PERSONAL VS BUSINESS; QUICKEN VS QB

First of all. . .DEFINITELY keep their business and personal accounts separate.

I would recommend QuickBooks for the business.

As for the personal, I would check into their bank and see if I might set them up for online banking, using whatever software works with their bank.

As for processing, I would open their bills, pay them according to whatever parameters they set (when received, when due, etc) and leave the invoice with the check for them to sign. This is your protection . . .they have a copy of the bill in front of them. . .they are then making the decision to pay it or not.

As for charging. . that depends on how complicated, etc the work is. . .I don't think I would take on a client for less than $400/month.

As for your own customer base and invoicing through QuickBooks, once the client is inputted, it is there forever, so that might be the way to go. . .even if you only contact them once/year you will have the history as well as a mailing list if you were to ever need it.

You wouldn't have to invoice through QuickBooks. . .you could just enter sales receipts or deposits, hitting the customer name for tracking purposes.

Whatever you do, think it through, so that you set it up for the long haul. . .it is important that you be consistent if you are using customers. . .

Hope this is helpful,

This is ABSOLUTELY helpful AND encouraging. You mentioned an important word-protection. With that much responsibility I want to cover all bases. I did mentioned online banking to them because that's what I do so I will go that route and use Quicken. I used Quicken for personal and it downloads the bank statement which is cool. They just happened to use the same bank I use.

Thanks a million.

Thanks so much for responding. I have been doing yearly taxes for a FEW family and friends. This year I'm expanding to include accounting which is why I purchased QB. So yes, this expansion is a whole new area for me. I do accounting for a day job, but having a business is a whole different animal. I thought I would start with just Schedule C folks, but for some reason I'm getting Corps, Pships, etc. What an introduction. Thanks so much.

And one more thing to consider. I heartily recommend that you do not take on check signing responsibility, even if they beg. You could sign on for more legal liability than you realize. You do not want to have responsibility for paying taxes, which could then come back to you and you could owe for trust fund taxes, etc.(payroll, sales tax). Just be careful.

And I also keep track of my time through QB, so I can see where my time goes and the workflow of the returns and bookkeeping assignments. This helps tremendously during tax season so I can tell my part-timers when the rush will happen.

It is also a great way to keep track of fees from one year to the next. I do not use ProSeries for billing, only QB.