Although there are other programs that can be used to track the finances of smaller business ventures, QuickBooks is the market leader by an enormous margin and, as such, cannot be dismissed a priori by smaller-scale entrepreneurs and their bookkeepers and accountants. Even if you end up choosing another alternative for the business side of your business such as NetSuite, Freshbooks, Zoho, or Patriot, you’ll still need to investigate QuickBooks. And, if the market data are to be trusted, you may well find in it the bookkeeping solution you need for your burgeoning enterprise.
You should be aware from the outset that there are two versions of QuickBooks and that they are so different as to make it a fair statement that Intuit makes two different bookkeeping products. QuickBooks Pro/Premier/Enterprise (the name changes as the organizations the software covers grow in size) is a desktop-based accounting solution that keeps your data where you can see them. The other version, QuickBooks Online, is cloud-based software that scatters your data to the four winds, but allows you to access them from anywhere. Of the two, the online version is easier to learn, but it has fewer features than the desktop version. Therefore, before you select a means of learning QuickBooks, you should do some research and determine which version will be of greater benefit to you and your business or career. At present, Intuit itself seems to be giving an edge to the online version, but the desktop version has no shortage of loyal adherents and, unless Intuit is lying, isn’t set to be going anywhere anytime soon, at least not in the United States.
You’re a Small Business Owner and Have Books to Keep
The first group of people who have to consider whether or not to learn to use QuickBooks are the small business owners whose businesses have grown big enough to require bookkeeping software. The smallest single-proprietorship enterprises that provide straightforward services to a small group of customers can generally get by with very simple bookkeeping means indeed. Keeping a small client list straight in your head and totaling up a few 1099s in late March can be done by using individual tax preparation software. Although it’s now owned by H.I.G. Capital rather than Intuit, QuickBooks did initially spring from tax-preparation software Quicken, which still exists and is more than powerful enough to add those 1099s together and itemize a few home-office deductions.
With time, your business will grow, and you’ll need more than your memory and software such as Quicken. This is especially true if your company sells a physical product, as such businesses, even in their infancy, are going to have things to track such as vendors, overhead, and inventory. Once you have a smattering of customers, invoices to organize, and bank accounts to manage, you’re going to need a product like QuickBooks or one of its competitors to keep it all straight.
One version or the other of QuickBooks will very likely suit your needs as your business expands. You’ll have to decide between the two: do you want to have your records on your computer and the added functionality of the desktop version of QuickBooks, or do you want to be able to check balances on-the-fly and accept payments in Ether? There’s also the question of what kind of a learning curve you want to surmount: the more challenging one for the desktop software, or the steeper but easier-to-negotiate one that goes with QuickBooks Online? You should also bear in mind the direction in which you hope your business will grow, so that you can make your decision between the two versions with a longer-range picture of your bookkeeping needs.
Despite the fact that neither version of QuickBooks is as easy to learn as Candy Crush, it is designed for the accounting laity, and you should be able to learn to use it to manage your own business’s finances. In the early phases of starting a business, money is going to be tight, and you won’t have the luxuries of working nine-to-five or maybe even of an overworked assistant. Once you’ve learned QuickBooks, you’ll be able to use it by yourself: being your own bookkeeper is economical, and it gives you complete control over the money coming in, the money going out, and where the money sleeps at night.
Moreover, knowing how to use QuickBooks will continue to be helpful when your business reaches the stage at which you’ll no longer be able to manage the books by yourself because there’s only so much that any single human (and an overworked assistant) can do. If you have a lot of customers, their accounts need to be serviced as well as kept, and you’re probably more irreplaceable in the former capacity. This is the stage at which you engage a bookkeeper to keep the books, and at which your knowledge of QuickBooks allows you to oversee the bookkeeper’s efforts and keep tabs from afar on how much money you have in the till. While there are small business owners who are more or less illiterate when it comes to accounting and who leave all the bookkeeping duties to hired bean counters, that’s not the most intelligent way to manage the finances of what is, after all, your company. QuickBooks is not only capable of growing with your organization: it’s capable of growing with you and making you a smarter business owner.
You’re Looking to Start a Career As a Bookkeeper
Not all people who use QuickBooks are entrepreneurs. And not all entrepreneurs can keep their own books, sometimes because they don’t want to, sometimes because they lack the know-how, and sometimes because they’re too busy with other aspects of their business.
This is where the professional bookkeeper comes in and takes charge of the onerous tasks associated with knowing how much money there is, was, and will be. Although it means adding someone to your payroll, needing a bookkeeper is a sign that your business is expanding in the right direction.
Professional, capable, and honest bookkeepers are indeed in-demand: there’s a YouTube commercial making the rounds that claims that you can make $150,000 a year by starting a boutique bookkeeping business. Before you get too excited, the commercial not entirely factually touts a Forbes article that concentrates more on how to set up a bookkeeping business than it does on the making $150,000 part.
Bookkeeping is painstaking work (it’s a good fit for people who are detail-oriented), and the bookkeeper plays a crucial role in a small business. In fact, one of the first people to be brought in as a business grows is a bookkeeper. And, although you don’t want it to come to that, if a company is winding up, the last people to go are the bookkeepers and accountants.
United States Bureau of Labor Statistics figures from 2021 state that bookkeepers (and their professional cousins, accounting and auditing clerks) earn an average annual salary of $45,500. Although the BLS forecasts a 5% decline in jobs for bookkeepers, it also estimates that there will be some 200,000 openings for bookkeepers and accounting clerks each year from now until 2031, resulting from people leaving the field, ofttimes to retire. Thus, while there won’t be wild growth in the bookkeeping sector, it should still make for good steady work that brings in a good steady income.
Becoming a bookkeeper is also comparatively easy. Accountants, who can broadly be said to oversee bookkeepers’ work and prepare tax returns, are required to have four-year degrees, and, to become a Certified Public Accountant, even more than just four years of university education. On the other hand, an associate’s degree or what the BLS terms “some college” is the standard for entering the bookkeeping profession. That puts it within the reach of people who might not be able to obtain (or afford) a four-year degree.
The thing you most need to become a bookkeeper is to be able to operate bookkeeping software. QuickBooks is used by 80% of smaller American businesses that employ accounting software, which makes it the most logical place for aspiring bookkeepers to begin their education. Yes, you can make a whole career out of QuickBooks by working for smaller businesses that use the software to organize their finances.