154 | [Q&A] QBO Integrations, Cyber Security, and More

On Epsisode 154 I’m sharing another Q&A from the archives!

You’ll hear me answer questions and jam on topics like:

• Cybersecurity
• Setting up a small practice
• switching clients from month to month from a catch up
• the importance of locking previous periods (are you doing this for your clients?!)
• various integration discussions, and
• the possibility of planning a XeroCon Meetup

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Transcript

3:12

Hello hello welcome to our June live Q& A So yeah I will get started whatever you have questions about whether it's mindset whether it's client communication pricing services anything is on the table I did get a question the other day about Cybersecurity and file management slash backing up files so we do have an older podcast episode that I did way towards the beginning of the podcast with Jock Walls where we did talk about insurance and cyber security and cyber insurance and things like that I always recommend once you get your first client you sign up for cyber insurance and professional liability insurance you don't need it until you have your first client so it's a good idea to at least get quotes before you sign that first client and then pull the trigger on your insurance when you do land that first client the other recommendation I have is to actually be aware of the scams and things that are happening and take webinars and all that kind of stuff on cybersecurity generally your cyber insurance will host classes on this and if you have a team it's very imperative that your team also take these trainings and understand phishing scams and things like that because scammers are getting really really sophisticated and I have multiple stories of people that have gotten scammed just especially if you manage payables for clients being very very skeptical and thorough when you're getting emails requesting money or or changing bank account information things like that because that's how they that's how they get you um as far as backing up files we pay for an additional service that is included in our pricing and packaging for clients all of our clients once we sign them on we sign up for this service called Export My Data which links to Xero there's other services that link to QuickBooks and we actually have backups run through that service every week that is because Xero doesn't actually and QuickBooks doesn't either they don't actually do backups of your data if you need to like rewind something so I layer that added security in and I just it's a cost of doing business it's like 10 per client I think for the Xero version and the program that we're using but it just runs in the background once we link our clients to it so if ever needed we can pull a backup yes you can do those things manually you could manually backup all of your client's data even on the cloud if you wanted to but like who has time for that? that's my little spiel on cyber security and data as far as file sharing make sure you're using something like the business version of Google Drive and make sure that whatever services you're using they have SOC 2 reports and that I believe I have a podcast episode about that from early on or at least a blog so all right questions in the chat yay I will be starting a new client in the next couple of weeks they have paychecks and run toast how should I handle these clients and receiving the reports for these or do they merge to QuickBooks? I know paychecks does sync with QuickBooks you will have to request that the client add you as an accountant so that you can manage the integration and then I'm not sure on Toast I've never handled that if anyone else has handled that please chime in in the chat also you feel free to post in the Facebook group to see if anyone else has experience with that also a quick Google search with like looking on the Toast website of with their support documentation of if they have an integration with QuickBooks is a good idea I'm a firm believer of understanding how the integration is supposed to work before actually connecting it because if it's going to feed every single transaction over to QuickBooks I don't recommend connecting an integration if it's feeding over maybe the daily receipts or The lump sum deposits or something that's one thing but when it starts doing every single transaction it can become quite a mess So that's my recommendation on that michelle says Have you used the new QuickBooks ledger plan? What can you tell us about it? What does it does and doesn't do? How best to use it? I have not used it I don't have I only have one client on QuickBooks it's not on the ledger plan but if it's anything like the the ledger plan for Xero it's typically used as and don't quote me on this because I haven't gone in gone through any training for the QuickBooks ledger plan but if it's anything like the Xero one it's really intended to be used as a write up service like a maybe year end or month end where You're just doing like a one time entering all the transactions after the fact and not matching receipts and things like that sometimes they connect with bank feeds I'm not sure if that one does but I would go through the QuickBooks training on the ledger plan to see how it's intended to use that's always my recommendation for software don't rely necessarily on Other third party courses that show you how to do stuff because for all of your training at least I would still start with the help documentation and the training provided by the software provider to see how it's intended to use it and then tweak it for your industries or your process or whatever because those those programs change so often now with cloud software that when someone creates a program about how to use a software like by the time it launches it's usually a little bit obsolete or there's changes to the interface or functionality and so the best place to start is always with that actual software provider and their trainings yeah yes Yesenia that would be my recommendation is doing a monthly report and then doing a journal entry every month for point of sale stuff if you're not sure on how the integration works or you don't want to mess with it getting messy we do that with a couple of clients in Shopify ones that have like minimal transactions and we don't really need to pay for an integration so yeah that's always a good good option especially if the client's not looking at their books every week to see where things stand most of the time clients they're looking at their point of sale and they already understand their revenue on a weekly basis or even a daily basis from that software I don't really think it's very uh Crucial to have all of that stuff imported real time into QuickBooks or Xero or your accounting software rather let me know in the chat how your summer's going how you're balancing if you have kids at home I've been doing a lot of you know minimal meetings like maybe a couple hours of work in the morning and then taking the afternoons to play with my kids and then working again in the evening when they go to sleep that's what works for me I feel like summer overall is just like way more laid back and hopefully you guys are finding some some time to like relax and take it easy now that tax deadline has passed we do have a September one coming up for anyone that did extensions for S corporations and things like that partnerships and then the October one we still have a couple of clients that we onboarded after the tax deadline who had filed extensions and so we are still doing some 2023 stuff and getting all that squared away this is a really good time to market those types of services for people that like filed an extension and then just kind of like forgot about it letting them know that like now's the time to sign up and sign on and get everything situated before before Q3 and all that good stuff Michelle said I am semi retired and just starting up a small bookkeeping practice I am not particularly interested in growing a large practice none of the trainings podcasts et cetera that I've watched do not address how to run a small practice I'm wondering how to set up a practice with minimal bells and whistles but still have the necessary protections like insurance et cetera that won't cost me more than the income I will generate yeah Michelle I don't know if you've gone through the Bookkeeping Biz workshops yet I'm going to be hosting them again at the end of August and I go through all of that how to set things up with minimal investment all the softwares that I used at the very beginning and I have a small practice too There is a lot out there about like running a large firm or whatever and I do still call my practice a firm but it is small like we have fewer than 20 clients so it's still like it's still a small firm I still use a lot of the systems that I used from the very beginning we're just now starting to outgrow a couple of things so definitely check out the workshops in the meantime I have a checklist that you can go through that's free if you could just go to ambitiousbookkeeper com slash checklist you can download it and it gets you started with all of those things as well so yeah yeah definitely check those resources out Jordan says I have a client who always who's always months behind in providing answers to ask my account questions or transactions this is normal with him but I need to inform him it will be a catch up at that point and not month to month we don't have a signed engagement letter because I started doing his books for him prior to starting my business this client is a family member how do I approach this when I've done it in the past as month to month fee instead of a catch up? So Jordan my question for you is what's the price difference between a catch up and month to month because typically the way that we structure our engagements is if they are signed on as a monthly client even if they're not providing the information monthly they're still paying for the monthly service and the monthly reports and if we can't deliver the monthly reports because they haven't provided answers then they're kind of missing out and they're just paying extra and our catch ups are actually less expensive because it's just like a one time thing right? So I would consider like Maybe thinking about the way you're structuring the pricing and then also what we typically do when people don't answer their Ask My Accountant transactions is we still run their reports and then we point out this is how much is in this bucket and so your reports aren't really valuable until you answer these questions and we just continue to remind them every month month after month and then at the end of the year if it's all piled up then that's usually when they go through it and then they're like Oh my gosh this was this was so crappy I should have been doing this all year so that's one way that you could approach it and just continue to charge them month to month maybe increase the fee a little bit if you want to keep them on as a client I would just seriously have a heart to heart with them as a family member like I've had this situation with a friend who I did bookkeeping for and she was paying me but she wasn't she was doing the same kind of thing and so I was like look dude I want to be able to provide you really good service but it's hard because you're not answering the questions and then my service isn't as valuable so Like either maybe get on board with this or it might be time to find a different bookkeeper or whatever so that would be a way to approach it too it is a little bit It's hard because typically it sounds like the family like when you engage with a family member like this it's like it was at the beginning they're kind of like helping you out starting your business but then they just become kind of burdensome and they don't really treat it like a business relationship because they know you and so that's one of the reasons why I don't prefer to do business with friends and family anymore because it makes it really difficult to have that conversation but you could come back and say Hey like so and so I've super appreciated being able to do your bookkeeping having you help me get my business off the ground I really appreciate it I'm I'm implementing some policies and procedures just as I grow and I want to make sure that All my clients are treated the same and I'm going to have you sign an engagement letter to keep everything like above board and this is my request for getting answers back to us and this is the price and are you okay with it or would you like help finding a new bookkeeper type of situation? unfortunately like doing business you're not gonna get around having difficult conversations so the sooner you rip off that band aid the better but you don't have to like go into that type of a conversation not prepared I would write down Kind of how you want to structure the conversation do some bullet points do some meditation or whatever like whatever you have to do it's still going to be uncomfortable but you don't have to like just go in blindly you can actually prepare for a conversation like that and and it'll be a good learning experience so oh it's a brother awesome yeah I don't know how how close you are or whatever but and then it's also one of those things like how if you feel like it would you know damage your relationship with your brother? Like is it worth making us think about it or or whatever? It might be worth to just be like Hey bro like I think because like we have a hard time with like the month to month communication and I'm not getting the information I need I'm going to move you to an annual engagement and this is going to be what I charge for that and then you don't have to worry about questions throughout the year but just a heads up it's going to be probably a lot at the end of the year for you to ask a bunch of questions so you could either answer them every month or every quarter or you could wait until the end of the year and be stressed about it so that's how I would approach it with my brother anyways How do I clean up two transactions in QuickBooks from three years ago sitting in the bank rack without messing up closed books? So This might be one of the pitfalls of QuickBooks is when you void something I don't know if it voids it on current today's date or if it backdates it to like the original transaction so what I would do is I would actually create a journal entry to basically reverse that transaction so drill into those transactions and do a screenshot of them or whatever to keep as your proof and instead of coding your journal entry to reverse out whatever expense it was or whatever unless it was a balance sheet account if those checks are coded to balance sheet accounts then you can reverse out the you know They were owner's contributions so then yeah then I would just do a journal entry to debit cash to reverse that and credit owner contributions that should be the correct thing and then on the current bank reconciliation check them both off they should wash each other out and then you've cleared them them both if that makes sense so yeah one side of the journal entry will be that checking account or bank account and then the other side will be whatever the transaction was for as well and then on the description I would just say to void XYZ transaction and clear it off if it were an expense account or a revenue account that's still outstanding from prior years you would want to adjust that to retained earnings and that would be like a prior period adjustment When you are done with a year in QBO do you do anything to close that year? Yes I lock it so no one can put any transactions to it we actually lock periods after we've completed month end as well just to make sure nothing ever gets posted to prior months unless we know it's going to happen then we have to lock it like intentionally unlock the period and post it to lock a period in QuickBooks you go to account settings advanced I believe and then there should be a section to lock period and we always put a password on it so that our clients can't post anything to prior periods unless they know the password in Xero you can't password protect it but in QuickBooks you can it's a good practice to get into that's part of our month end checklist that we lock the period that way nothing gets posted accidentally cause it's really easy to like enter an invoice to a prior period especially if you're like using Hubdoc or Dext and it just automatically Pulls the invoice date if it pulls a prior year it'll post it and you won't really realize it until after the fact and there's really not much worse as a tax preparer when you like get the trial balance for the new year and prior year balances have changed from when you closed things out last year so yeah definitely recommend incorporating that into your processes if anyone is planning on being at XeroCon please let me know I would love to meet you there it's in Nashville this year I think there's still tickets if you want to get one I'm bringing my whole entire team so if you want to meet everybody behind the brand we'll try to do some sort of a meetup or something we're kicking off the Bookkeeping Biz workshops at the end of August so if you have a friend that has been asking you about starting a bookkeeping business or maybe you are the friend that's trying to start the bookkeeping business I highly encourage you to join that What do I do if I can't find the matches for the other Gusto journal entries? Okay so there are entries that are posted in QuickBooks go into Gusto to look at the history to make sure that those are valid and if you still can't find anything I would make sure none of those are duplicated from the integration if you can use a little search function to search that amount to see if anything else with that amount pops up and if you still can't find a match into the bank statement for those Gusto transactions I would consider yeah you would have to make sure that they're not duplicates before you just remove them but I would drill into the transactions in Gusto to see what they were and if they were supposed to even have been imported sometimes they're not so yeah I can't really say for sure without like going through the transactions with you but Hopefully you can find a match and if not then you may have to avoid them but I would be weary of giving you that advice without really verifying that they're not duplicated yeah one last question do you know anyone that is familiar with the integration between Square and QBO? Everyone says to unlink and do a JE but I want to try to continue with what they have set up you can if you're in the Ambitious Bookkeeper Facebook group I would post in there because there's probably someone in there i think back in the day I had a client that had Square connected so you just want to make sure that you again go through the help documentation for the Square integration and make sure it's set up correctly qBO I would start with that I don't know what your struggle is with it if you're already having issues with things matching or or whatnot but I would start with that alrighty everyone thank you so much oh it's a mess yeah then I would probably unlink it and do a journal entry as well and like remove all the transactions that I fed in through Square all right I'm going to close it down I hope you all have a wonderful July everyone have a great summer bye