Episode 14
Episode 14 – Why QuickBooks Gets Messy (Even When You’re Doing Everything Right)
Episode 14 – Why QuickBooks Gets Messy (Even When You’re Doing Everything Right)
In this episode of QuickBooks Mastery for Small Business Success, father-daughter team Erica Northrup and Lee Davis explain why so many hardworking business owners feel confused and frustrated inside QuickBooks—despite putting in real effort.
They break down the hidden system issues that cause financial “messiness,” explore common patchwork fixes that create long-term problems, and show what actually leads to clarity and confidence. Listeners will walk away encouraged, equipped, and better prepared to manage their books proactively.
Key Takeaways
- Most messy books are caused by system gaps, not carelessness
- QuickBooks is built for accountants, not business owners
- Patchwork fixes create long-term cleanup cycles
- Understanding money flow builds confidence
- Sustainable clarity comes from learning in order
Questions to Reflect On
- Where do I tend to “patch” problems instead of fixing root causes?
- Do I understand how money flows through my business?
- Am I confident in my financial reports—or just hoping they’re right?
Mentioned in This Episode
Free 3-Part Quick Start Guide to Getting Started with QuickBooks
Download at: www.leedavisandcompany.com
Send Us Your Questions:
support@leedavisandcompany.com
Timestamps
00:02 - Introduction to QuickBooks Mastery
04:14 - Understanding QuickBooks Challenges
06:51 - Understanding the Challenges of QuickBooks
07:30 - Understanding QuickBooks Setup Issues
14:06 - Understanding QuickBooks: The Importance of a System
17:02 - Understanding the QuickBooks System
Call to Action
If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe and stay connected with us at leedavisandcompany.com.
Download our free 3-Part Quick Start Guide to get started with QuickBooks the right way.
Have a QuickBooks question? Send it to support@leedavisandcompany.com — your question may be featured in a future episode.
Transcript
Welcome to QuickBooks mastery for small Business Success.
Speaker A:I'm Erica Northrup.
Speaker B:And I'm Lee Davis.
Speaker A:I handle the tech and he handles the numbers.
Speaker A:And together as a father daughter team, we bring decades of experience helping small to medium sized businesses thrive.
Speaker B:We know that as a business owner, your time is best spent mastering your craft and growing your business, not getting lost in QuickBooks.
Speaker B:Managing finances can be confusing and you don't have hours to waste sorting through spreadsheets or fixing bookkeeping mistakes.
Speaker B:That's where we come in, helping you streamline QuickBooks so you can focus on building your business.
Speaker A:Each week we break it all down into simple, actionable steps so you can focus on growing your business, not fixing your books.
Speaker B:Let's embark on this journey together.
Speaker A:This is episode 14 and today we're talking about something we started.
Speaker A:See constantly why QuickBooks gets messy.
Speaker A:Even when you're doing everything right.
Speaker A:If you've ever thought, I try to stay on top of things, I reconcile, I check my Numbers, I'm in QuickBooks all the time.
Speaker A:So why does this still feel confusing?
Speaker A:This episode is for you because for most people this isn't about effort, it's about understanding.
Speaker A:But before we jump into it, I wanted to take a moment to comment out a review that was left for us by L and J Services.
Speaker A:It's entitled Information and Entertainment.
Speaker A:Which guys I love.
Speaker A:I love that we're providing information and that we are entertaining.
Speaker A:You guys, I just tickles me pink.
Speaker A:I think that is awesome.
Speaker A:So this is what this podcast review had to say.
Speaker A:Eric and Lee have the experience, know how and communication skills that bring life to the subject.
Speaker A:As a small business owner, I have found their podcast to be a great resource.
Speaker A:Thank you so much, LNJ Services.
Speaker A:Thank you for your words.
Speaker A:It means a lot to us.
Speaker A:We have really been enjoying this process of creating this podcast, releasing this podcast.
Speaker A:It has just been such a joy.
Speaker A:And you guys, almost a thousand downloads to this point, that's just mind boggling for us and we really appreciate all your support.
Speaker A:It means so much.
Speaker A:So if you leave a podcast review, you might be featured on our next episode.
Speaker A:So I look forward to those coming in.
Speaker A:Let's get on to today's episod episode because I really feel like this is massive.
Speaker A:This is, I think some of the bread and butter of Lee Davis Co. Is really helping people get out of the mess they find themselves in when they first get started in QuickBooks and they have no direction.
Speaker A:So before we get into the technical side of this, I think it's really important to clear something up first.
Speaker A:Papa, when people come to us for help, are they usually careless or are they actually trying really hard?
Speaker B:I would say when they finally decide to come to us, they are frustrated because they, for many and varied reasons, they feel like that they have been doing everything right, but there's something wrong.
Speaker B:And they know enough when they look at their QuickBooks files to say, you know what?
Speaker B:This isn't right and we need help.
Speaker B:And usually it's again, they're frustrated and they need somebody to get them on the right track.
Speaker A:I can see that.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Do you think there's a sense of almost embarrassment that people feel when they're reach the end of their ropes and they feel like, okay, I'm a smart person.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Why is this not working?
Speaker B:I think I have to blame intuit a little bit for this because they sell a product they named QuickBooks and it's anything but quick, right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So you can treat it that way if you want to.
Speaker B:And many people do.
Speaker B:They rush into it.
Speaker B:They bought the wrong product, they didn't understand what they were buying, and they expected to solve their problems.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And guys, if you haven't listened to that episode, we did an episode on which QuickBooks is right for you.
Speaker A:So go back and listen to episode 10.
Speaker A:That will give you insight there.
Speaker A:Papa.
Speaker A:If people are genuinely putting in the time and the effort, I guess the next question becomes, why is this still so hard for people?
Speaker A:Why do you think so many smart, capable business owners still struggle with QuickBooks?
Speaker B:Because it's not productive for them.
Speaker B:That's not what they do.
Speaker B:And we've said this before.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:They chose to start their business because they're entrepreneurs or they're, for whatever reason, they started their business.
Speaker B:And either they lost their job and they decided that now they want to work for themselves, or they're chasing the entrepreneur route.
Speaker B:There's many reasons people start.
Speaker A:They see need in the marketplace for something.
Speaker A:They're like, I can do that.
Speaker A:I can bring that to market.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Certainly it's not a reason.
Speaker B:They start their businesses because they want to do their bookkeeping.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:But financially, they really do need to understand and intuitively they know that QuickBooks is not intuitive.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It is not an intuitive product.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker A:And there doesn't seem to be any clear roadmap out there for people on how to use QuickBooks and how to really work inside of QuickBooks.
Speaker A:QuickBooks.
Speaker B:Eric, if we had a dollar or even a quarter for every time people had come to us and said, I wish I had found you sooner.
Speaker B:It's easier to help people when they come to us early as opposed to coming when they're in some kind of deadline or some crisis.
Speaker A:They're in a crisis now, they need help.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:And I guess when people don't really understand the system, they still have to keep their running.
Speaker A:Even if they don't understand QuickBooks, they have to still keep moving inside of their business.
Speaker A:So what do you usually see people doing when something doesn't look right in QuickBooks?
Speaker B:I have a case of a restaurant who they simply stopped using it and they continued half heartedly downloading things, but it only got worse.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And so I find that people eventually drop off if they feel like they're overwhelmed with it.
Speaker B:I would say that may be one of the most important factors.
Speaker B:People get overwhelmed and they just say, okay, I'll just add it all up.
Speaker B:At the end of the year, I'll just do everything and I'll just send my account, my bank statements and therefore they're paying a lot more and they don't have any numbers.
Speaker B:And so I think people just throw up their hands.
Speaker B:I did have a client say, help me get back on track.
Speaker B:Let's just start over.
Speaker A:I guess the there's a lot of later mindset, I'll do that later.
Speaker A:I'll recategorize later.
Speaker A:I'll fix those reconciliations later.
Speaker A:I will move things to make it balance, even if it doesn't make sense, what I'm trying to balance.
Speaker B:Usually most people have no idea what to do, so they're just going to either start over or hire a bookkeeper.
Speaker A:They're throwing things at a wall and just seeing what sticks.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:They're just hoping something sticks.
Speaker A:Awesome.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So after a while I can imagine that all of those little fixes start to pile up.
Speaker A:Things start to compound like the snowball effects.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It starts out little.
Speaker A:One transaction that I'll just categorize later.
Speaker A:It's just one thing.
Speaker A:I'll wait to the end of the year.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And start really working with QuickBooks.
Speaker A:When you open a new client's file for the first time, what are the most common issues that what you need to fix and what mess they're in.
Speaker A:What are those most common issues?
Speaker B:I would say the first and probably the biggest one is that their QuickBooks wasn't set up right initially.
Speaker B:So in their chart of accounts, they have not classified the correct account types.
Speaker B:So their chart of accounts is incorrect.
Speaker B:It's wrong.
Speaker B:So nothing that they do will Fix that.
Speaker B:They have to go back in and run a balance sheet and an income statement and look at making those corrections.
Speaker B:And I would say probably the second highest piece I see is that people don't understand how forms and lists are used.
Speaker B:They have a mindset that it's like the old Quicken.
Speaker B:They're going to use the bank register as their checkbook.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And that's what it doesn't work.
Speaker B:And when they are upset because they can't get the reports out of it, I have to tell them it's because you haven't used the forms and lists.
Speaker B:You haven't set it up correctly to be able to generate the kind of reports your bank wants or you want or you're not using the products and services correctly.
Speaker B:Then thirdly, I do see where people jump right into using the download of their bank thinking that's some magic.
Speaker B:And there's no magic in that.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker B:It all it does is for you to have a lot of transactions that you don't know what to do with and it piles up.
Speaker B:Then they've just tried to fix it another way.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And then they start just entering things and before they know it.
Speaker B:It is messy.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It's one big mess.
Speaker B:It is messy.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:And this is just really uncovering what are the things that people are seeing, what are those issues?
Speaker A:Because I want people to realize and know they're not alone in this core.
Speaker A:They are not alone.
Speaker A:They're not the first person that has had a messy QuickBooks and they're not be the last person that's going to have a mess in their QuickBooks for sure.
Speaker B:I believe.
Speaker B:And we'll just call this guy's name Peter.
Speaker B:Peter was one of our clients that we trained.
Speaker B:He was trained with another guy.
Speaker B:They both had different kinds of businesses and I trained them together.
Speaker B:And Peter over the time, he's definitely not a bookkeeper.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:But he is a guy who's willing to learn and try and do his QuickBooks himself.
Speaker B:But over the years I've been able to help him and he finally realized that he can keep ahead and he can have his year end stuff done to his accountant.
Speaker B:And I would say that Peter understands that he's not a QuickBooks guy.
Speaker A:He's learned, but he's learned the system.
Speaker B:He's learned the system.
Speaker A:He's learned the system of using QuickBooks.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:He uses it for payroll.
Speaker B:And we've had to do a number of fixes periodically.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:But they work for him.
Speaker A:And I'm sure this is where people Usually get really discouraged.
Speaker A:I can imagine that this just leads to incredible discouragement, pop up.
Speaker A:So why don't these quick fixes actually solve the problem long term?
Speaker B:First of all, when they go and do a Google search, they're incredibly frustrated, right?
Speaker B:Because they think Google has the answer for them and Google does not.
Speaker B:Because Google can't solve their problem, they're more confused.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And so I think when people think that they go online and solve it, right, the answer is no.
Speaker B:You need somebody who understands and looks at it and says, okay, you can.
Speaker A:Do this, that understands QuickBooks.
Speaker A:Because everything in QuickBooks seems to connect.
Speaker A:So if you make one little mistake here, it has this waterfall effect to everything else.
Speaker A:It's going to affect this thing down here.
Speaker A:But if you don't know where the problem actually originates from, you're in a big mess.
Speaker B:I had a client, we'll call him Joe.
Speaker B:Joe was a carpenter and frankly, whenever he touched his QuickBooks, he was stressed out over it.
Speaker A:Oh, dear, poor Joe.
Speaker B:It's like, I'm not a carpenter.
Speaker B:All right, I'm gonna.
Speaker B:And I guess you could speak to this too.
Speaker B:Certainly got yourself into a little carpentry.
Speaker B:You seem to have done quite well with it.
Speaker A:I know.
Speaker A:I really feel like grandpa would be proud of me.
Speaker A:I have really embraced the building aspect of life.
Speaker B:But I confess, I'm not a carpenter.
Speaker B:It takes me twice as long, three times as long, and I don't get the result I wanted.
Speaker B:I believe while you feel like you should be able to do it, it doesn't mean that it gets done.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:And sometimes it's just about understanding, understanding the clear system that's in front of you and having a system laid out.
Speaker A:I'm going to share this because I'm excited about this.
Speaker A:I'm building this range hood cover for our apartment that we're renovating.
Speaker A:And I've had to learn how to do these miter cuts.
Speaker A:And I've been trying all different things to try to figure out how to do these miter cuts and these beveled cuts exactly so that everything fits together the way that it should.
Speaker A:And so I've been trying different things, different methods.
Speaker A:And then I realized there's actually a clear order to doing it.
Speaker A:For instance, I realized I can't do the top and the bottom at the same time.
Speaker A:I need to do the bottom first, get that aligned up, make that cut, and then do the top piece so that it all fits perfectly.
Speaker A:But there's a clear system to that, a clear step by step method on how to really efficiently and expertly make those Miter cuts and feel that about QuickBooks, there is an order, there's a flow to doing it.
Speaker A:And when people understand that flow, it opens up QuickBooks for them and they understand it in a better capacity.
Speaker B:Yeah, you're so right.
Speaker B:I have a client who fortunately, when he set his QuickBooks up under the products and services, he didn't choose the right account to hook the product to, and therefore he was overstating his revenue.
Speaker B:Oh.
Speaker B:And things were going in the wrong direction for him.
Speaker B:Sometimes people think that they can learn from somebody else, are self taught, they're.
Speaker A:Picking up their bad habits.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So they're absolutely.
Speaker B:And now they've got double the mess.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Wicked bad mess, as we say in the Northeast.
Speaker A:Okay, so let's flip this around for a minute.
Speaker A:When someone finally gets clarity in their books, what's different about how they're doing things?
Speaker A:And I think we've already alluded to some of these things, but what is different?
Speaker A:What is different for them?
Speaker B:What's different is they almost start at ground zero and they have to be retaught and they can get that training.
Speaker B:They can understand how QuickBooks works and what they need to do.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:He needed to understand exactly step by step, the flow of, for example, how to receive a payment, go step by step through it and write it down and have it and refer to it.
Speaker B:And he's been successful that way.
Speaker A:That's awesome.
Speaker A:He's learned to tap into that system.
Speaker A:He now has a system and a formula that he follows for working inside of QuickBooks so that he has the confidence in his reports, he has the confidence in what QuickBooks outputs is actually what is accurate and correct.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:That's awesome.
Speaker A:Okay, so this is really what we want people to take away from today and from this episode because over the next few weeks, what are we going to start showing people differently, Papa?
Speaker B:We're going to start showing them that they can do it all right?
Speaker B:Wherever they are, we can get them back on track if they're willing to put in the time.
Speaker B:Listen to our podcast, go to our website.
Speaker B:They can find some tools, right?
Speaker B:And ways to help them help themselves.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker B:And really see QuickBooks as the powerful tool that it is.
Speaker A:We're going to give them that step by step system.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:We're going to help them realize there are no shortcuts.
Speaker A:Just downloading your bank feed is not the right way to do it, people.
Speaker A:There are no hacks and this is built for owners.
Speaker A:This is built for the business owner that doesn't have a lot of time and really needs a well defined system that's going to help them operate their business efficiently so they can spend the least amount of time they need to spend on their books so they can spend the time where they want to be spending their time, which is doing the thing that their business is all.
Speaker B:About, generating that revenue that helps pay the bills.
Speaker A:I got to tell you, I am definitely looking forward to the next couple of weeks and what we are going to be talking about and all that we're going to be bringing to people.
Speaker A:And this is exactly why one offs don't usually stick.
Speaker A:Because if you're just haphazardly learning this thing and learning that thing and learning this thing from over here, learning from that thing, from this person, it's not a system that helps you clearly work inside of QuickBooks.
Speaker A:We see this every single week.
Speaker A:You guys, business owners doing their best, trying to patch things as they go.
Speaker A:Still feeling like things keep slipping.
Speaker A:Hear me people, it's not because you're doing something wrong, but because nobody, nobody ever showed you the whole system.
Speaker A:Nobody.
Speaker A:So over the next few weeks, we're going to walk you through what that system actually looks like, step by step.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think it'll be great to help people walk through the QuickBooks system.
Speaker B:So if this episode sounded like your.
Speaker A:Story, make sure you're subscribed because this conversation is just getting started.
Speaker A:We'll see you next week.
Speaker A:Bye for for now, thanks for tuning in to QuickBooks mastery for small Business Success.
Speaker B:If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe and stay connected with us@leedavis and company.com.
Speaker A:We know QuickBooks can be overwhelming, so we've put together a free resource to help you get started right away.
Speaker A:Grab your copy at leedavis and company.com and when you do, you'll also get access to our VIP email list where we share exclusive QuickBooks tips, business strategies.
Speaker B:And support, and we'd love to hear from you.
Speaker B:If you have a QuickBooks question or a business challenge, send it our way@supporteadavidsoncompany.com we might feature it in a future episode.
Speaker A:We're here to help you simplify QuickBooks and grow your business one step at a time.
Speaker A:See you next time.
Speaker B:Sam.
