Many business owners think bookkeeping is just for taxes—organizing receipts, bank statements, and keeping the IRS happy. But the truth is, bookkeeping is one of the most powerful growth tools you have as a business owner.

QuickBooks is super useful but only when it is set up to work with your business, not against it.

I often hear from my clients that QBO is just for tracking income and expenses but the reality is that it can be a powerful tool for decision making. Here is what I look for immediately when I review a client’s books and why these things matter.

The hard truth is that only 50% of small businesses will make it to their 5th anniversary, and many of those failures are directly tied to poor cash flow, bad record keeping and tax surprises. Growth in any business means the complexity of the business will also grow, systems you have in place may work on the small scale but will they work later?