QuickBooks Online is a great tool, but a bad setup creates wrong reports and extra work every month. These are the mistakes we fix most often.
- Accepting every bank rule without checking. Automatic rules save time, but one wrong rule repeats the same mistake hundreds of times.
- Recording owner draws as expenses. Money you take for yourself isn't a business expense and it lowers your profit on paper.
- Recording loan payments as an expense. Only the interest is an expense; the principal reduces the loan balance.
- Duplicated income. Recording an invoice payment and also the bank deposit doubles your sales, and your taxes.
- Never reconciling. Without monthly reconciliation, missing or duplicated transactions go unnoticed.
- Too many or unclear categories. A chart of accounts with 150 accounts, or a "miscellaneous" one with everything, makes reports useless.
- Mixing personal and business accounts in the same company file.
How to know if your file needs help
- Your bank balance in QuickBooks doesn't match your statement.
- Your profit looks too high or too low compared with what's in the bank.
- You have hundreds of transactions "for review" or uncategorized.
We're QuickBooks ProAdvisors. We can review your file, fix the setup and train you or your team to keep it clean.
This article is general information, not individual tax or legal advice. Rules and fees change; confirm current requirements with the official source or contact us about your situation.