Running QuickBooks Without an Accountant?

What you already have, and what is missing

Software-run books fail in two spots, reliably. First, the judgement entries software will not make alone — asset treatment, the shareholder loan, accruals at year-end. Second, everything that is a filing rather than a ledger: the T2, the slips on the slip clock, elections with deadlines. The monthly record can be excellent while the corporation quietly misses things software never claimed to watch.

How the arrangement works

• You keep doing what works. Accountant access to your file — no migration, no new subscription, no re-keying.
• We review and adjust at year-end, post the entries back properly, and produce the statements and T2 from books we have actually examined.
• In-year, you get answers — the “can I deduct this” and “what does this letter mean” questions land with a CPA instead of a forum. Fixed fees, so asking costs nothing.
• If the file is behind or messy, catch-up is scoped once, separately, before anything starts.

The honest version of “do I even need this?”

A sole proprietor with simple affairs may genuinely not — software plus a diligent owner covers a lot. The line moves at incorporation: a corporation has filings, deadlines and owner-compensation mechanics where the software-only setup starts leaking money, usually invisibly. If you are incorporated and software-only, an enquiry is us looking at your actual file and telling you which side of that line you are on.

If the returns themselves are outstanding rather than only the bookkeeping, that is a defined job with its own page. See bringing unfiled returns current.