In this episode, I discuss business bank accounts, the Quickbook accounting software, and payroll systems. I share recommendations for finding a bank, tips to know if the bank fits your business needs, and strategies for choosing the right accounting software. I also talk about how you can choose the right payroll software for your needs. Tune in to learn more!
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What is BookSight?
your weekly Bookkeeping and small business podcast with a unique perspective. Join Taylor Arndt as she talks about being a blind Bookkeeper.
Episode 4 - Transcription
Intro: Welcome to Booksight, a weekly podcast dedicated to accounting, bookkeeping, and small business tasks. Here's your host Taylor Arndt
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Booksight Episode Four. Wow, it has been a week, I've had a lot going on. And it's just been absolutely crazy with an impending winter storm in Texas. Down here in Texas, it has been a lot less snowy, no snow, but it's still been very cold. So we'll just hope that our power grid decides to get a hold up, that would be helpful. But apart from my news, we've gotten a lot on the accounting and bookkeeping front as well.
So before I get into everything on the bookkeeping and accounting front, what I want to do is I want to talk about our sponsor, and our sponsor is Taylor financial services. It's almost tax time. And that means that it's really about time that you get your books in order. If you are thinking right now that you need to spend your entire Christmas break getting your books in order because you haven't done throughout the year, then I think it's about time that you find a bookkeeper. And if you think that your employee payroll reports haven't been reconciled all year, I also think it's time for you to find a bookkeeper and a payroll specialist like myself who can assist you with these tasks year round. That way, you don't have to spend time away from your family, reconciling your reports, and you can focus on what you do best.
So I've got a lot of different topics that I want to go ahead and go through this week. And I really want to talk about the new year because a new year is upon us. And with a new year comes a new opportunity to improve processes. As entrepreneurs, we all know how hard process improvements and changes can be in trying to work in our business. But I think the beginning of the year is a great time to evaluate our processes. So in this episode, I'm going to be talking about everything from business bank accounts, to payroll systems and everything else in between, maybe accounting software, and also website vendors. So it's going to be a jam packed episode.
The first fundamental part of the equation of your business is your bank account. Having a great bank account can make or break your business literally, or in my case, this week, make or break your QuickBooks, let me explain. I've got a client who has a QuickBooks file. And they also have a bank that I'm not going to name. So we're just gonna call this a bank. And I was doing some reconciliation trying to prepare for tax time, and getting everything ready for a CPA. And I noticed that her bank feed disconnected. This is not something that doesn't surprise me, right? This always happens about every day or two. But I'm like, Well, okay, I guess I'll reconnect the bank feed. Little did I know, when I reconnected the bank feed, I was gonna be in a world of hurt. So I reconnected the bank feed. And I'm like, Hmm, I don't see any transactions here. This is strange. I looked in the excluded, I looked in the deleted, I looked in all my different tools or reclassified transactions, then like, there's no transactions here. What the heck?
So then I'm like, well, should I do it again? I'm like, wait a second. My Chart of Accounts is gone. And like, oh, is this really what I saw happened? If it is, Oh, crap. I'm in a very bad problem situation right now. Sure enough, my chart of accounts were totally fraudulent. I'm like, Huh? Okay, so apparently, when I reconnected this bank feed, it purged my QuickBooks file. Well, in my mind, I'm thinking, well, this is awesome. Because I know that my client logs into QuickBooks on a regular basis to track reports and things.
And now I'm going to have to tell her that, well, unfortunately, your bank that you are going to have to break up with eventually, which she did, just deleted all of your transactions, that's going to be wonderful. I'm going to have to tell her that but of course, when I did this, it was 11 o'clock at night. So I decided that I wasn't going to tell her till the next morning. So the next morning, I tell her, and I'm like, Hey, by the way, your awesome bank friend decided it was going to delete all your transactions when I had to reconnect yesterday. And now I'm just like, I'm gonna have to manually import everything from July because that's when she had her other bank. So she had another bank that she used for four years, then they decided they were going to be really, really stupid. I don't know the details that was before I came along. And so she switched to another bank.
And this other bank had this problem with QuickBooks. And so then I had to try to re-import everything from July 1. Do it all manually and try to convert everything PDF bank statements, of course, they don't want to give us CSVs because that's just the wonderful thing to do. They want to make it difficult. So they gave me a PDF file which, by the way, is in a very bad Add PDF format, that basically, when I tried to convert it to CSV, it's pretty terrible. So that has been a very fun process. Well, I finally got some things figured out. And I'm gonna go ahead and reconcile the account. But when I went ahead and reconcile the account, I noticed one thing that's very, very bad, I guess you'd say for accessibility. When I recconect the account, if you're an accountant, you know how it goes, you want to look for the blue and green checkmarks, right, you want to see a finger cleared by the bank. That's kind of how you want to do it. You want to see if things are cleared or things are unclear. Well, you know, for us blind users, all's we get from QuickBooks, when we're in the window is just a simple button. That's right, the checkmarks that are supposed to indicate whether they're cleared or unclear, just read the word button.
So Intuit, if you decide that you want to watch this podcast, I would urge you that I think it'd be a great idea to change your labels on your checkmarks for your transactions to indicate to the blind user, that your transactions are either cleared or unclear, because right now, this is a violation of a WCAG guideline for using color alone to indicate the state of the control, and therefore is not accessible. So you know what I have to do when I have to reconcile transactions that are at least $1,000 off or more. I have to play the guessing game. I have to unclick and click checkmarks until I get right. That is a huge time waster. I'm telling you right now, that's a huge time waster.
So QuickBooks, I would urge you to fix that right now. Or at least try to look into it because there's really no way I can reconcile. Now, obviously, there is I just have to play this checkmark and uncheck markdown. But luckily, I get paid to do it. But it's still really annoying. And my clients are paying for any accessibility. So I really encourage you guys to make sure that your software is accessible. And the other thing too, is that whenever I want to see the difference of the balance, I want to make sure it gets to zero, but all I have to do is go to the top of the screen and see the difference. That's right, every time I reconcile a transaction and click those checkbox, it brings me all the way to the bottom. That's fun, right? So I have to go all the way to the top again, and then go to the tables and then try to see my different into it. Wouldn't it be great if we could have an aria-live region that would update the difference every time a checkmark is unchecked? And that might be helpful. Just saying.
So apart from my QuickBooks gripes aside, QuickBooks is still my favorite accounting software, just because they're very committed to accessibility. But if we can make it a little bit more accessible, I'm all for it. So if you are thinking about your processes, and you're thinking that your bank is just not working for you, and you're just having trouble reconciling your accounts, because you have to manually import everything, and well, heaven forbid, your QuickBooks gets purged, every time you reconnect to the bank, it's time for you to find a new bank. Now, how are you going to do that? Well, here's the thing. It's the beginning of the year. So it's a really great time to switch banks, because you don't have a lot of historical data for your new tax So here's what I recommend. If you can start with a new bank at the beginning of the year, step one, step two, find a bank that will meet your needs. Easier said than done. I'll explain that in a minute. Step three, try to get as little fees as possible. Banks can give you fees all the time.year. Make sure they're easy to wave.
Step four, make sure htat your bank has merchant services that could integrate with your existing system. I would hate to switch to a bank and then all of a sudden realize that the merchant services that they want to set me up on have no integration with my accounting software. That just sucks. Yeah, it would, because I've done it before. Don't do that. Step five, make sure that you have a bank that is accessible. What do I mean by that? Well, if you're doing a lot of checks, and you got a lot of checks from clients, and you also have a lot of cash deposits, then you need a bank with branches, you need Chase, Wells Fargo, US Bank, you know, the big giants, or banks that have local branches, or a local credit union. But Step six is that if you have a local credit union, and you travel a lot, that might not be a great idea because of the ATM access.
Now, a lot of credit unions are part of a shared ATM branch network between a bunch of credit unions. But still, it could be a lot harder to try to find an ATM if you're out somewhere, then if you have a bigger bank. So with everything is side, banks can make or break your business. And just because you bank with a bank, that is a good personal fit. Does that mean that it's a great business fit? So let me explain. There are banks out there that are specialized in personal financial wealth, think of an Edward Jones or some kind of bank that you know specializes in personal wealth management. Do you think that their staff or their financial advisors are going to have the expertise to help your business grow and succeed? Do you think that they're going to Have the features needed for a bank for a business owner? Probably not. If you want a wealth management solution that is geared for people instead of businesses, then that won't be very helpful as you're going to not have the features you need to run a successful business.
Also, the staff aren't going to really understand what it's like to run a business because probably a lot of them don't. So what I would say is choose a bank that specializes in business. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, obviously, a lot of our banks have business bankers, right, you know, your Chases, and Wells Fargo's and Bank of America and all that stuff. But if it's just like a small bank, you want to make sure that they have the knowledge to help you with your business banking needs, and ask questions, you know, talk on the phone before you even go into a bank and set up an appointment, ask them fundamental questions.
Ask them questions such as one, how much are your fees? Two, how can I waive the fees? Three? Do you have merchant services? Like I talked about earlier? Four, who are your merchant services provided through? Five, do you have other business services such as insurance or other discount programs? Because a lot of them do. Six, do you have a POS or point of sale system that if I'm a brick-and-mortar business, I can integrate with very important just like merchant services? Seven, do you have 24-hour customer support or customer support accessible in case there's a problem? Eight, you want to ask about the time when you can book an appointment, because if they're gonna say, oh, you can't book it for a few more weeks, because our Vice President of Business Operations is gone? Well, chances are that they only have a single point of contact for business banking. And that would not be a good solution, as there would only be one person in that organization who handles businesses.
You want to make sure that you can get an appointment sooner than later. Because number one, you want to get a new way. Number two, you want to make sure that no matter what no matter who's in, or who's out, you can get the help you need. And I would also ask questions, you know, when I get there, or even before about, you know, can my employees have a debit card, because if you've got employees, and they are going to be buying things for your business, it's very important that they have a debit card, or some way to be able to purchase things. Yes, you can do reimburses and things. But that just makes it a lot more tedious on the accounting. So speaking from an accounting perspective, if you've got a lot of different things that you're trying to do, and you want to make sure that your employees can purchase products, see if the banks will allow you debit cards for your employees, I know that Chase does. And that's actually very, very useful. And I would also ask about virtual and physical debit cards. Because you know that way, if you want to have them on like your Apple Pay, or Google Pay or other things, you need to have a bank that is versatile, and their app is working properly.
So now that you got your new bank, you're pretty much feeling all happy and things, you connected it to your QuickBooks, it's not purging your quickbooks file, which is always great. And seeing very stable ly connected. Next thing is you need to decide your payroll software. So if you're really unhappy with your payroll software, and you're thinking, well, it's really time for a change. And I don't know what I'm going to do, I would advise you start thinking about it right now. Because here's the thing, January is the best time to switch payroll software, not in the middle of the year. Not whenever you feel like it, but January 1 of the Year, preferably you want to start the process, like in December, because here's the thing, trying to switch payroll software is an absolute royal pain in the butt, because then you have to try to import old records, and then your employees have to resign up, and my employer right now is actually doing the same exact thing. So for my full-time job, we were using Insperity. We're using ADP now. But they went ahead and started it now because it's the beginning of the year in January that way we could have everything for next year. And that way, we wouldn't possibly get 2W2S. Wouldn't that be a pain in the butt? Yeah, I think it would.
So to avoid having 2W2s, or other tax forms and to avoid having to import things I would recommend starting your payroll search early if you want to change in 2023. Now, what I look for when I want to switch payroll systems, well, that's a really great thing to ask. So, payroll again can be a royal pain in the butt. But here's what I recommend. First, go with what your accountant recommend, right? Your accountant or bookkeeper. If they do payroll, they understand how payroll works and they've got a preferred system. For me personally, I prefer QuickBooks payroll over a lot of the competition. And here's why. Number one, I know the back end interface is accessible. Being a bi-bookkeeper I've got a unique perspective. Being that I have to use the back end to issue paychecks and issue 1099 forms and issue you know pay stubs and things I want to make further As the back end is accessible. Also, it's integrated with my accounting software.
Now I know a lot of people who use Xero and Fresh Books are going to turn around and tell me to my face right now that I shouldn't use QuickBooks payroll, because if I wanted to switch accounting systems, then I couldn't do that because QuickBooks payroll only integrates with QuickBooks. And that I say, Yes, I understand that. But here's the thing, if I want to switch accounting systems, I will do that beginning of the year, too. So, you know, that's just something else to keep in mind. But here's the thing. I'm very happy with QuickBooks payroll, and I understand there's others like gusto and things out there as well. But QuickBooks payroll integrates with QuickBooks. Also, you know, since I am an accountant, I get free access to payroll because I'm a QuickBooks account user. And that's just what I get.
But what I never recommend my clients who sign up for a company users to get free payroll, absolutely not, do not do that. Do not ever do that. Because that's just taking advantage of the system. QuickBooks Online accountant is meant for accountants, not meant for business owners who want to try to cheat the system, I know, I'm probably gonna get a lot of messages on my message box that says, oh, you should know, don't do it. Because I'm telling you, they will crack down on it, they will crack down on people trying to create free accounts, just to get free payroll and free into QuickBooks. Don't do it. So make sure that you don't do that. But also, it's pretty affordable. And for accounting users who are doing it legitimately, you can be able to invite your client and get a 30% discount if you're a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. So if you really want someone and you want a discount, I'd recommend going through a pro advisor instead of doing it for yourself illegally. That's just what I recommend. You will do what you please.
But the thing is that QuickBooks payroll it's pretty affordable. Yes, it may have some problems. And yes, customer support may not be as great as some of the other competition. But here's the thing that I like, number one, if you are very tax afraid, or you're very afraid of the IRS, I know a lot of people are sometimes I am because I'm like, oh boy, what are they gonna do me now, if you will, whether elite plan, they have got a $25,000 tax penalty protection. What does that mean? While the IRS comes knocking on your door, and they're like, hey, you need to pay some employment taxes. And here's a notice, well, Intuit will go fight on your behalf. And they'll go tell the IRS Well, no, they don't. Or maybe they do, but they will help reimburse 25,000 or up to 25,000. I believe that number eight in payroll tax liabilities, since you paid for the elite plan, I believe, again, I'll put a link in the show notes to check the exact compensation. But if you are really afraid of the IRS, and you just want it to be dealt with, and you don't want to have to do a bunch of tax hefty penalties, then I would recommend using the elite plan, and even more expensive but again, if you're a lot more tax afraid and conscious, then I'd recommend doing that.
But also you get a free time tracker called QuickBooks time, it used to be called Tea sheet, QuickBooks time is a great time tracker, I use it all the time. And basically, you can have your employees track time for their jobs. And even if you're on like a, you know, jobs really like on a construction site, they can log their location total geofence it to make sure that they're actually tracking time instead of tracking time going to their house. So you can actually have a geofence around the worksite, you can actually look at where they're tracking time at which is very helpful. And you can also integrate it with payroll. So QuickBooks payroll is my preferred vendor. Now, having said that, though, I understand that QuickBooks payroll isn't for everyone. There are also other options like gussto, ADP, and paychecks.
What I will say is ADP, is more suited for larger businesses. All the ADP employees are going to argue with me about that one. But here's the thing. In order to get ADP setup, you have to contact ADP for a quote. That means that you have to go through this sales process, and you got to talk to someone on the phone for maybe 30 minutes. And then they'll finally tell you an amount per month, I think that's just a pain in the butt. Now, wouldn't it be easier if you could just go on a website like QuickBooks or gusto or others, and just have upfront transparent pricing, especially if you're a one-person operation, maybe you're on an S corp, and you need payroll? Well, that's why I would say ADP is not for you.
But if you've got you know, a lot of employees and maybe 20 to 30, or maybe more and you've got international employees, that's really where ADP shines. Because at my job right now for where I work full time, we've got a lot of international. And so ADP is really great for that because it helps with international employee. So ADP is a good system. But again, it's not for everyone. Neither is any of these payroll systems. If you're going to switch payroll systems, you want to do it at the beginning of the year, and you want to make sure that you have everything ready by January one to use your new payroll system. The next thing you maybe want to decide is I want to switch my accounting software for whatever reason, I'm just not happy with that software. I'm just Well, I don't know, QuickBooks has given me trouble, or I've heard about Fresh Books, and I want to try it. Well, here's what I recommend. Number one, figure out if your new accounting software is going to fit your needs fresh books, well, it's very intuitive and simple and seamless, doesn't fit everyone's needs. If you're a product-based business FreshBooks will not be for you. It's a service-based business kind of software. So you want to make sure that your new accounting software will fit your needs. Also, Fresh Books, invoices per clients. And you know, it could get really expensive for less features. So in particular, like I said, if you're not that happy, or maybe you want to switch to zero, which is more comparable to QuickBooks, again, I like zero, you know, I like it. But honestly, for me, the accessibility is. And when I went to the roadshow in Austin, you know, spoke to the zero team, they're like, hey, we'll fix accessibility when we get to it. So for that reason, I don't really like zero that much QuickBooks for the wind. I know, QuickBooks has a lot of other problems with Intuit and trying to compete with us.
But again, I say that the most important factor for me as a blind bookkeeper is accessibility. So I will stand behind my promise with Intuit, and I will give them money, because they're making their stuff accessible. And again, FreshBooks is true, but FreshBooks is not for everyone. And they even admit that FreshBooks isn't for everyone. So that's super important, because they admit to like, hey, FreshBooks is not for everyone. So if you're gonna switch accounting software, number one, you want to make sure that it's actually going to fit your needs. Number two, you want to do at the beginning of the year, easiest thing to do, right, because you already have your taxes done, and, or maybe you know, you got your tax data and you're going to switch for New Year, you also want to make sure that you have a new way to invoice because for me, I'm going to be getting a new client portal practice management system. And so I want to make sure that I have a great way to invoice but I want to do that beginning of the year and warn people.
Now, let's talk about websites for a second because accounting software, we've got that done right, we talked about how we're going to do that. But we need to talk about websites because if you're going to be getting a new website, you want to try to plan that out, you don't really need to plan it out beginning of the year, like you do other things. But if you're getting a practice management software, that is something you need to plan out, because that way your clients know the beginning of the year, you're getting a new software, and here's how it's going to work. So for me, I'm going to be trying out a new software called Liscio. I'm going to put a link in the show notes. But basically, it's a cloud practice management software for accountants and bookkeepers. And I've actually got a sales call tomorrow with a rep. And I'm going to be giving them a whole bunch of questions. I'm going to be asking them about accessibility. And I'm going to be given them, you know, my thought. They already know that I'm blind because I wrote a huge like warm bio thing in the calendar and invite.
But basically, I'm going to be doing that. And I just want to do that beginning of the year. So that way, they all know that, hey, I'm going to be getting a new system. And that's how the invoicing is going to work through Liscio, as well as the time tracking. It's basically a project management system for accountants. Now the other thing I like about it, too, is it's a password manager for accountants as well. So basically, your clients can be able to add passwords, and you can add passwords. It's like a mutual one password, but for accounts, right. iIt's got account-level security and that kind of thing. Also, if you want to send tax returns, or you need to send tax returns, that's very important because I know that I don't want to send tax returns through Dropbox. That does not sound good or secure.
So Liscio is going to be a great way to do that. Now, why am I going to be doing Liscio if I'm going to be using CPA Site solution, because they already were practice management software? Well, folks, I hate to break it to you. But unfortunately, my relationship with CPA Site Solutions had end. And so here's the thing, I was on the call with a rep the other day, and they basically are like Taylor, your site's about ready to go live. I said, Oh, yeah. I said, Well, there's about 20 or 30 accessibility problems. How do you want to address those? They're like, we're gonna add us your way on your site. I said, Well, did not say that. When I set up this website. I said, I'm not going to use your way because it'll just make it worse. And that will be a well, it'll be a shin because I work in the accessibility industry. So basically, they went back on their promises.
They said, Oh, yeah, well, we're gonna use your way anyway said, well, Oh, yeah. I said, if you're going to do that, then I'm not going to give you my money. I just put it flat out of that. I said, you don't deserve my money if you guys are gonna back up on your promises and tell me one thing and deliver another. So I was very nice and very cordial about it. But I said, I'm sorry, but this relationship is not going to work out. Which means that I'm going to be getting a website through WordPress like I had originally intended through a new vendor of course. But I'm going to be using a cloud practice management software to supplement the client portal that I'd be missing in the first place. So that's why a Liscio is going to be hopefully, in the cart, they don't have an accessibility overlay on their website. So at least they're doing somewhat better, we'll see if they actually can deliver. But that's why I'm gonna have a meeting with a sales rep tomorrow. But I'm going to actually be saving about 40 bucks a month. So I'm actually pretty happy that it did this, but it's still a pain in my butt.
The other thing that these practice management software have is they have the ability to take payments, so like ACH and that kind of thing. And the way that they told me is that ACH is only $1. So that'll be really nice to be able to handle that. Because that way, I could just do ACH, and I could do recurring retainers for $1. That'll be nice. So long story short, if you want to do new practice management software, go ahead and do that at the beginning of the year.
Well, folks, I think that'll do it for this episode. I know it was pretty long-winded and a lot of information. But what I would say is, now's a great time to look at your business, look at your processes, see where you can automate, see what things you should probably clean up, and just kind of take an inventory, you know, do an audit of your business. Now, of course, if you're in tax season, you don't have a lot of time to do that, then maybe you shouldn't, right, because if you're doing a bunch of tax returns, and maybe, you know, you shouldn't. But really, this advice is for bookkeepers and others who don't really have a huge busy season. I mean, they do we do, right? But it's not like an entire thing where it would be for like public accounting firms. So what I would say is to use this advice at your own discretion. But if you're gonna do things like this, I recommend doing it beginning of the year if you can, because it just makes things a lot easier. But again, that's really all I have for this episode. If you have any feedback, I'd love to hear it and well have a great holiday everyone and we will talk next week.
Outro: Thank you for tuning in to the Booksight podcast. You can find show notes, transcripts and ways to support the show @booksight.net. Let's get social follow us on Twitter at booksight pod and like us on Facebook at booksight podcast. You can also connect with us on Mastodon at accounting.social. Our host Taylor Arndt is on Twitter at Tayardnt and her website is at tayfinance.com. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a review and let us know what you thought. We'll be back next week with more tips and insights on accounting, bookkeeping, and Small Business.