Is QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping right for Shopify sellers? If you’ve heard of QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping, you might be wondering if it’s a good fit for your e-commerce business. If you haven’t heard of it, maybe you’re curious what it’s all about. Check out this video with my QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping review for Shopify sellers, or continue reading below to see if it’s the right fit for you.
What is QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping?
For starters, let’s go over what QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping is. QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping is bookkeeping support provided by Intuit.
What does it cost? Right now, their services start at $200 a month and range up to $600 a month, depending on the transaction volume.
What do they do? They offer a range of services, from getting you up and running, organizing your finances, closing the books, generating reports, and supporting you virtually.
What don’t they do? There are also several limitations to their services, including not sending any invoices, not paying any bills, not managing inventory, accounts receivable, nor accounts payable. They also don’t include advisory services or any sort of tax advice.
How does it work? There is no contract with the service. You just use it when you need it and cancel it at any time.
While this sounds exciting and sounds like a very affordable service, there are some very distinct drawbacks that you need to be aware of, as a Shopify seller.
Click on the video linked below to watch my QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping review for Shopify Sellers:
The drawbacks of QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping
First of all, when you initially talk to someone at QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping, you are dealing with salespeople who don’t understand the unique needs of Shopify sellers and are likely not even accountants or bookkeepers.
QuickBooks Live bookkeepers also have a limited time to work on your books. They normally work 20 hours a week and are assigned up to 20 clients, leaving them only an hour per week to work on your books. As a result, it’s difficult to book an appointment with them when you need them. I’ve heard from business owners who’ve used the service that they don’t work with the same bookkeeper all the time and change bookkeepers every few months.
There is also no specific agreement on what your deliverables are and when your work will be completed.
So what are the drawbacks specifically for Shopify sellers? QuickBooks Live bookkeepers do not specialize in Shopify accounting. They don’t necessarily know that sales from Shopify should be recorded at gross and that Shopify fees and other deductions to sales should be recorded separately. They’re not trained on how to reconcile payment gateway deposits and fees, like PayPal, Amazon Pay, Affirm, Klarna, Afterpay, and more.
They’re also not going to help you streamline your integration between Shopify and QuickBooks. And they’re not going to help you automate any tasks because they can’t advise you. They can only work with what you have. So if you have a bad integration between Shopify and QuickBooks Online or if you have no integration at all, they’re not trained, experienced, or specialized enough to help you find a better solution for your unique business needs. They’re not going to advise you on how to track and update inventory. They won’t advise you on how to track cost of goods sold. And they don’t understand the complexities of sales taxes.
The alternative to QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping
My advice to Shopify sellers is to work with an experienced and qualified accounting pro who specializes in Shopify, understands the complexities of sales taxes, inventory, and cost of goods sold. Work with someone who can help you set up a streamlined way of connecting Shopify with QuickBooks Online and help you to automate a lot of manual tasks.
Closing
Is QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping the right fit for Shopify sellers? In my professional opinion, I don’t think it’s a good fit. Don’t let the low price fool you. You won’t get what you need, specifically for the reasons I just talked about. The Live bookkeepers aren’t trained in Shopify accounting and can’t help you with systems and integrations to make your business run smoother.
If you would like to reach out to me, my firm VM Wasek specializes in e-commerce for Shopify, Amazon, and Walmart sellers. Click on this link to learn more about my services and see if my team is a good fit to help you elevate your e-commerce business and reach your goals.
I hope you found this QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping review for Shopify sellers helpful. Make sure to leave me a comment. I’d love to know what other questions you have and what topics you’d like to learn more about.
