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Returning Value Blog

Chris Earnest

Chris Earnest is the Director of Small Business Services

Recent Posts

FAQs About Creating and Optimizing Customer Profiles in QuickBooks

Posted by Chris Earnest on Oct 06, 2025

Small business owners might be tempted to rush through setting up customer profiles in QuickBooks® just to get invoices out quickly. But the extra data fields aren’t just busy work. Complete, accurate customer records help you generate more insightful reports, communicate with customers more effectively, and save time on bookkeeping tasks later. Here are answers to some common questions to help ensure your files are set up properly in your accounting software.

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Posted in Accounting & Outsourcing

Tax Court Case Provides Lessons on Best Recordkeeping Practices for Businesses

Posted by Chris Earnest on Sep 24, 2025

Running a successful business requires more than delivering great products or services. Behind the scenes, meticulous recordkeeping plays a crucial role in financial health, compliance, and tax savings. Good records can mean the difference between successfully defending a deduction and losing valuable tax breaks. A recent U.S. Tax Court decision underscores just how important this is.

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Posted in Accounting & Outsourcing

QuickBooks Users: It's Time for a Mid-Year Review

Posted by Chris Earnest on Jun 23, 2025

Performing a mid-year QuickBooks® cleanup is a smart habit that small business owners and bookkeepers can adopt to stay ahead of their financial responsibilities. Waiting until year end to review your accounting records can lead to unnecessary stress, missed deductions and preventable errors.

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Posted in Accounting & Outsourcing

Closing Time: Mastering Your Monthly Close with QuickBooks

Posted by Chris Earnest on May 21, 2025

The month-end close is a pain point for many small to midsize businesses. While internal accounting teams often aim to wrap up the close within three days, a recent survey found that half the respondents actually take six days or longer to close the books. What can your organization do to help streamline this process? Leveraging cloud-based technology tools like QuickBooks® can be a game changer.

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Posted in Accounting & Outsourcing

5 QuickBooks Reports to Review Each Month

Posted by Chris Earnest on Apr 07, 2025

Understanding your business’s financial health is essential for long-term success. QuickBooks® offers a powerful reporting tool suite that can provide critical insights to support decision-making and help you comply with accounting and tax rules.

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Posted in Accounting & Outsourcing

Harness the Power of QuickBooks for Your Business

Posted by Chris Earnest on Mar 10, 2025

Accurate financial records help business owners manage cash flow, tax obligations, and strategic planning. QuickBooks® is one of the most widely used bookkeeping software solutions for small and midsize businesses, offering a comprehensive suite of tools designed to simplify financial management and support business growth.

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Posted in Accounting & Outsourcing

Transform Month-End and Year-End Close

Posted by Chris Earnest on Feb 05, 2025

In a business world marked by uncertainty, month-end and year-end accounting challenges have remained a constant. The resolution of the recent political season and the Federal Reserve’s lowering of interest rates may have given organizations an overall renewed sense of optimism and the momentum to tackle those challenges. However, the complexity and volume of financial tasks during these periods can overwhelm even the most seasoned accounting teams, placing intense pressure on those that may lack the necessary resources. In this article, we explore how outsourcing accounting functions may provide a viable way to alleviate that pressure. 

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Posted in Accounting & Outsourcing

Balancing the Books: Regular Bank Reconciliations Are Essential for a Successful Business

Posted by Chris Earnest on Dec 24, 2024

How often do you reconcile your company’s internal financial records against your bank statements? Bank reconciliations are an essential internal control procedure that busy owners and managers sometimes overlook or neglect. Here’s why it pays to perform them regularly.

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Posted in Accounting & Outsourcing

Chart a Course for Success With a Detailed Chart of Accounts

Posted by Chris Earnest on Dec 05, 2024

A chart of accounts is the foundation of accurate financial reporting, so it needs to be set up correctly. A disorganized chart or one that lumps transactions into broad, undefined “buckets” of data can make it difficult for management to evaluate financial performance and identify unmet customer needs — or open the door to accounting errors and fraud. Here’s some guidance on how to create a robust chart that’s right for your situation.

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Posted in Accounting & Outsourcing

5 Reasons to Outsource Your Bookkeeping

Posted by Chris Earnest on Nov 05, 2024

Running a closely held business is challenging. Owners usually prioritize core business operations — such as managing employees, serving customers, and bringing in new sales — over tedious bookkeeping tasks. Plus, the accounting rules can be overwhelming.

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Posted in Accounting & Outsourcing

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