Skip to content
832-702-3325 Free books review

QuickBooks setup · Conroe, TX · Serving the US

QuickBooks setup that stays clean — from day one.

A Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor builds the foundation properly: a chart of accounts that fits your business, feeds and rules that hold, opening balances that tie, and the apps connected cleanly. Set it up right once and the monthly close stops being a fight.

Free setup consult Book a call

Fixed-fee, scoped in writing. QuickBooks Online or Desktop. Independent firm — a ProAdvisor practice, not Intuit support.

Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor Chart of accounts done right 40 years on the books
CHART OF ACCOUNTS BANK FEEDS + RULES OPENING BALANCES

In brief

QuickBooks setup, in plain terms.

What is a QuickBooks setup?

Building the file's foundation: a chart of accounts that fits your business, connected feeds with categorization rules, correct opening balances, products and sales-tax settings, user roles, and clean app integrations — so the monthly close stays easy.

Who's it for?

New businesses starting clean, and owners whose DIY setup has become a mess — a chart of accounts that means nothing, feeds miscategorizing everything, balances that never tie. We rebuild the foundation.

Online or Desktop?

Most new businesses fit QuickBooks Online; a few cases suit Desktop. We choose honestly with you — the full comparison is on our Online vs Desktop page.

What does it cost?

A fixed fee, scoped in writing after a free consult — never hourly. See the pricing page for published ranges.

What a real setup involves

The foundation, not just an account login.

Anyone can create a QuickBooks account in ten minutes. A setup is different work: it's the structure underneath that decides whether next year's books reconcile or drift. The single most important piece is the chart of accounts — built for how your business runs, not the generic default that turns every report into noise.

From there it's feeds and rules that categorize correctly instead of guessing, opening balances set as of your start date so the file ties to reality, and the apps you depend on — payments, payroll, point-of-sale — connected so they flow cleanly instead of double-counting.

We work as a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor practice, and we set the file up to be kept — ideally on a reconciled monthly close so it never drifts back out of shape.

Chart of accounts, built to fit

Structured for your operating shape so reports mean something — the part a generic template gets wrong.

Feeds, rules & opening balances

Bank and card feeds connected with rules that hold, and opening balances set so the file ties to source from day one.

Apps, users & sales tax

Payments, payroll, and POS connected cleanly; user roles and sales-tax settings configured right.

How a setup runs at Westgate

Four steps to a file that stays clean.

1

Free consult

We learn how your business operates and which version fits, then scope the setup with a fixed fee and timeline in writing — before any work starts.

2

Build the foundation

Chart of accounts structured for your business, products and services, sales-tax settings, and user roles configured correctly.

3

Connect & balance

Bank and card feeds connected with rules, app integrations linked, and opening balances set so the file ties to source.

4

Verify & hand over

A senior review that the file reconciles and reports cleanly, a short walkthrough, and an optional month-end close so it stays that way.

Related QuickBooks work

Setup is one piece — here's the rest of the silo.

Desktop → Online migration

Already on Desktop and moving to Online? Migrated intact, with a verified cutover.

QuickBooks migration

QuickBooks cleanup

Past months already a mess? Inflated balances and broken reports fixed at the root.

QuickBooks cleanup

Online vs Desktop

Not sure which version fits? The honest comparison, by how you actually work.

Online vs Desktop

What separates a setup that lasts

A chart of accounts is built around how you make money — not from a template.

The generic QuickBooks template hands every business the same couple dozen accounts, which is exactly why DIY reports so rarely answer a real question — the structure was never built to. What the chart of accounts actually needs depends on the work:

Contractors & trades

Cost of goods split by job, with materials, labor, and subcontractors tracked separately, and retainage and work-in-progress handled — so a half-finished job doesn't read as pure profit and a profitable-looking month isn't hiding an underwater job.

Restaurants & food service

Food and beverage cost of sales split out (they move very differently), tips flowing to a liability rather than income, comps and voids visible, and card-processing fees broken out — so the margin you read is the margin you actually have.

Law & professional practices

Client trust (IOLTA) kept rigorously separate from operating funds so the two never commingle, with the trust liability tracked client by client — the structure a bar compliance review looks at first. Bar-rule responsibility stays with the attorney; we build the books so it's clean.

E-commerce & retail

Sales tax collected booked as a liability by jurisdiction, platform and merchant fees (Stripe, Shopify, Amazon) broken out instead of buried, and inventory and cost of goods tracked — so gross margin isn't a guess and the sales-tax you owe isn't a year-end surprise.

Whatever the trade, the test is the same: can the owner open a report and get a true answer to a real question? We build the foundation so the answer is yes.

QuickBooks setup FAQ

Direct answers about setting QuickBooks up right.

A real setup is the foundation everything else sits on: a chart of accounts built for how your business actually operates (not the generic template), bank and credit-card feeds connected with categorization rules that hold, correct opening balances as of your start date, your products and services and any sales-tax settings, user roles and permissions, and clean connections to the apps you use — payroll, payments, point-of-sale. Done right once, the monthly close stays easy; done carelessly, every month fights you.
Yes, and it's common. A DIY setup usually goes wrong in a few predictable places: a chart of accounts that doesn't match the business, bank rules miscategorizing everything, and opening balances that were never set, so nothing reconciles. We rebuild the foundation — restructure the chart of accounts, fix the feeds and rules, and set correct opening balances — so the file is clean going forward. If past months are already wrong, that's a QuickBooks cleanup, and we'll tell you which you need.
For most new businesses, QuickBooks Online — it's cloud-based, works from anywhere, connects to the widest range of apps, and is the version Intuit is investing in. QuickBooks Desktop still suits a few specific cases. We help you choose honestly based on how you operate rather than defaulting to one, and the version comparison is laid out in full on our Online vs Desktop page.
A straightforward setup is usually done within a week or two of getting your details and access; more involved files — multiple bank and credit-card accounts, inventory, payroll, or app integrations — take longer. You get a fixed scope and timeline in writing before any work starts, so there's no open-ended meter.
Less than most people expect. To start we need access to the QuickBooks subscription (or we'll help you pick the right one), read-only or login access to your business bank and credit-card accounts so we can connect the feeds, your entity details (legal name, EIN, business type, and the date you want the books to start from), and a recent statement for each account so opening balances can be set correctly. If you have a list of customers, vendors, products, or services, that speeds things up — but if you don't, building those cleanly is part of the work.
Yes. Moving from spreadsheets, Wave, Xero, or a shoebox is a normal starting point, not a problem. We don't need a tidy prior system — we need the source records: bank and card statements, any outstanding invoices and bills, asset and loan balances, and prior sales-tax or payroll filings if they apply. From those we build the chart of accounts and set opening balances that tie to reality as of your start date, so the new file is correct from the first day rather than carrying old errors forward.
Opening balances are what every account is worth on the day your QuickBooks history begins: cash in each bank account, what customers owe you, what you owe vendors and lenders, the value of inventory and equipment, and your equity. They have to tie — meaning each one matches its real-world source, like the bank statement or the loan payoff — because everything after them is built on top. If the opening balances are guessed or skipped, the file never reconciles, the balance sheet is wrong from day one, and the error compounds quietly until tax time. Setting them correctly is the single most-skipped step in a DIY setup and the one that causes the most expensive cleanups later.

Part of the QuickBooks ProAdvisor practice · see also ongoing support.

Start clean

Get QuickBooks set up right.

A Certified ProAdvisor scopes your setup, builds the foundation, and verifies it reconciles — fixed fee, in writing. New file or a botched DIY one, we get it clean. No pressure, no obligation.

Free setup consult Book a call
Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor Fixed fee, in writing Reply within one business day
832-702-3325 Free books review