• Review user preferences

• Establish and set up security settings

• Answer questions about set-up issues

• Review set-up start date

Review equity section of balance sheet appropriate to the tax entity type

• Corporations, either:

  • C corporations and accounts for loans to and from shareholders

  • S corporations, with distribution and equity contribution accounts for each shareholder and accounts for loans to and from shareholders

• Domestic California and foreign (U.S. non-California) LLCs, and accounts for loans to and from members

  • Multiple member, with distribution and equity contribution accounts for each member,

  • Single member, with appropriate facilitation for reporting on form 1040, Schedule C for tax purposes, and accounts for loans to and from the single member

  • Retained earnings account sometimes included in the QuickBooks chart of accounts is not appropriate

• Domestic California and foreign (U.S. non-California) partnerships

  • Limited partnerships, with distribution and equity contribution accounts for each partner, and accounts for loans to and from partners

  • General partnerships, with distribution and equity contribution accounts for each partner, and accounts for loans to and from partners

  • Retained earnings account sometimes included in the QuickBooks chart of accounts is not appropriate

• Proprietorships (sometimes referred to as DBAs)

  • With distribution and equity contribution accounts for the proprietor, and accounts for loans to and from the proprietor

  • Retained earnings account sometimes included in the QuickBooks chart of accounts is not appropriate

• Enter and review set up of beginning account balances from any prior entity's balance sheet at the date determined by the client or tax preparer in charge

• Customize and review set up of chart of accounts instead of using QuickBooks default list of categories:

  • To match company-specific attributes and business practices

  • To expand categories and descriptions to upgrade standard chart from tax reporting to management-quality level

  • To segregate direct production costs from overhead administrative expenses for better cost control, including the direct and administrative salaries and the bundles of associated employee costs and fringe benefits

  • To establish functional groups of accounts in the chart of accounts to show the total costs by functional group, such as the group of production costs, all direct labor costs, occupancy costs, direct production overhead costs, administration and office operational expenses, financial and management group of expenses, and so on, to show the proportion of costs and expenses by the overall function they are intended to perform

  • To provide the tax preparer with expanded detail on expense categories as an audit deterrent measure

• Establishment, review set up and orientation and training for basic transaction processing in QuickBooks bookkeeping software, including:

  • Establishment, review set up, orientation and training for recording unpaid bills (accounts payable) from vendors or suppliers for future payment, and procedure to later pay bills once set up as a bill payable, and pay by due dates or installment payments, as preferred

  • Establishment review set up, orientation and training for recording unpaid sales invoices by customers (accounts receivable), billing, statements, invoicing and recording future receipt of amounts owned by customers, either paid in full or paid in installment payments by the customer

  • Establishment, review set up, orientation and training for paying bills and writing checks directly through the computer and automatically recording in the QuickBooks data base.

  • Establishment, review set up, orientation and training for creating customer invoices directly through the computer and printing computerized customer invoices

  • Establishment, review set up, orientation and training for depositing customer checks directly through the computer and printing computerized deposit slips

  • Establishment, review set up, orientation and training for downloading bank transactions directly into QuickBooks bookkeeping software

  • Establishment, review set up, orientation and training for basic bank reconciliation procedures and processing within QuickBooks bookkeeping software

• Customize and review set up of reports for your type of business and the financial information you need to manage your business

  • Financial statements, including:

    • profit and loss statements (P & L statement), including your choice of:

      • By month, quarter, year-to-date and daily and weekly

      • Prior year comparisons to current year

      • Monthly trend statements this year or last year

    • Balance sheets, showing ending account balances, including your choice of:

      • By month, quarter, year-to-date and daily and weekly

      • Prior year comparisons to current year

      • Monthly trend statements this year or last year

    • Customized statements for segments of the business you want to see

  • In-depth reports showing the individual transactions included in account categories

    • Helps determine the facts for cost controls and determining the best value for your expenditures

    • Confirms the correct categorization of expenses for accurate and reliable financial reporting

  • Sales and revenues arranged in order by customer or client to help you determine:

    • Who are your largest customers by actual sales volume and how they may have changed over time?

    • Are your largest customers receiving the bulk of your attention and resources, and your nurturing to stay loyal?

  • Expenses and costs arranged in order of vendors and suppliers to help you determine:

    • Who are your largest suppliers by actual dollar volume and how they may have changed over time?

    • Are you receiving the type and quality of services and products from these suppliers to justify the purchase volume?

• Review set up and show you how to prepare, read and understand the QuickBooks financial reports on your own

Establish and Review Set Up of Job Cost Accounting

• Job cost accounting set up by appropriate level of categorization

• Add or modify classification settings as appropriate for the company's operations

• Orientation to job costing basics and entry of data to establish the data base for job cost reports

• Set up and customization of basic job cost reports for company-specific attributes

• Identification of vendors, employees and resources for inclusion in job-costing data capture

• Reveals revenue, direct costs and gross profit margin by job, and by extension, by customer or customer type:

  • Analysis and determination of appropriate gross profit margin by the job and, by extension, by the customer

  • Analysis and determination of accurate cost allocations to the job

  • Analysis and determination of sufficient revenue to cover costs and extract an appropriate profit by job or customer

  • Assistance in pricing policy and estimates for future jobs

  • Determination if the company is losing money on certain jobs, which ones, and if the company is making up for it on other jobs, and which of those are subsidizing the losing jobs or customers, and by how much

  • Determination if lower profit jobs are worth keeping, and if so, what is the cost, and by extension, what are the benefits required to justify keeping a sub-standard profitable job (loss leaders, establishing a foot hold in a new industry or customer, public relations, high exposure, future contract prospects, etc.)

$495 flat rate package price covers the above set up tasks as first 4 hours time may permit. Usually, most of these tasks can be accommodated in that time.  If not, additional time for extended set up beyond 4 hours time is available at $95 hourly.

How to Get Help on the Way, Right Away

We can go over all the service options with you during an introductory conversation and give you a free, objective service analysis and estimate.  There is no obligation.  Simply contact us or call and ask for Kathy or Tom at 949-583-1040. 

Coordinated Income Tax Preparation Available

By the way, in case you're considering a change in your tax preparer, we also coordinate our bookkeeping services with income tax preparation and planning through our affiliate, Provident Financial Services.