QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping Review for 2021
QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping is a QuickBooks Online add-on that does just as it says: it connects QuickBooks customers with QuickBooks-certified bookkeepers for personalised, real-time assistance. This service can be highly beneficial to business owners who don’t have the time or desire the hands-on, human support that a simple, self-directed accounting programme simply cannot provide.
However, you must be ready and able to pay for this degree of ultra-personalized service. Keep in mind that this programme will not file the taxes for you, so you’ll have to do that separately. In June 2019, QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping was first made available to a small group of QuickBooks Online customers. It became known to all QuickBooks Online users who filed taxes in the previous calendar year in December 2019.
The bookkeeping service pairs you with a certified bookkeeper (yes, a live person) with whom you can interact through video chat. You can contact your bookkeeper at any time if you have accounting questions or concerns, and your bookkeeper will handle your books and provide you with month-end reports.
If your company is highly complex, deals with foreign currency or cryptocurrencies, or heavily mingles personal and business expenses, you might not be eligible for QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping.
Pricing: QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping is not inexpensive. However, since there are no long-term contracts, you can change or cancel your service at any time without incurring fees. There are three service plans available for QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping:
- The monthly fee for low-volume bookkeeping is $200. This package is suitable for companies with monthly expenditures of up to $25,000 per month.
- $400 a month for medium-volume bookkeeping. This package is appropriate for companies with monthly spending ranging from $25,001 to $150,000.
- The monthly fee for high-volume bookkeeping is $600. This top-tier package is for companies with monthly expenditures of $150,001 or more.
How does it work?
When you sign up for QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping, you’ll give the service some details about your business, and within a few minutes, a certified bookkeeper will be assigned to you. This will be your primary contact, but you can also leave a message with another team of bookkeepers if you have any concerns. It’s worth noting that your bookkeeping team is only available during specific hours; QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping claims and tries to match you with a bookkeeper who has similar availability.
You can then arrange video and screen-sharing meetings with your bookkeeper from there. The bookkeeper will assist you with the following tasks:
Cleanup and setup: To begin, the bookkeeper will assist you in cleaning up your current QuickBooks Online data. They will help you set up QuickBooks, including your chart of accounts, if you’re new to it.
Ongoing bookkeeping: The bookkeeper will categorise transactions and reconcile accounts every month.
Reporting: The bookkeeper will give you copies of financial reports, including your profit and loss statement and balance sheet, after closing the books at the end of each month.
There is one big caveat. However, the bookkeepers on this site can not manage payroll setup, administration, or assistance. They won’t file your taxes for you, even though they prepare your books for tax season. You’ll have to rely on your accountant, a reputable employer agency, or a payroll service that is qualified to measure and file taxes on your behalf.
Alternatives that you can consider
Wave: Wave Advisors is the best free accounting software choice. If the high cost of QuickBooks Live concerns you, Wave Accounting software with the Wave Advisor service add-on could be a more cost-effective option. Wave Accounting is one of the few entirely free business accounting software providers on the market. Furthermore, the app is user-friendly and intuitive. You can choose from three paid plans with Wave’s Advisor service, which is similar to QuickBooks Live but usually less expensive: bookkeeping and payroll support, tax service, and accounting coaching. The Bookkeeping and Payroll Support service costs $149 a month, while the Tax Service costs $1,500 a year. A one-time fee of $229 is charged for one hour of live coaching and 30 days of email help with the Accounting Coaching service.
FreshBooks: The Best Customer Service Software, FreshBooks has outstanding customer support, and you can add on bookkeeping services from Bench for an extra charge based on a quote. FreshBooks’ customer service team is available by email or phone from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday, and regularly earns high reviews across major review channels. Bench provides facilities that are comparable to QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping. FreshBooks provides three monthly service plans ranging from $15 to $50, but larger companies with more than 500 billable clients can contact FreshBooks directly for a personalised pricing package.
FreshBooks is a perfect alternative to QuickBooks in terms of accounting and administrative resources, but it’s not just about customer support. FreshBooks customers can use time-tracking, team management, and invoicing software, as well as support online payments, in addition to essential accounting functions. Since FreshBooks is a cloud-based programme, all of its features are available through a mobile app.
Conclusion
To conclude, QuickBooks Desktop software is accounting software that has always been on top since the time of its launch, but this blog is about QuickBooks Live bookkeeping, so read the whole blog carefully. The writer has also tried providing the details of the alternative accounting software. I hope that this blog helped you and was worth a read.