong.
What does this mean?
Well let’s say you input a transaction for $10 that was really a $100 – this mistake means your financial reports will be wrong.
(By the way, if you need help understanding basic financial reports, check out my Chief Wealth Officer course.)
So it’s simple….
Correct setup = correct books.
This is why it’s invaluable to have a pro set up your QuickBooks Online!
Here’s another dirty little secret – and we see this all.the.time. in our office when new clients join us: If your QuickBooks Online is set up wrong, and you have reports that are wrong…guess what? That means your tax return is wrong too. And you know what an incorrect tax return means – it means you are either overpaying taxes (ug!) or underpaying taxes (double ug when the IRS catches up with you.)
A smart business owner says, “No thank you!” To this possibility.
To Save Yourself Money
Put simply: mistakes made when setting up QuickBooks Online for your business are costly to fix.
This is because, when something has been set up wrong, months (or even years) can go by with inaccurate numbers flowing through your QBO. As mentioned, this results in tax fines or penalties, which are costly in and of themselves.
Also, this is your financial life, friend – if you are relying on financial reports to make smart business moves (which you should be) how can you make good choices if the data you are relying on is messy?
Another thing to consider is, the longer your QuickBooks Online continues to function incorrectly, the more time it will take for a professional to come in, pull everything apart, and fix what went wrong.
More time means more work – AKA it’ll be more expensive for YOU to pay to have it corrected.
Think of this like building a house – don’t you want to hire the experienced pro, make sure the house is rock solid, and will last a lifetime? Or do you want to cut corners, end up with all sorts of problems, and end up having to hire the best to come in and fix everything later?
My mother used to say, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.”
She was also lying. This statement is NOT true when it comes to owning your own business. And I have learned that the hard way; there are 1,000 things I should have delegated to other people to save myself stress, money, and time.
Having been an entrepreneur for over 25 years, and having worked with business owners across a WIDE range of industries – I always say that business owners who intimately know and understand their strengths and weaknesses are the most successful.
These are the business owners who understand the value of having things done properly, and they are willing to invest in professionals.
Moreover, you get what you pay for. And if you don’t want to pay to have a professional set up QuickBooks Online set up by a professional, there’s always going to be a risk that costly mistakes will be made.
If you need help with setting up your QuickBooks Online, check out our Very Important Bookkeeping Day! Your growing business will thank you in the long run for having a solid bookkeeping system that you can count on.
P.S. This posts contains affiliate links for products we love!
