Choosing the Right Bookkeeping Software
Being a bookkeeper is hard work, and each day is filled with a lot of decisions. As an employee, you have to decide: How to record transactions When to file returns How to present the latest numbers And on, and on As a freelancer or business owner, you have even more decisions to make. What […]
3 Benefits to Bookkeeper Certification
Almost six years ago, I wrote about bookkeepers getting certified. I gave it another read, and mostly agree with what I said before. My thoughts were more focused on whether I should be a “certified bookkeeper” of some type. To quickly recap, being a bookkeeper in Canada doesn’t require a specific degree or certification. I […]
Why Bookkeepers Should Go Back To School: (Part 2 – The Software)
Welcome to Week 2 of our Back to School month. Last week we talked about how to improve your core bookkeeping skills. This week I’d like to focus on the tools we use to get our work done. More specifically, how to get some app-specific training so you can get the most out of the […]
Switching to QuickBooks Online
I’m finally making the move to QuickBooks Online!
At least I’m going to give it a real effort. One of my clients was interested in moving things online. We’ve been using QuickBooks desktop since Day 1, so switching to QBO made the most sense. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this is really my only regular QB desktop client. I have some that I do year end work with, but in terms of daily bookkeeping…this is the last of its kind. (please read that last part in your best Sean Connery voice)
I know what you’re saying. Yes, I’m really late to the party here. It’s kinda like having someone come up to you and tell you how they just discovered Mumford & Sons. I was just sent a press release from Intuit that shows that QBO has just surpassed 1 million users. Being the 1,000,001th of anything doesn’t get you cutting edge status so I’m aware that my indie cred is taking a real beating here today.
Bookkeeping and Technology: Part 2: My Setup
This is the second post in my series about bookkeeping and technology. Last time I wrote about the early days of moving my business online. Today I’d like to talk about the tech I use and how it has changed the way I run my business. For the sake of brevity we’ll stick to what I use for client bookkeeping.
My basic criteria:
If my client is going to be using it, I want the interface clean and simple. There should be as little industry jargon as possible.
Is this a slight on my clients? Of course not.
My job as a bookkeeper isn’t just to record business data and generate reports. My job is to make that part of an owner’s business as simple as possible. I want my client to worry as little as possible about entering data so they can get back to doing what they do best.
Should bookkeepers be certified?
I know I have mentioned this at least 153 times…but I’m Canadian. And, as a Canadian, we bookkeepers don’t require any type of official certification in order to start working. Sadly, you probably don’t even need to know how to spell bookkeeper before you start charging people to do their books. Let’s not forget the […]
CSV2QBO
This week I’m sharing some of my favourite utilities. On Monday I shared my love of ChronoMate. Today we’re going to talk about a little app called CSV2QBO. This is definitely one of those apps that does one thing well. This is about as niche as you can get. What is it? CSV2QBO is a […]
5 Things You Give Up When You Move Your Bookkeeping Online
I made a big jump back in 2010. I decided to try out a few online bookkeeping services…just for fun. I had never considered them a viable alternative to my QuickBooks, but thought it would be an interesting experiment. Fast forward almost 4 years and I’m using Xero, Freshbooks, Kashoo, and Wave every day. I […]
QuickBooks Tip – Keyboard Shortcuts
Despite the surge of cloud based accounting software, I know many of you are still using offline desktop applications. For me, my weapon of choice is QuickBooks. One of the major reasons I still like using QuickBooks is speed. No matter how many bells and whistles an online service adds, it still can’t replicate the […]
A Better Way to Track GST on Meals in QuickBooks.
I briefly touched on this previously, but I thought this was so clever that it needed its own post. For the most part, handling taxes is simple, especially in a full bookkeeping app like QuickBooks. You simply enter the total expense, choose the tax rate, and the software does the rest for you. Meals, on […]