QuickBooks Online Setup & Training
Get QuickBooks Online configured for your trade or service business and learn how to use it properly. We set up your chart of accounts, connect your banks, and walk you through the basics.
What This Covers
QuickBooks Online is a good tool for trade and service businesses, but only if it’s set up to match how your business actually works. Most contractors and tradespeople sign up, click through a few screens, and end up with a generic chart of accounts that doesn’t reflect construction or field service work at all. Then the data going in is messy from day one.
We configure QBO specifically for your business. That means a chart of accounts built around how contractors and service companies actually spend and earn money. Job costing categories that make sense. Bank and credit card feeds connected and mapped correctly. And then we sit down with you and make sure you know how to use it so you’re not just guessing every time you open the app.
The Configuration
The Configuration
We build your chart of accounts around your actual business. Materials, subcontractor costs, equipment, job-specific expenses. We connect your bank accounts and credit cards, set up your vendor and customer lists, and configure the settings that matter for how you operate. Everything is structured so the reports you pull later actually tell you something useful.
The Training
The Training
We walk you through how to enter transactions, categorize expenses, and create invoices or estimates. We show you how to pull a profit and loss report and what to look for. How to reconcile your accounts at month end. You leave the training knowing how to keep your books moving forward without calling someone every time you log in.
Why This Matters
A lot of trade business owners sign up for QuickBooks Online with good intentions and then barely use it because nothing makes sense. The default categories don’t match their expenses. Transactions pile up in the bank feed uncategorized. After a few weeks the whole thing feels like a chore and gets abandoned. By the time tax season rolls around, you’re handing your CPA a shoebox again.
The other problem is bad setup leading to bad data. If your chart of accounts lumps all your costs into a few vague categories, you can’t see where the money is actually going. You can’t tell which jobs made money and which ones didn’t. You can’t answer basic questions about your business without digging through bank statements. And your tax preparer has to spend extra time sorting through everything, which costs you more and often means missed deductions.
The Default Setup Problem
The Default Setup Problem
QuickBooks asks a few questions when you sign up and gives you a generic template. For a plumber or a general contractor, that template is close to useless. There’s no distinction between materials and labor. No way to track subcontractor costs properly. You end up forcing your business into categories that don’t fit, and the reports that come out the other end don’t mean much.
The Knowledge Gap
The Knowledge Gap
Most people are never shown how to use accounting software. They figure it out through trial and error, which means months of transactions categorized incorrectly before anyone notices. By then, fixing it takes real time and real money. A couple hours of training up front saves you from a much bigger cleanup project down the road.
What You Walk Away With
Your QuickBooks Online account is set up to reflect your actual business from the start. When you look at your profit and loss report, the numbers are organized in a way that makes sense to you. You can see what you’re spending on materials, what you’re paying subs, what your overhead looks like. That clarity matters when you’re deciding whether to take on a new project or buy a piece of equipment.
You also know how to use the software yourself. Not every feature, but the things that matter for keeping your books clean on a weekly basis. And because Michael has worked with contractors and trade businesses for over a decade, the system is built with tax time in mind. Your categories align with what your tax return needs, so there’s no scramble or guesswork when it’s time to file.
Books You Can Actually Use
Books You Can Actually Use
When your QuickBooks is set up right, you can pull a report and understand where your business stands without needing someone to translate it for you. You see revenue by customer or job. You see your real expenses broken out in a way that matches how you think about your business. That turns your accounting from a tax obligation into a management tool.
Ongoing Support
Ongoing Support
Questions come up after the initial setup and training. Something looks off in a report. You’re not sure how to handle a refund from a supplier or a deposit on a big job. You have someone to reach out to who already knows how your system is configured and can give you a direct answer instead of a generic support article.
Long Beach's CPA for Contractors and Trades
The Next Step:
A Quick Conversation
Tell us about your business and where you need help. We'll ask a few questions, let you know what we can do, and give you a quick quote.