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Do I need an accountant if I already use QuickBooks?

Yes. Software records and organises transactions; it does not tell you whether your chart of accounts is right for your industry, catch miscategorised entries, or flag that how you record owner draws is creating a tax problem. It gives you data, not an interpretation of it.

What the software is actually for

QuickBooks, Wave, FreshBooks and the rest are transaction management systems, and they are good ones. They connect to the bank, pull transactions in, let you assign them to categories, and generate reports from whatever you put in.

That is genuinely useful, and it removes a great deal of mechanical work that used to be done by hand. The trouble starts when the tool is mistaken for the whole of the job, because everything it does well is downstream of decisions it cannot make for you.

What it cannot see

It does not know whether your chart of accounts suits the way your business makes money. It does not flag a transaction assigned to the wrong category, because it has no opinion about which one is right. It does not notice that the way you have been recording owner draws is building a tax problem. It does not see that cost of sales has been climbing quietly for half a year. It does not know what you are entitled to claim and have never claimed.

It produces outputs from your inputs. Where the inputs are wrong, the outputs are wrong, and they are wrong in a format that looks authoritative.

The setup problem

Most owners who set up their own file accepted whatever the software generated, or copied a template built for a different kind of business. A restaurant does not account like a contractor. A service business does not account like one holding stock.

An incorrectly structured chart of accounts produces statements that look entirely real and tell you nothing you can use. The revenue line is right, the total is right, and the shape underneath is meaningless — which is worse than having no statements, because you will make decisions from these.

Software will happily record a year of transactions into categories that tell you nothing.

The interpretation problem

Suppose the setup is right and every transaction is categorised correctly. The reports still need reading.

A profit and loss gives you numbers. It does not tell you whether those numbers are good for what you do, whether the margin is where it should be, or what the trend across three quarters is warning you about. That gap — between having data and knowing what the data means — is the whole of what an accountant is for.

The strategy problem

Software does not tell you that how you take money out of the business is costing you more than it needs to. It does not raise the question of whether the structure still fits the size you have grown to. It does not remind you that something worth doing for this year has to be done before the year closes, or that a piece of equipment bought and put to use may be treated differently from one that is merely paid for.

Those are judgements about your situation against rules that move. They need a person who knows both.

Two questions to settle about your own file

Is the chart of accounts shaped like your business
Not like your industry in general, and not like the template: like the way this business actually earns and spends. If the categories cannot answer the questions you ask most often, they are the wrong categories.
Who owns the file and the login
Make sure that is you. It costs nothing to settle at the start, and it is the difference between changing bookkeeper and losing your own history.

The right combination

For most small businesses it is software maintained by, or alongside, a person — not instead of one. The software does the importing and organising. The person does the setup, the review, the interpretation and the decisions.

This is one of the first things gone through with a new client who has been running their own books: the existing setup reviewed, the structure corrected, and transactions that have been going to the wrong place — sometimes for years — reclassified.

Related questions

What system do you keep the books in?

The system matters less than two things people forget to ask about. First, whether the chart of accounts is set up the way your business actually makes money — software will happily record a year of transactions into categories that tell you nothing. Second, who owns the file and the login: make sure that is you, so changing bookkeeper never means losing your own history. Name the system you are on when you call (401) 405-8407 and you will get a direct answer on it.

Can you take over the file I already have?

It normally starts with someone looking at the file before anyone commits to adopting it, because the decision turns on one thing: whether the opening balances still tie back to the last return you filed. If they do, the handover is mostly administrative. If they do not, someone has to find where it went sideways first, and that is work in its own right. Have last year's return and the most recent bank reconciliation to hand when you call (401) 405-8407, and ask what the handover would look like for yours.

What does reconciling mean?

Matching the books against what the bank actually did, every month, line for line. It is the step that catches a double charge, a deposit that never landed and a payment nobody recognises, and it is the first thing to get skipped when someone is doing their own books late at night.

How is a bookkeeper different from an accountant?

A bookkeeper records what happened. An accountant interprets what it means and advises on what to do next. Both matter, and they are not interchangeable. PSC handles both, so you are not coordinating two providers.

My books are a mess.

Not unusual, and not a judgement — it is one of the most common places a new file starts. Catch-up is its own piece of work that has to happen before anything else can be done properly, so it is scoped on its own rather than folded quietly into ongoing work. Say roughly how far back it goes when you call.

Bring the books you actually have.

The office answers within one business day.

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