QuickBooks Training · Redding, CA
Learn to run your books right — from someone who signs tax returns.
- CA License #96754
- QuickBooks Online & Desktop
- CA License #96754
- QuickBooks Online & Desktop
- Serving Shasta County since 2007
RB
Office Manager
Before QuickBooks training
Before
Chart of accounts set up correctly
Generic defaults
Bank reconciliation done monthly
Never done it
P&L makes sense to the owner
Doesn’t look right
Year-end close procedure
What’s that
After training with Susan
Team trained. Books run clean.
The reality
QuickBooks training without accounting context teaches you how to make mistakes faster.
The software is not the hard part. Knowing what to put where — and why it matters for your tax return, your reports, and your understanding of your own business — is what takes a CPA to explain properly.
- YouTube and generic tutorials teach clicks, not accounting. You learn how to enter a bill, not whether it should be an expense or an asset. You learn how to run a P&L, not whether the numbers on it are meaningful. The gap between knowing the software and understanding the books is where errors live.
- QuickBooks ProAdvisors know the software, not the tax consequences. ProAdvisor certification is a software credential, not an accounting license. The person who trains you may not know how your chart of accounts affects your Schedule C, or why classifying a loan repayment as an expense will cause problems at year-end.
- Learning by doing accumulates errors quietly. A miscategorized expense type doesn’t announce itself. Bad bank reconciliation habits don’t produce error messages. The books look fine — until April, when the CPA who prepares your return finds six months of problems to unwind before filing.
30+
Years in accounting
1–1
Sessions tailored to your setup
QBO
& QBD
Both platforms covered
What a bad QBO setup actually causes
- Deductions missed at tax time because transactions were in the wrong category all year
- P&L that shows profit when you’re actually losing money — or loss when you’re profitable — because assets were expensed or loans were coded as income
- Unreconciled bank accounts that compound month after month — often discovered only when a bank loan application requires clean financials
- Year-end cleanup that costs more in CPA time than a year of training would have
“The goal isn’t to hand the books to a CPA in April. It’s to understand them yourself — and have a CPA confirm you’re right.”
What’s included
Hands-on training built around how your business actually works.
No generic curriculum. Susan reviews your actual QuickBooks file, identifies what’s set up correctly and what isn’t, and teaches from your real data — so every session is immediately applicable to the books you’re actually managing.
- One-on-one QuickBooks sessions tailored to your specific file, your industry, and your level of experience. Online via screen share or in-person in Redding.
- Chart of accounts setup and cleanup — building or restructuring categories that match how your business earns and spends, and that produce useful reports at year-end.
- Bank and credit card reconciliation — the correct monthly process, what to do when it doesn’t balance, and how to spot errors before they compound.
- Financial report training — what the P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow statement actually show, how to read them, and what to flag when something looks off.
- Staff training and in-house oversight — training your bookkeeper or office manager on your specific workflows, then periodic reviews to confirm the books stay on track.
- QuickBooks Online vs. Desktop guidance — honest assessment of which platform fits your business now and as it grows, including migration support if you’re switching.
- Cleanup of existing errors — if prior entries are miscategorized, reconciliations are off, or the file is a mess, Susan can work through it with you rather than starting over.
- Year-end close training — what to do in December and January to hand a clean set of books to your CPA, and how to make that process take minutes instead of days.
Best for
- Small business owners who want to stay hands-on with their own books
- Office managers or bookkeepers taking over a file they didn’t set up
- Businesses where the “books person” just left and someone new needs to learn fast
- Owners who want a CPA to review their work quarterly without outsourcing everything
- Companies switching from QuickBooks Desktop to Online
- Startups setting up QuickBooks for the first time and wanting to do it right
Platforms covered
QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Desktop
What it’s not
What the training covers built around your situation.
Every session is customized to your actual QuickBooks file. These are the topics most commonly covered — each one grounded in accounting principles, not just software mechanics.
Chart of accounts setup
Foundation
The chart of accounts is where every bookkeeping mistake starts or is prevented. Susan reviews or builds yours from scratch — categories that match your industry, separate personal and business correctly, and produce a P&L your CPA can use without restructuring it every April.
Bank & credit card reconciliation
Monthly process
Reconciliation is the single most important monthly task — and the one most commonly skipped or done wrong. Training covers the correct process, what to do when the balance doesn’t match, and how unreconciled accounts silently distort every report you run.
Reading your financial reports
P&L · Balance sheet
QuickBooks generates reports you may not fully understand — P&L, balance sheet, cash flow statement, accounts receivable aging. Training covers what each report shows, what numbers should concern you, and how to use them to make actual business decisions rather than just filing them away.
Invoicing and accounts receivable
A/R workflow
Correct invoicing workflow in QuickBooks, how to apply payments to open invoices, what happens when you receive money without matching it to an invoice, and how A/R aging reports help you stop chasing the same customers every month.
Bill entry and accounts payable
A/P workflow
How to enter vendor bills, record payments correctly, and use A/P aging to understand what you owe. Common mistakes covered: recording a payment without first entering the bill, paying a bill twice, and writing checks that bypass A/P entirely and distort expense reporting.
QuickBooks Online vs. Desktop
Platform selectio
QBO and QBD look similar but behave differently in ways that matter: data ownership, multi-user access, bank feed reliability, payroll integration, and file migration. Susan gives you an honest comparison based on your business size and workflow — not a sales pitch for either platform.
File cleanup & error correction
Existing problems
If the books have been mismanaged — wrong categories, unreconciled accounts, duplicate entries, loan proceeds coded as income — Susan works through the cleanup with you rather than handing you a corrected file you don’t understand. You leave knowing both what was wrong and how to prevent it.
Year-end close procedure
December & January
Most small businesses hand a messy file to their CPA in February and pay for the cleanup. Year-end close training covers exactly what to do in December and January — reconciliations, 1099 prep, closing the books, and organizing records — so tax preparation is straightforward rather than a reconstruction project.
Staff training & periodic oversight
In-house team
Training your bookkeeper or office manager on your specific setup, then checking in quarterly or monthly to review the books, catch drift before it compounds, and answer the questions that accumulate between sessions. Ownership stays in-house; CPA oversight keeps it clean.
Why learn from a licensed CPA
QuickBooks is a tool. Accounting
is what makes it useful.
Most bookkeeping software training focuses on the mechanics: where to click, how to enter a transaction, which report to run. Susan teaches the accounting principles behind those actions — because a click in the wrong place has consequences that don’t show up until April, and by then they’re expensive to fix.
She trains you on your actual file, not a demo
Generic QuickBooks training uses sample companies with pretend transactions. Susan works in your real file, with your actual chart of accounts, your bank feeds, and the specific errors or gaps that exist right now. Every session is immediately applicable — not something you have to translate back to your own situation.
She teaches the “why” behind each step
Knowing that a loan repayment should be split between principal (balance sheet) and interest (expense) is different from knowing how to enter it in QuickBooks. Susan explains both — so when a new situation comes up, you can reason through it rather than guessing and hoping it’s right.
She sees what the mistakes cost at tax time
Every tax season, CPAs inherit books that were maintained by someone who learned by doing. The miscategorized payroll, the unreconciled credit card, the loan proceeds in revenue — Susan has seen all of it, and she teaches specifically to prevent it. That makes her training materially different from a ProAdvisor who has never prepared a tax return.
She’s available after the session
Questions don’t wait for scheduled sessions. When something comes up between meetings — a vendor sends an unusual invoice, a bank transaction doesn’t make sense, something changed that you’re not sure how to handle — you can reach Susan directly. No ticket queue. No call center.
How training is priced
By session or retainer — your call.
Per-session training
One-on-one sessions priced per hour. Most initial setups or cleanups take two to four sessions depending on the state of the file.
Ongoing oversight retainer
Monthly or quarterly check-ins to review the books, catch errors, and answer questions as they come up. Flat monthly fee.
Staff training package
Training your in-house bookkeeper or office manager on your specific workflow. Priced based on scope and number of sessions.
Free 15-minute call
Describe your situation — what platform you’re on, what’s working, what isn’t. Susan will tell you what the engagement would look like and what it costs.
How training works, from first call to confident books.
No generic curriculum, no homework assignments. Here’s what happens from first contact to ongoing competence.
01
A free 15-minute call
You describe where things stand — what platform you’re using, how the books were set up, what’s confusing, and what you want to be able to do on your own. Susan identifies what the training should cover, how many sessions it’s likely to take, and what it would cost.
02
A written scope and flat fee
Susan reviews your actual QuickBooks file before the first training session — chart of accounts, recent transactions, reconciliation status, and any obvious issues. This means the first session is spent on your specific situation rather than on diagnosing it in real time.
03
Hands-on training sessions
Sessions are conducted via screen share or in-person at your office in Redding. You drive — Susan narrates and corrects. Real transactions, real file, real questions. Session notes are provided after each meeting so you have a written reference for the procedures covered.
04
Ongoing support and periodic review
After training, most clients choose quarterly or monthly check-ins: a brief review of the prior period’s books to catch errors, answer questions that came up, and confirm the file is clean before things compound. You keep ownership of the books; Susan keeps watch.
Common questions about
QuickBooks training with Susan.
How is this different from QuickBooks ProAdvisor training?
A QuickBooks ProAdvisor is certified in the software — how to use it, navigate it, and set it up. That’s valuable. What’s different about learning from a licensed CPA is the accounting layer: why certain categories exist, what happens when transactions are coded wrong, how the reports connect to your tax return, and what a clean set of books actually looks like when a CPA receives them. Susan has prepared hundreds of tax returns from QuickBooks files and knows exactly what goes wrong and why. That context changes what she teaches.
I’m already using QuickBooks but the books are a mess. Can you help fix them?
Yes — and this is one of the most common starting points. Rather than handing you a corrected file and sending you on your way, Susan works through the cleanup with you so you understand what was wrong and how to prevent it going forward. Depending on how far back the issues go, she may recommend a combination of cleanup sessions and training sessions. If the file is beyond practical repair, she can help you set up a fresh file with a correct opening balance.
Should I switch from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online?
It depends on your workflow and what you actually use. QuickBooks Online is better for remote access, bank feed automation, and multi-user collaboration — and it’s where Intuit is investing future development. QuickBooks Desktop is still stronger for job costing, inventory-heavy businesses, and users who want more control over their data and don’t need cloud access. The honest answer is that QBD is being sunset over time — but the migration isn’t always straightforward and the right timing matters. Susan can walk through the pros and cons for your specific situation before you make the decision.
How many training sessions will I need?
It depends on where you’re starting. A business with a reasonably clean file that just needs someone to explain reconciliation and reporting typically needs two to three sessions. A file that needs cleanup, a chart of accounts rebuild, and training on new workflows might take four to six. Susan gives you an honest estimate after the initial file review — not a package designed to maximize sessions.
Can you train my bookkeeper or office manager instead of me?
Absolutely — and this is often the most efficient arrangement. Susan trains your in-house staff on your specific file and workflows, then does periodic reviews to confirm the books are staying on track. The owner gets CPA-level oversight without doing the day-to-day themselves, and the staff member gets training that’s specific to your business rather than generic software instruction. For businesses with more than a few employees, this is usually the right model.
At what point does it make more sense to outsource bookkeeping instead of training?
Training makes sense when you or your staff want to manage the books and have the time to do it well. It stops making sense when the time cost outweighs the savings, when turnover means retraining repeatedly, or when the books keep getting behind despite everyone’s best intentions. A good rule of thumb: if you’re spending more than four hours a month on bookkeeping and the books still aren’t current, the math usually favors outsourcing. Susan can give you a straight comparison of what each option would cost for your business. Full-service bookkeeping is available if that’s the better fit.
