Education, QuickBooks Software, Software, Tips

Expert Tips For Attending Scaling New Heights 2025

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Note: this article is a semi-annual rewrite/update of my original one on QuickBooks Connect 2023.

One of my favorite books when I was a kid was “Hail, Hail, Camp Timberwood,” about a girl who goes to summer camp for her first time. She’s standing around, feeling (and probably looking) uncomfortable as all the return campers are running around, hugging each other, excited to be reunited. All of a sudden, someone runs up to her and gives her a big hug and says how happy she is to see her again. After a moment of total confusion, the girl leans in and says, “Don’t worry – we don’t actually know each other. I was just feeling left out and figured I’d join ‘em.” The two of them become fast friends and go off hugging others who looked out of place and letting them in on the joke. Before you know it, the entire place was full of everyone running around hugging each other and laughing.

While I can’t say this is likely to happen exactly like that at the upcoming Scaling New Heights conference in Orlando, I also wouldn’t be that surprised if it did. There will be heaps of people reuniting for the first time since last year (check out my video blog about previous amazing takeaways as well as an article for Insightful Accountant). But there will also be loads of first-timers attending (approximately 400 per Joe Woodard’s recent webinar: Maximizing Your SNH Experience), who are nervous and out of their element. Find the other wallflowers and go up to them – tell them it seemed like maybe they didn’t know anyone there, either, and do they want to eat lunch together or go to a vendor booth or grab a drink? You’ll be delighted and surprised at how many of these folks you’ll stay in touch with through the years. Remember, progressive accountants and bookkeepers such as the kind you’ll find at SNH – especially those who go year after year – are excited you’re there, and they want to help make your experience better. Introduce yourself to someone who looks like they “belong” and say that you’re new, and not sure where to begin. I am sure they’ll point you in the right direction, take you under their wing, or introduce you to someone who might be a great conference buddy.

For today’s blog post, I’m going to be that conference buddy, and share with you my Expert Tips for Attending Scaling New Heights 2025.

Tip One — PLAN AHEAD

  1. Attend a prep session webinar or podcast for individual insights. Insightful Accountant will be focusing their Wednesday, June 18th QB Talks on the topic of Prepping for SNH, with special guests Kim Noh and Heather Day Satterley (SNH Director of Education).
  2. And Joe Woodard himself will be hosting one on Maximizing Your Experience at Scaling New Heights 2025 on Wednesday, June 4th, 3-4 pm Eastern, and you can register here.
  3. Plan ahead, make a schedule, but be comfortable diverging from it; that way you don’t waste time figuring out what to do in the moment, but you also don’t miss the organic opportunities that arise.
  4. Make a list of vendors you’d like to meet; they’re often very busy during open Exhibit Hall time; it might be helpful to set up a time with them to meet during a session when the Hall is less busy. Bring a list of questions you’d like to have answered. Narrow your scope… it’s impossible to visit everyone. Pick a few areas of interest, look into which vendors serve those areas, and focus on them.
  5. Connect on social media with others who will be attending, whether it’s in a Facebook group like Woodard Group of the Americas (check out their very active community chats) or QB Community Live, LinkedIn, or other platform, you can always use #SNH25 to find out who you already know that might be going. Engage and make plans ahead of time.
  6. Check with your sales reps and vendors for the tools you love best — whether you’re already using them or plan to implement this year — to see if they are hosting any customer dinners, happy hours or get-togethers. Same with professional associations you might be considering joining, like Bookkeeping Buds, Realize, Roundtable, or my own ‘Ask a CPA’ community.

Tip Two — DOWNLOAD AND USE THE MOBILE APP

  1. The training schedule on the Woodard website does a nice job of giving you a visual to see which sessions are held concurrently. It also lists the speaker, track, and topics at-a-glance, which the app does not. However, you can only register for a session using the mobile app or the web app — not via the main website’s training schedule, which is informational-only.
  2. If you still have the app on your phone from last year, it will no longer work, as they’ve upgraded to a Woodard Events-branded version of the popular Cvent app.
  3. You can download the new app from Google Play or the Apple App Store. Just search for “Woodard Events”.
  4. The conference app is also available as a web version called the Attendee Hub. And YES, the web app and mobile app sync with each other automatically!
  5. From either the mobile app or the web app, you can easily export each session to your own online calendar.
  6. Both versions of the app have newly improved filters for dates, times, categories, and speakers; and the exhibit hall vendors are now sorted by type!
  7. It’s definitely helpful to the community if you register ahead-of-time for the classes that interest you (such as my two sessions — “The Tax-Ready Bookkeeper: A Year-End Review Checklist”, at 2:10 pm on Wednesday, June 25th; and, “Best Practices for 1099 Preparation Services” immediately following, at 4:10 pm)! This is how they determine which rooms will be assigned for each one. If there’s a lot of interest in a particular topic, they’ll give it a bigger room, and that makes life easier for everyone.
  8. You can’t “like” or “favorite” any of the other sessions at the same time, as is the case with some apps… you can only “register”, and only for one per time slot. However, you can export as many sessions as you like from either the app or web version of the app to your calendar, which could be a workaround if you’re interested in more than one and want to track them all.
  9. The app won’t let you register if it’s full. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to attend anyway! Lines will form for the “sold-out” sessions, and they will let additional people in if there’s capacity, which there usually is – get there early to be near the front of the line. There is almost always extra room and I’ve rarely been turned away.
  10. If you click on the session, it will show you the description and learning objectives, as well as speaker info. If you click on the speaker, it will show their bio and all the sessions they’re teaching at the conference, as well as a link to their website. This is a great way to research which instructors you’d like to hear.

Tip Three — PACK WISELY AND COMFORTABLY

  1. Wear comfortable shoes – this is the largest Marriott in the world! It can easily be a mile from your room to the conference center. (Plus… the occasional industry leader dance-off competition, just sayin’.)
  2. Pack an extra collapsible duffle bag for swag if you’re into it – but remember… you can also say “no thank you”. It’s easy to get lost in the freebie frenzy, but do you really need another stress ball? That said, some of the stuff will be too good to pass up and you want to make sure you have room to carry it home.
  3. The breakout rooms are often FREEZING! Bring a wrap, poncho or sweatshirt.
  4. However, it’s also Orlando in June and there’s a pool, as well as a full waterpark with a lazy river and waterslides. The main pool is included at no extra charge as part of the Scaling New Heights room cost, and the waterpark is available for an upgrade. Pack your swimsuit!
  5. Bring a refillable water bottle (or reuse a plastic bottle) and/or coffee/tea mug; there will be dispensers, and also, the water in your hotel room is fine to drink.
  6. Bring battery packs and chargers – often the rooms are in a basement and your cell struggles and chews up your battery; plus you’ll want to be on the conference app, and your association’s Slack or Circle apps, and you’ll probably text a lot.
  7. Conference hotels are pricey! Buy food & drink at a nearby convenience store if you’re going to want snacks or a bottle or box of wine outside of the usual meals and parties. Keep in mind that the Marriott is a Pepsi products hotel, so if you need your Coke, best buy some as well. The closest 7/11 is a mile away, so hit it up first-thing on the way from the airport so you get it all in one visit, or get a group of folks together to split the cost of a 6-seater Lyft XL. (While you’re there, pick up some Epsom salts to soak your feet.)
  8. Ordering grocery or restaurant food delivery is often a lot cheaper than eating at the hotel restaurants. I’ve heard great things about Vacation Grocery Delivery in Orlando.
  9. Speaking of the hotel restaurants, the reservations book up very quickly. If you know you’ll want to eat out on a given night, go ahead and reserve as soon as you can.
  10. There are coffeemakers in the rooms, but only the kind that take those disposable pod-cup things. There is a Starbucks and a market but sometimes the lines are long. You may want to bring a portable tea kettle or coffeemaker; this is ours, and it’s a lifesaver. (I wish I had an affiliate link because I recommend this thing to everyone.) Works great for boiling water for instant oatmeal or ramen if you have a midnight hankering!
  11. Carry small bills for tipping bartenders at the various happy hours, socials, parties and receptions. They work hard and many attendees don’t think to bring cash.
  12. Bring earplugs for sleeping and loud parties.
  13. Many folks are participating in “Tutu Tuesday” where everyone wears a tutu — in fact, Alicia Katz-Pollock of Royalwise and the Unofficial QuickBooks Podcast is giving out 100 blue tutus as swag at the Expo Hall! (Get there early.)
  14. And others are wearing their best Star Trek: Next Generation costumes in honor of the theme, “Make It So”.
  15. All that said: don’t overpack. We’re only there for four days and you can re-wear some of your clothing. You don’t want to get stuck spending most of your final night re-packing your whole wardrobe. You’ll probably need less stuff than you think.
  16. There’s usually a spot where you can store your luggage on the last day, after checking out (rather than with the hotel concierge). Either way, you’re good.
  17. Dress code: BE YOURSELF. Many people are in sweats and jeans, others are in power-suits or dresses, and some of us love dressing up in-costume and wearing tiaras (or tutus, or — spoiler alert: cow costumes) whenever we get the chance. Wear what makes you feel most like yourself.

Tip Four — TRAVEL CONSIDERATIONS

  1. Mears Transportation offers shuttle service from Orlando International Airport to the hotel for $16 per person, each way. Reserve in advance here. Given that taxi fare is about $55, the shuttle is usually the better way to go, especially with luggage.
  2. Included in the cost of rooms in the Scaling New Heights room block is daily scheduled shuttle service to all four Disney Parks & Disney Springs.
  3. Plan for ample travel time while in Orlando, whether you’re on foot or in a vehicle. The location is “just outside the entrance to Disney World” but each property is so massive that it often takes half-an-hour to get anywhere.
  4. Once you’ve met a bunch of folks at the conference, consider coordinating to share a cab back to the airport when you depart, if the shuttle service timing doesn’t work for you and you don’t have too much luggage.
  5. Check in early and skip the SNH check-in lines. Usually, they offer early check-in on Saturday from 12 PM-6 PM and again on Sunday starting at 8 AM. You can head to the Registration Desk near the Cypress Ballroom. Remember to bring your ID.

Tip Five — NETWORKING

  1. Represent your tribe… for example, a couple years ago at Intuit Connect, the Bookkeeping Buds all wore tiaras for one of the sessions where a member was presenting. I also always bring my favorite Bookkeeping Buds bag and use it instead of the conference one (it not only is a nice talking point, but it also is easier to find if you leave it behind somewhere). I bought custom-made badge ribbons and stickers for our ‘Ask a CPA’ group members who will be attending. Many folks love wearing t-shirts from their favorite apps – Kim Noh even has her own tee that has logos of her tech stack!
  2. Stay connected via Slack, Circle, social media, and texts throughout the conference. Often folks in your group will save a block of seats at the mainstage presentations, or will give a heads-up when a particular session is fabulous or misses the mark.
  3. Bring business cards – digital, paper, or a paper one with a QR code (or QR code stickers). I started using HiHello a couple years ago, and I printed out a QR code and taped it to my phone case, which makes it easy for folks to scan, but also a great way for someone to find me if I lose my phone. These days the vendors usually just scan your badge to get your info, but they do sometimes have raffles where you can drop an old-school card in an old-school fishbowl; I have a different set of b-cards I use for these with an email that routes to a different folder.
  4. Prepare your elevator pitch – who are you, what do you do, why are you here, what makes you different? What will I want to remember about meeting you?
  5. SNH is practically taking over the entire hotel — so no matter who you run into, say hi and start up a conversation… 95% likelihood they’re with us.

Tip Six — TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF

  1. Sleep well the week leading up to the conference – the sessions start early, the parties go late, and there’s always something happening in the hotel bar.
  2. Put your badge on the inside of the doorknob when you get back to your room, so that you remember to grab it on your way out. They are strict about not letting anyone in without it.
  3. If you’re getting groceries delivered or stopping by a 7/11 or Walgreens, consider picking up some Epsom salts to soak your feet.
  4. It’s okay to skip the morning session if you were up late, or to take a nap during a mainstage or between events. Give yourself some grace.
  5. But be careful about how late you stay up and how much you drink. You don’t want to miss something valuable or feel sick just because you lost track of yourself. There’s a cool “bracelet trick” I learned years ago… put as many bracelets on your left wrist as drinks you’ll allow yourself. Move one bracelet to the right wrist with each drink. Once your left wrist is empty, you cut yourself off. Another trick is to re-use the same glass each time you get another adult beverage — filling it up with water between drinks… you have to finish the water before allowing yourself a refill. And this may go without saying, but make sure to eat a full meal to soak up the bevvies.
  6. Consider arriving a day early or leaving a day late so you can see the sights or enjoy the hotel amenities. I find that every place I go has something to offer. Even Orlando.

Tip Seven — SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS

  1. There is a “New Attendee Orientation” on Sunday, June 22 at 9 AM (likely held in the Crystal Ballroom). They will place veteran conference-goers at each table to help guide rookies (400 of them this year!) and answer questions. There is a “Practice Advancement Breakfast” afterwards (likely in the Palms Ballroom Sabal Room). It requires an RSVP in the app, but is free of charge and includes a hot breakfast.
  2. There are always seats up-front, even when a session looks full. Don’t be nervous about walking right up there, even if it’s a few minutes into the session. No one’s looking at you, and no one cares.
  3. That said, feel free to ditch a class if it’s not what you were hoping for or expected. There are other workshops that will be better worth your valuable time – or maybe it’s an opportunity to visit with vendors or network with colleagues.
  4. There are three special types of talks that you might want to keep in mind. First: Vendor breakfasts, which are sponsored sessions you can enjoy while eating the hot breakfast that’s included with the conference; they are not sales pitches, and they are very transparent about being sponsored slots. One in particular I’d recommend is Valerie Heckman‘s Unlocking The Power of the Ta-Da List: A Workshop with OnPay. Her keynote last year was truly inspiring. Secondly: Woodard Theater sessions — 15-20 minute mini-sessions in the Expo Hall on specific topics where a presenter is excited to share their expertise, like my Tuesday morning session on How to Protect Your Clients from Reasonable Compensation Myths. And finally: themed Walking Tours of the Expo Hall; these one-hour sessions were developed by CPA Practice Advisor Editor Gail Perry years ago, and Woodard has brought them back! Only available for PLUS Pass holders and Woodard members. Hope Brown and I will be leading one on tax tech Monday at 2:50 pm.
  5. Take lots of notes – notebook, e-ink pad, tablet, laptop… however works best for you. (In fact, as a paper-note-taker, I plan to check out my friends’ Remarkables and Supernotes as one of my research goals for the conference.)
  6. In that notebook, keep one page aside for notes that are about client-specific problems that you will solve when you get back home; and another for non-client-specific items you will address. Try to restrict that second list to only 2-3 things – it’s impossible to implement every shiny new idea you come across. Those will hang around in your head and you’ll get a chance to learn more at the next conference, by which point maybe you’ll have a new set of goals.
  7. Woodard is holding a special fundraiser and volunteer event on Saturday for early arrivers — the Build-a-Bike event for at-risk youth will be held from 3-5 pm.
  8. There are also themed “meet-ups” at various times throughout the conference, which are listed in the app. If one of them sounds like people you want to meet, then this is the perfect time to do it! They’ll be held in the “Plan Guru” meetup space.
  9. Forwardly — proud sponsor of the “She Counts” podcast hosted by Questian Telka and myself — has compiled an SNH Primer: a list of their favorite events and sessions. We’re especially delighted to announce that we’ll be hosting a meet-and-greet at their booth on Tuesday, June 24th at 3 pPlease come visit and pick up your Forwardly and She Counts swag.
  10. Jennifer Dymond and I will be hosting Cow-a-BINGO at the Keeper booth on Monday at 11 am! In cow-stumes. No, really! Come join us for fun times and prizes.
  11. Most mainstage and breakout sessions will be recorded, but only Woodard members and PLUS pass holders will have access (for 6 months; can be shared with other members in the same company, to spread the love). They will even apply the cost of your conference admission to your membership! If you’re interested, reach out to Shirley Koss, Woodard Community Manager.
  12. It’s natural to be nervous, but you can do this! Even extroverts struggle with meeting new people sometimes. Move through that shyness or fear and lean into the fact that almost everyone here came alone; everyone had a first conference where they didn’t know anyone; and everyone is here to meet other people and develop their practices. We have so much in common… sit at a lunch-table where you don’t know anyone and introduce yourself. Ask why they’re here and what they’re enjoying most. Find out where they’re from and what their specialty is. Tell them your goals and ask if they have advice. Ask them what their tech stack is and share your struggles with your choices and vendors and all the things. We will never run out of topics to talk about with each other, because there is so much to learn in our industry. Plus, chances are that these are folks who are as passionate about what they do as you are, or they wouldn’t be here in the first place.

Now, if this was helpful, your next steps are to: go register for Joe Woodard’s “Maximizing Your SNH Experience” Q&A on Wednesday, June 4th, 3-4 pm Eastern; download the mobile app or go to the web app and register for your sessions (especially my three!); download some good podcasts to listen to on the flight; and start packing.

See you soon at Scaling New Heights!

Education, Illinois, Tips

How To Make IL Dept Of Rev (IDOR) Business Tax, Estimated Tax, and Extension Payments Online – UPDATED April 2025

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Did your accountant (possibly me) ask you to make a MyTax Illinois business tax payment for your Illinois pass-through entity, such as a Partnership or S-Corp — maybe an estimated tax payment or extension payment? And you’re not entirely sure how to make that happen? Well, you’ve come to the right place.

The big difference between making an Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR) payment for an individual (or even with a sole proprietorship) and an entity-type business (for example, a Partnership, S-Corp, C-Corp, or Co-op) is that for an individual, you do NOT want to log into the MyTax Illinois system — it won’t work. But for an entity-level business, you MUST first log into the MyTax Illinois system — it’s the only way to get it to work. Once you know that little tidbit, the rest of it is pretty easy to figure out.

So, first things first: if you’re making a payment for your business entity, go to MyTax Illinois and log in under your business Username and Password. (But if this is for your personal taxes or Schedule C/ sole proprietor/ freelancer taxes, do not log in; instead follow these instructions.)

It will prompt you to verify your security code, usually sent to your business email address, and once you enter the two-factor authentication, you should see your IL business tax dashboard.

Go to the “Summary” tab.

On the ‘Summary’ tab, look for the ‘Business Income Tax’ section. (In other words, not the Unemployment Insurance, Withholding, Sales Tax or any other type of tax.)

Once you’ve found that section, look to the right of it. Click on the link for ‘View more account options’.

There are two ways to do it from here; the first is:

— In the ‘Account Options’ section, click the link for ‘Make An Estimated Payment’.

— Select the period you want to pay (which is 12/31/2024 for tax year 2024, if you’re paying a balance due or extension payment — or, choose 12/31/2025 if paying estimated taxes for any quarter in the current tax year).
— Click the first ‘Add Payment’ hyperlink in the Payment Schedule table for each payment you would like to schedule.
— If your payment information is saved in MyTax Illinois, you will see it as an option under ‘Payment Channel’.
— Otherwise, select ‘Use a new payment channel’ and enter your company bank info.
— In either case, on the right where it says ‘Payment’, you can change the payment’s debit date and enter the amount.
— Click Submit, and re-enter your password for security purposes.

Make sure to save or print the confirmation page that pops up as a pdf — for your files, but also please send it along to your amazing and dedicated tax preparer.

(If you miss that last bit, then please go into your payment history for this account and do a print-screen that includes the status section; it will show the amount, confirmation number, and date/time.)

And remember that when it comes time to log this payment in QBO, it will go in the “Taxes & Licenses” section of the Profit & Loss (not in the sub-account of Equity for personal tax payments). Please note the type of payment (balance due, extension, or estimated tax) in the memo, and the year to which it is being applied (and quarter if applicable).

That’s all there is to it! Congrats — you did it! I’m proud of you!

Alternative Approach — Now, just because I love it when people get really confused by having too many options, I’m going to point out that there is an alternative method to paying these taxes on the MyTax IL website. Should you prefer, you can follow these instructions instead… but I don’t recommend it, because it routes you to a “Select payment type” page that is a bit overwhelming if you’re not already a tax pro familiar with Illinois’ unique approach to forms and payment types. But if you insist… from the ‘View more account options’ page, you can do the following:
— In the ‘Periods and Submissions’ section, click the link for ‘View Account Periods’
— Click the 12/31/2024 link so that your payment is applied to tax year 2024 (or a later period if paying current-year estimated quarterly taxes)
— In the upper right corner of this page, click the ‘Make A Payment’ link
— Select the ‘Bank Account Debit’ link
— Click the IL-1120-ST Payment link (ST denotes a “Small Business” payment)
— Enter the amount you want to pay in the Amount and Confirm Amount fields
— Click Submit, and re-enter your password for security purposes

Either way, you’ve now made an Illinois state income tax payment for your pass-through entity, and you can sit back, relax, and enjoy all the other fun activities that come with being a small business owner.

One last thing… on the off-chance that you made a payment for the wrong period (some people get confused when making their 1Q estimated tax payment and instead book it to the prior year, since those tax returns are still fresh on our minds), IDOR finally has a way for us to cancel those payments instead of having to call and have them moved to the correct period. A client who made exactly that mistake this year sent me these instructions to share with y’all:

>> Log in
>> Go to Business Income Tax
>> View more account options
>> View Account Periods
>> Select the period
>> Select Payment Request
>> Then click Cancel Payment on the upper right.

Now you REALLY have everything you need to navigate the complexities of paying your business taxes on MyTax Illinois! And if possible, I hope that you’re able to do it all in good cheer. Hang in there, I see you. And you’re doing a great job.

If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

Education, QuickBooks Software, Tips

My 2025 Guide to the Top 10 Accounting Conferences (and How to Pick Your Perfect Fit)

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I love attending accounting conferences. This comes as a surprise to no one who knows me (or even knows of me) – I’ve been featured in countless promo reels, given interviews on the topic, written “tips & tricks” articles, and talked up the amazing Accounting Cornerstone Foundation (more on them later) endlessly. Why? Accountants are boring, right? Why would anyone want to hang out with a bunch of them? What is there to learn that you can’t get from an industry publication? And anyway, conferences are expensive and couldn’t possibly be worth all the fuss, right. What’s the point?

I recently joined Gary DeHart of Insightful Accountant to discuss exactly that question, and to walk through my picks for the Top 10 Accounting Conferences of 2025.

Why I Attend Accounting Conferences

Back in 2016 I wrote a blog post about my takeaways from the first Scaling New Heights conference I attended. Mind you, I’d been to plenty of other conferences before then, but this particular blog post resonates in particular because it still holds entirely true, almost ten years later! In re-reading it, I am delighted to find my core reasons for attending conferences remain the same:

  1. Focusing my practice on our strengths & priorities – Exactly what these are change from year-to-year and are deeply personal; it’s something I discuss with my team and we often decide together. Some examples from the past for us: niching; staffing; training; defining our Ideal Client Profile; pivoting to education, leadership, public speaking; automation and delegation; the client experience; the list goes on. I usually pick one or two overarching goals for each conference – but I also keep my eyes open to concepts I haven’t yet considered.
  2. Apps & Solutions – Something that no webinar, demo or virtual conference can fully emulate is the unmatched experience of being able to research and compare various products, apps, and other tools, all under one roof… with countless colleagues surrounding you who have actually implemented one or the other solution. This is how my Senior Accountant and I finally landed on Keeper a few years back – which has been a game-changer for our CPA and bookkeeping firm – and it’s what led me to Gusto payroll and Relay banking back in the day. It’s also how I finally decided to focus on QuickBooks rather than diversify into other platforms. These may not be the solutions for you (as I said, it’s a deeply personalized experience based on your needs and goals), but for us they’ve made a lasting difference, and researching potential partnerships with these companies would not otherwise have been possible with the same degree of interaction and comparison.
  3. Real-life accounting firm scenarios – There’s a saying that the real conference happens not in the sessions, but in the hallways. Now, I’m not throwing shade at the classes, workshops, events or vendor hall, because I’m obsessed with all of those as well! But remember what an incredible resource your colleagues are… as a collective, they probably have all the combined experience you need to get all your questions about firm-running or providing great service answered. There’s always going to be someone out there who’s tried this-or-that and has an opinion on the topic, and it’s about time you found them. Keep your ears tuned to the other questions folks ask, talk to your class or lunch neighbors about your goals and aspirations, and pay attention to others attending demos and ask what if any solution they’re currently using, and why they’re exploring other options. Your community is the biggest resource you could possibly imagine – we’re all trying to figure it out and no one can do it alone better than they can with input from others.
  4. Tips & tricks – By this, I mean the nuggets rather than the giant implementations. Some of my biggest takeaways have sometimes been the smallest little chunks of learning… setting defaults for reporting, or uploading receipts via a mobile app, or tweaking settings for reminders; the list goes on. I keep a page at the back of my notebook for little gems like these, and also write the names of specific clients that would benefit from implementation so that I don’t forget when I get back to the real world.
  5. Networking & comparing notes w/ colleagues – Building relationships with colleagues is fun. It makes life better. It helps you feel less alone; it gives you someone to bounce ideas off of; it can be invaluable when you end up with a client who opens an account with a bank that won’t sync with QuickBooks and you can’t remember how to import the data. (If that sounds weirdly specific it’s because it actually happened to me last year. Pro tip: don’t use Square’s Checking account.) And the best way I can think of to find these people is to meet them at conferences, and learn about which communities they’re a part of that you can join. There are so many great ones out there – Bookkeeping Buds, Realize, Roundtable, and of course my own ‘Ask a CPA’ membership for bookkeepers who have questions they (for whatever reason) can’t ask their clients’ tax pros. (Tantalizing freebie download for readers: an abbreviated version of our “Bookkeepers Guide to Annual Reviews”.)
  6. Meeting vendors & speakers – I know I mentioned Apps & Solutions earlier, but this time I’m talking about developing personal relationships with vendors and speakers, whether you need a rep to help you solve a specific problem, or might need a go-to in the future, or to set up a demo for your clients or community, or for a future potential collaboration. I did this for years just as a matter of course, because I like people and I like knowing what’s going on in the industry, and time and time again it’s come back to me in a positive way, whether it’s because I needed a favor, or had one to offer, or was looking for a podcast sponsor or guest. I once even had the amazing experience of a Point of Sale guru giving a client of mine a call when her old QuickBooks Desktop POS went on the fritz – the amazing Will English came to the rescue and saved her literally thousands of dollars and months of headache. All because I was impressed with his talk at a conference and got to know him better in the vendor hall.
  7. Exploring a new city or visiting an old favorite – Yes, I’m talking about travel. I almost always try to arrive a day early and leave a day or two after the conference so I can catch some of the sights with my husband, who often travels with me and works from the hotel room. You can also do this on your own or make plans with other attendees to meet up (ahead of time or on a lark). It’s an incredible opportunity to check out the sights and build some work-life balance into your trip. And it’s travel with built-in protection from client demands and team emails, since they know you’re busy at a conference, learning things that will help make their lives better when you get back.

How to Choose Which Conferences To Attend

I posted on LinkedIn to find out how my colleagues set their goals, budget, and criteria for deciding which conferences they’d attend and got a lot of great feedback. I asked:
 – What are your favorites? And most importantly: WHY?
 – What do you look for in an accounting conference?
 – How do you budget for them?
 – And how do you choose from so many amazing ones?

And I’ve summarized that feedback here (and in the Insightful Accountant video), along with my own takes.

Different Types of Conferences

First, a few general comments about “Different types of conferences”. I aim to attend at least A) one smaller-scale retreat, B) one accounting technology conference, and C) one tax update conference per year, and everything else falls into place based on 1-people I want to meet, 2-my travel schedule, 3-my goals for the year, and 4-in my case, whether or not I’ve been invited or accepted to speak.

To get those juices flowing, here’s a list of different types of conferences that I personally consider:

  • Accounting Technology
  • Bookkeeping
  • Tax Compliance
  • Advisory
  • Topic-Specific (e.g., Mental Health/ Sustainability-Bridging The Gap; Pricing-REFRAME; Education-‘Appy Camp)
  • Team-Building
  • Sector (Co-ops, Nonprofits, Fraud, Women-Focused, Niche: Legal, Restaurants, Medical, Cannabis, etc.)
  • Format: Live/Virtual/Hybrid; Keynote/Breakout/Panel; Size: Big/Medium/Small; How Interactive/Participatory; Solo/Team)
  • Location – whether because you want to travel somewhere specific or avoid somewhere you don’t like, or you want to stay local! (Erin Pohan even created her own conference in Seattle because she didn’t want to travel – talk about “building your own stage”.)

In my opinion, it’s important to be intentional about what you’re choosing and why (something I learned from Cindy Schroeder in Bookkeeping Buds). There’s an endless number of incredible events out there… to get the most out of your conference budget, it helps to have a list of long-term, short-term, and conference goals. (I have a business to run… time away from my team and clients can be rejuvenating and insightful, but it’s also non-billable.) With goals in mind, it’s much easier to choose which ones to attend, as well as to plan your time wisely while you’re there, and of course, to evaluate your takeaways and fold them into the fabric of your practice after you get back.

Goal-Setting

What are your goals for your firm, team members, your own career development, and your role in the accounting space? Are you marketing for new clients or collaboration with colleagues? Do you need technical guidance most? Firm practice management? Inspiration? These are all valid, and all highly personal.

Once you know what you’re looking for overall, then you have to figure out how to choose which conference in each target area. Spend some time on LinkedIn, check in with your favorite webinar speakers, and of course, consult with your professional organizations – for me that’s my own ‘Ask a CPA’ community, as well as Bookkeeping Buds, Realize, ‘Appy Camp, Theatre of Public Speaking, NATP, and AICPA – to see which members are attending what.

Now, I hear you introverts out there, “what do you mean, check in with my favorite webinar speakers?” I mean, ask them whether they’re speaking at any in-person conferences this year. Shoot them an email or DM on the socials. Everyone likes having fans, and we’re all trying to distinguish ourselves from the crowd — it’s a real compliment to hear from someone who you’ve reached with your messaging. Don’t be shy about asking.

Planning your Time Wisely

Each year I write a big article for MSN on planning your time at Scaling New Heights and Intuit Connect, so follow me there if you’d like to get notified when those come out. Because once you’ve chosen the conference or retreats, I recommend you build your schedule intentionally.

For a big tech conference like Scaling New Heights — with someone like Heather Day Satterley hand-selecting the best speakers in our industry — it easily takes me 2.5 hours to go through all the session descriptions and speaker lists to pick my favorites. And then some are already booked up, and some are held at the same time… if the app allows you to “favorite” more than one, then you’ll have a backup if the one you attend turns out not to be the right fit for you. I also like to take a quick look at the PDF of the slides if they’re in the app to see if the level of the class is a match.

Making a list of vendors you’d like to meet in the Exhibit Hall is another planning recommendation.

I’m a huge proponent of planning ahead, yet not being married to your choices. That way you never waste time in the moment trying to decide what to do, but you also don’t blind yourself to going with the flow. Sometimes you’ll decide to engage in one-on-one or small group discussion, or catch up on Slack or app chat; that’s great, just go with the flow without getting lost.

And now… (drumroll please), the moment we’ve all been waiting for, in chronological order:

My Top 10 USA Accounting Conferences of 2025

  1. Scaling New Heights – Jun 22-25, Orlando, FL – https://www.woodard.com/scaling-new-heights-2025
  2. #TaxTwitter Retreat, Denver, CO – Jul 18-19 – https://www.taxretreat.org/
  3. NATP Taxposium – Jul 21-23, Las Vegas, NV – https://www.taxposium.com/
  4. Bridging the Gap, Denver, CO – Jul 22-24 – https://www.btgconference.com/
  5. Women Who Count (AFWA), Mesa, AZ – Oct 21-25 – https://www.afwa.org/women-who-count/
  6. Intuit Connect – Oct 27-29, Las Vegas, NV – https://www.intuit.com/intuitconnect/
  7. Reframe, Coral Gables, FL – Nov 2-5 – https://www.reframeaccounting.com/
  8. Best Virtual Conference – Financial Cents’ WorkFlowCon – Nov 11-12, Virtual – https://financial-cents.com/resources/articles/accounting-conferences-2025/#8-workflowcon-2025
  9. AICPA Digital CPA – Dec 7-10, Washington, DC – https://www.cpa.com/digital-cpa
  10. CPA Practice Advisor “Ensuring Success” – Dec 10-11, Dallas, TX/Virtual – https://ensuringsuccess.com/

For a detailed explanation of why I chose each one of these, check out my interview with Insightful Accountant — if you’d like to leap right on over to the drumroll and the list, it starts about half-way through for those who want to skip to the good stuff (I promise I won’t be offended).

Honorable Mentions:

Accounting Cornerstone Foundation

If you’ve read this article or watched the interview with Gary on Insightful Accountant, and you’re ready to attend your first accounting conference, then I’ve got one more step for you to consider. Check out the Accounting Cornerstone Foundation at https://accountingcornerstone.org/.

Born from a ‘what if’ sticky note at Appy Camp, the Accounting Cornerstone Foundation has become a reality with only one goal in mind: to share the opportunity to attend continuing education conferences and support the growth of accounting and bookkeeping professionals around the globe.  They are a nonprofit that sends accounting and bookkeeping professionals to local in-person continuing education conferences, providing conference tickets, airfare, and hotel accommodation.

If you’re already keen on accounting conferences and you know how life-changing and career-enhancing they can be, then please consider becoming an ACF donor. All of us were once in the situation where we knew attending a conference could make a big difference in our lives, but the question of the chicken or the egg loomed… how am I supposed to come up with the money to attend, when I have to earn a living and I’m just getting by? And then you tell yourself… but if I attend, maybe that will give me the tools I need to not just “get by” but to really thrive? But then… Catch 22 again… where is that money going to come from? The more donations ACF gets, the more applicants they can accept and the more first-timers they can send to conferences, pure and simple. If everyone in accounting-conference-land out there could donate even a small amount, we’d be able to pay it forward for generations.

Final Thoughts: Conferences Can Change Everything

Whether you’re a seasoned firm owner or a solo practitioner still finding your footing, the right accounting conference can make a world of difference. I’ve built lifelong friendships, made smarter tech decisions, improved my team’s systems, found new passions, and met mentors and peers who make this whole journey more joyful and sustainable. Every year, these events help me hit the reset button on my vision and remind me why I do what I do (as well as help me “do it better”).

Please don’t just read this list and move on. Take a moment. Revisit your goals, peek at your calendar, and choose at least one conference to attend this year. Bonus points if you apply for a scholarship from the Accounting Cornerstone Foundation, or help someone else attend by donating. Trust me — it’s worth it.

Here’s to growing your practice, expanding your network, and falling (maybe all over again) in love with this amazing, weird, ever-evolving industry of ours.

See you in the hallways. 💼✈️🎉

If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

Education, IRS, Tips

How I Stay Sane During Busy Season (Mostly… Arguably… Okay, Just Don’t Ask My Husband About It)

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Tax season—that special time of year when caffeine consumption triples, restful sleep becomes a scavenger hunt, and your spouse and friends begin to question your sanity. If you’re deep in the trenches of tax filings, bookkeeping clean-ups, and client questions that could’ve-been-Google-searches, you know the struggle is real. But after 23 years, I feel like I’m finally finding my groove… and because I don’t want it to take you as long to figure out as it did me, I’m sharing tips and tricks that have been successful, and maybe this vision for the future will make today’s load a little lighter.

Tap Technology to Do More with Less

I’ll start with the lifesaver of modern accounting: technology. Yes, I recognize that it’s also the bane of our existence when “Mercury’s retrograde” (or whatever we want to blame for it), but as my software-developer-husband likes to remind me, that’s because I’ve built my life around my tech stack—and vice versa, have built it around my life. It’s what facilitates the lifestyle I’ve chosen for myself: a fully-remote CPA firm that allows me to live in Mexico during tax season and travel during conference season, while making an important difference in the lives of small business owners back home in Chicago.

For me, that means making sure my tech is portable, accessible by my whole team, easy for my clients to use, secure, and reliable.

QuickBooks Online has been my trusty sidekick on this journey for years. And I was such a hater when it was first released! I still laugh when I think about how negative I was about it; because at the time, it was a real frustration that it didn’t behave like or do what the Desktop version could. Thankfully those days are far behind us now. For the type of work we do, QBO has far surpassed its older cousin – it helps automate the tedious, repetitive tasks that used to eat up my team’s capacity (especially when combined with RightTool, my favorite QBO-loving Chrome extension). We lean hard into creating bank rules, automating recurring transactions and payments, and using third-party syncs with Point of Sale and Project Management systems. And because there’s functionality for ProAdvisors that allows us to easily review and recategorize (check out my MSN article on our favorites), it means I can feel confident about the quality of the end result… before it goes onto my clients’ tax returns.

A few QBO life-savers I wish I’d had in the Desktop Days: the audit log makes short work of the tedious task of figuring out why last year’s retained earnings might have changed (and who was responsible); the reconciliation review allows a junior accountant to make sure all accounts are reconciled before we start our review; and the “transactions without payees” report helps us make sure we don’t miss any 1099 vendors. As a firm runner, I also love that I can assign different team members to individual clients, and that I can control their level of access – this came in very handy recently when I had to have a contractor jump in mid-season due to multiple team members having personal setbacks. As I recently noted on LinkedIn, managing team capacity is hard enough without having technology get in the way.

I also rely on apps that help me make the most of our time outside of tax season. In my webinars on 1099 best practices, I illustrate that an hour during tax season is about 4 or 5 times as precious as one during the rest of the year. So the more I can do in the off-season, the less my team and I have to cram into the space right before deadlines. A great example is Keeper – we use them to create a year-round 1099 workflow, where we review for vendors and request W-9s as part of the month-end close. It also helps with practice management and client communication, as we’ve standardized our annual process and language for collecting information from clients, and I have transparency into where my team is getting stuck in closing out the books and handing them off to the tax team.

And lastly, I couldn’t do tax season without Ace Cloud Hosting. Talk about a sanity-saver. They simplify the setup and maintenance of cloud-hosted tax software while still giving us enough administrative control to implement changes when we need them. We used to live in fear of our server going down just before a deadline; in the case of a significant software problem, now we have a whole team to assist in rolling back and restoring any data. I can honestly say that I sleep better at night than I did before working with them.

These tools don’t just save time—they support my mental health. Automating the little things and not worrying about the big ones means I can focus on higher-value work (or take a five-minute dance break between Zoom meetings… see my next point).

Remember That Work-Life Balance Is a Thing (Really!)

Busy season has a way of making you forget that life exists outside of work—but here’s a secret: it’s okay to take a break. Seriously. In fact, it’s not only okay, it’s essential. And my clients will survive if I step away for a meal that doesn’t involve eating over the keyboard. My brain functions better when it’s not running on fumes, and my work is actually better and more efficient when I prioritize rest.

My husband and I have a tradition: every night we have what we call “sunset wine”. We climb a ladder to the roof and watch the sunset over an adult beverage. The birds are busy going back to their roosts, the sky changes colors, and my old friends the winter constellations start to draw their pictures up above. I picked this tradition during the pandemic, when I realized that I could not be relied upon to take a break. There was always another email that needed to be sent, another article to write, another emergency to address. But the sun doesn’t wait for “just one last thing”… it’s gonna set when it sets, and I have a date to keep. By creating an external trigger for my breaks, I was able to truly disconnect and decompress. And discovered in doing so that when I went back to work later that evening, I felt renewed focus.

It’s a similar phenomenon to when I started dancing, 12 years ago. I felt like I didn’t have enough time for physical exercise, because I was always so busy. But going to rehearsal three times a week only took about five hours—and it turns out the exercise led to higher-quality sleep, so that I went from needing nine hours per night to only seven-and-a-half. Net weekly gain: over five hours.

I use an accountability app to remind me to exercise, where my best friend can see that I’ve checked in each day, even if it’s just a quick stretch, breathing exercise, or a kitchen dance party while I’m making dinner. And once-a-week, a friend sets up a zoom session for one of our dance troupes, the Fabulous Ladies of Fitness. (In case you’d like to follow along at home, here I am at Chicago SummerDance leading 400 enthusiastic participants in a rousing routine to Laura Branigan’s Gloria.)

Lean on Your Professional Community

Accounting might be a numbers game, but I believe that it’s primarily about personal relationships. And especially during busy season, your community can be a lifeline. Whether it’s a QuickBooks ProAdvisor Facebook group, a local networking event, or a paid community like Bookkeeping Buds (I’ve been a participant for almost a decade) or my ‘Ask a CPA’ membership – having a place to vent, ask questions, and share wins is invaluable.

I can’t count the number of times a fellow ProAdvisor has shared a shortcut or app that’s saved me hours. And when things get overwhelming, just knowing that others are in the same boat is deeply comforting. It’s one of the main themes of my favorite conference, Bridging the Gap; last year I presented a panel there on “Vulnerability as a Strength,” about the importance of taking off our masks and sharing our challenges with each other; it absolutely builds trust and diffuses the isolation we often feel when times are hard. (Bonus tip: Last year’s BTG also reminded me how effective expressing gratitude and helping others can be in building resilience and improving mental health. Having a rough day? Lift someone else up who’s feeling low. Now two people feel better. This is one reason BTG’s Randy Crabtree and I both volunteer during tax season to assist AICPA as scholarship judges.)

I’m also a dedicated attendee of the bi-weekly AICPA Town Hall. Not only can I count on Lisa Simpson to offer the latest technical guidance, but I also get some “me time” that clients and team members simply aren’t allowed to interrupt. (Meeting hosts Lisa and Erik in-person and getting my moment on-stage with them at DPCA was a dream come true.)

Whether it’s the Town Hall, Unofficial QuickBooks Podcast, or The Accounting Podcast (honestly, whatever your favorite flavor of continuing education is), you can stack keeping up on industry guidance with community… and maybe even exercise (I love listening while I’m in the pool and I know many folks consume podcasts while on a walk). An easy three-fer.

So, don’t go it alone—tap into your community. It’s like group therapy… but with more bank feeds and spreadsheets.

Keep Perspective (And a Sense of Humor)

When a client “forgets” to mention a major business merger or a team member has to suddenly take a leave of absence, I sometimes let exasperation take over and decide I’m going to burn the whole thing to the ground. But laughter truly is the best stress relief—I’ve enjoyed quite a few accounting memes among WhatsApp groups and on LinkedIn that sometimes are just the ticket.

And of course:

Busy season is tough, but it’s temporary. And with the right tools, support, and mindset, we can get through it—and make a plan for each season to be better than the last.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a well-earned dance break to take.

Note! As my readers know, I am downright fanatical about transparency and full disclosure (often to my detriment, as you may have noticed that I have a wildly popular award-winning blog that is non-monetized). Though this particular post is a paid partnership with Intuit, I want you to know that a) I wanted to write an article on managing tax season stress anyway, but couldn’t find the time; getting paid allowed me the break from client work I needed to make it happen; and b) they didn’t delete a single thing when I presented it. In fact, they have been totally cool with all my Intuit-bashing since the first article I wrote for them… which impressed me quite a bit, to be honest. That’s four times now — I might just keep this win-win-win up.

Education, Site News, Tips

FREE Accounting Education Webinars — January 2025

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A few too-good-to-miss free resources have come through my inbox and socials recently, and I wanted to make sure to share the goodness with y’all.

Velocity 2025 – Virtual Annual Planning Retreat by Justine Lackey

🗓️ Date: Tuesday, January 10th
⏲️ Time: 12:30-4 pm EST

What’s the disconnect between dreaming big and actually making it happen?

✨ You need a clearly articulated vision.
✨ You need to map that vision to projects and/or milestones.
✨ You need a system to move you from idea to impact

Velocity is an annual planning virtual retreat for bookkeepers and accountants who are SO DONE with task overwhelm, to-do list drama, and missing their goals every single year.

This event is all about:
🎯 Getting clear on what YOU want for your business and life.
🛠 Building your roadmap to success.
🔥 Equipping you with the tools to take off like a 🚀 rocket 🚀 in 2025.

Register here —> https://courses.justinelackey.com/a/2148017506/HzFZhEhu

Justine is a dear friend and endlessly supportive, and I know we have a lot of members of her “The Nest” program in our ‘Ask a CPA’ group who have amazing things to say about her quality as an educator.

Paid Diagnostic Reviews: Unlocking Profitable QBO Cleanups by Veronica Wasek

🗓️ Date: Tuesday, January 21st
⏲️ Time: 2:30 pm EST | 1:30 pm CST | 12:30 pm MST | 11:30 am PST

Kick off 2025 with a fresh approach to profitable cleanups! In this webinar, Veronica will share her step-by-step process for conducting paid diagnostic reviews. Explore how to assess your clients’ QBO books, get paid for your time and position yourself as the expert for cleanup services. You’ll learn:

  1. How to get paid for diagnostic reviews
  2. A proven framework for reviewing QBO books
  3. Pricing strategies to ensure profitability
  4. Tips to position and sell cleanup services

Register here —> https://www.bigmarker.com/veronica-wasek/Paid-Diagnostic-Reviews-Unlocking-Profitable-QBO-Cleanups?ref=f5fcbf

This is the process we use internally for doing diagnostic reviews as well that I learned directly from Veronica many years ago.

(And yeah, that’s a photo up top of the two of us showing off our Top 10 ProAdvisor awards together last year! She loves dancing as much as I do and is my favorite accounting conference “dance buddy”.)

Building a Healthier & Happier Tax Season by Randy Crabtree

🗓️ Date: Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2024
⏲️ Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET

Insightful and practical session focused on strategies for managing stress, improving work-life balance, and maintaining mental and physical well-being during tax season. You’ll learn practical tips for time management, effective communication with clients, and maintaining focus and energy. Randy will share actionable tools to enhance productivity, reduce burnout, and foster a more positive, enjoyable tax season.

Register here —> https://web.cvent.com/hub/events/a35962db-54fd-4820-9d93-4e736ba0ce09/landing

Randy is one of the most inspiring, kind people in the industry, and works tirelessly to promote the idea that accounting can be a sustainable career choice. He runs my favorite conference, Bridging the Gap (early-bird registration only $799 through 1/31) and I’ll be a guest on his Unique CPA Podcast next month!

I Got 1099 Problems But a Workflow Ain’t One on QB Power Hour

🎥 Recorded, watch anytime!

Dan DeLong invited me to join Rich Kane and Matthew Fulton to chat about 1099 tips and tricks, as well as ways to make 1099s a part of your monthly client services.

Catch the recording here —> 1.07.25 – I Got 1099 Problems

The session came with a special offer to join ‘Ask a CPA’ for 30% off the first 3 months with discount code QBPH30 so you can enjoy the recording of our recent, fabulous Q&A session on 1099s with payment method expert Jennifer Dymond!

Speaking of discount codes, the first 99 new subscribers to apply code DANCING1099 will get an extra 10.99% off their first order at Dymond’s legendary https://www.1099problems.io searchable 1099 payment method website, so go get on it.

We see you, bookkeepers and accountants… we know January’s a rough month. Hope these free resources make your January less stressful! You are not alone.

If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

Tips

Not So Fast — BOI Injunction Is Back!

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As of December 27,2024, the Fifth Circuit reversed their own stay while they’re deciding the case. This means the injunction is back on and there’s currently no enforceable BOI reporting requirement.

More here from my colleague Kelly Phillips Erb — In Whiplash Maneuver, Court Rules Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) Reporting Requirements Are On Hold.

Apparently one panel of the Fifth Circuit decided to stay the injunction — but just a few days later, a different panel of the same U.S. Court of Appeals circuit issued an order vacating the December 23, 2024 order granting a stay of the preliminary injunction.

This sounds weird — because it is — but basically, they “stayed the stay” (which is like a double-negative) of the injunction. Meaning the district court temporary hold on FinCEN being able to enforce the BOI reporting is still in place after all. Companies are not currently required to file beneficial ownership information with FinCEN.

Therefore, anything in the original article I published a few days ago is informational-only and BOI filing is currently voluntary per the FinCEN website.

If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

Education, Tips

BOI Reporting Is Back — Most Filings Now Due January 13, 2025

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My feelings regarding how FinCEN has handled Beneficial Ownership information (BOI) under the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) are best left unexpressed.

UPDATE: as of December 27,2024, the Fifth Circuit reversed their own stay while they’re deciding the case. This means the injunction is back on and there’s currently no enforceable BOI reporting requirement.

More here from my colleague Kelly Phillips Erb — In Whiplash Maneuver, Court Rules Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) Reporting Requirements Are On Hold

Therefore, anything in the original article below is informational-only and BOI filing is currently voluntary per the FinCEN website.

Here is the original article from the day before the 12/27/24 reversal:

With all the insanity about Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting these past few weeks — first the nationwide injunction preventing FinCEN from enforcing the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA)… then the House passing a Continuing Resolution (CR) that would give us all a year-long delay while the various court challenges made their way through the system… then the Senate passing a version of the CR without addressing the issue… and then, yesterday a stay on the injunction by the Fifth Circuit — meaning that everything is back in place and the BOI is once again law of the land — how much more confusion could there possibly be?

I’ve been putting off finalizing my definitive article on the topic for months, despite having interviewed five different filing companies back in January and February, as most sources of information suggested that the BOI was likely to be delayed a year — that’s certainly what AICPA, NATP, and our other membership organizations have been lobbying for in Congress. And with the increased confusion surrounding this year-end injunction prohibiting its enforcement, even FinCEN itself said that though they would appeal, for the time being, BOI filing would be voluntary. And now it’s the holidays and everything has been upended. So — I’m going to push off a longer article on what the heck BOI is and why we have to file it and the myriad reasons I feel it’s a terrible law (though probably not unconstitutional — just terrible lawmaking) until after the New Year, and this just covers “what you need to know NOW”.

In a tiny bit of good news for what’s left of our holiday season, at least they’ve given us 12 days of BOI extension in place of 12 days of Christmas or 8 days of Hanukkah.

What are the current deadlines?

An update from Melanie Lauridsen at AICPA:

‼️ Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, US Treasury issues small extension/delay for BOI reporting. ‼️
Specifically:
* Companies created or registered prior to January 1, 2024 have until January 13, 2025 to file.
* Companies created or registered on or after September 4, 2024 that had a filing deadline between December 3, 2024 and December 23, 2024 have until January 13, 2025 to file.
* Companies created or registered on or after December 3, 2024 and on or before December 23, 2024 have an additional 21 days from their original filing deadline to file.
* Companies that qualify for disaster relief may have extended deadlines that fall beyond January 13, 2025. These companies should abide by whichever deadline falls later.
* Companies that are created or registered on or after January 1, 2025 have 30 days to file.

And here’s a handy Journal of Accountancy article with a few more details.

What are my options?

Well, I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t advise you, but I can say that you do seem to have a couple of choices — file it yourself or seek help.

  1. File the BOI on your own as a DIY — in which case I recommend you use my colleague Hannah Smolinski‘s handy do-it-yourself YouTube guide, here. This is free and you file directly with FinCEN. The negatives are that it’s a bit fussy and your data is not saved for the next time you file or update your info. The pros: FREE and DIRECT.
  2. File the BOI with the help of a third party. There are a zillion out there, many of whom are just going through the motions without considering the potentially special needs of your situation — such as condo associations, cooperatives, and other group filers, or other companies whose beneficial owners are not listed on the Secretary of State documents filed when you became organized or incorporated. Worse even, many companies and attorneys are charging an arm and a leg for this reporting — and getting it, from unsuspecting businesses. I’ve interviewed quite a few companies offering this service, and my favorite ended up being File Forms. I like the ease of use of their user-interface, the fact that they have guidance to walk you through the process, and that they let you save your info for the next time you have to file or update your report. (Note: while this is a referral link, know that I chose them well before they offered it to me; I had a great experience with their sister organization during the ERC era, and they were my objective personal selection for my own BOI filing after interviewing five different companies.)

What happens if I choose not to file?

Penalties are steep for willful non-compliance. I would not take this approach… though if you’re really opposed to it, or already on winter vacation, or busy with year-end tax planning or other seasonal work, you could try waiting until the first week of the new year in case this gets delayed one more time. I wouldn’t personally give you a hard time about that approach. Just don’t forget!

Why are some people so opposed to this?

For now, I’m going to skip answering this question in full — it’ll have to wait until my more comprehensive article on the topic. The short version is that it’s a huge amount of red tape for small business owners that already have way too many barriers to success; FinCEN did a lousy job promoting it and educating business owners; the definition of a beneficial owner is vague; most of this information is already on file at the Secretary of State; it’s too easy to miss filing an update unknowingly; the penalties for non-filing are way too high; and the people who are doing the money laundering are going to have an easy time getting around this anyway.

Is it unconstitutional?

I have no idea. Some folks think it is. Some don’t. That’s why there’s so much court activity on this, adding to the confusion.

What’s my next step?

Decide whether to file DIY or with a third-party. If DIY, go to Hannah‘s step-by-step instructions. If with a third-party, decide whether to use your usual attorney or a company like File Forms. If your situation is at all complex or you don’t understand the instructions — seek professional assistance!

And have a happy holiday season.

If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

QuickBooks Software

QBO Tags Will No Longer Be Supported as of May 16, 2025

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UPDATE as of March 20, 2025: QuickBooks has postponed the sunset date for the “Tags” feature to May 16th, 2025. They also note that in addition to QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Ledger and Intuit Enterprise Suite (IES) will also no longer support tags after that date. (Also important for some to know that QB Ledger does not support custom fields, so it will not have the same option to switch to this solution that the other products will have.)

Therefore… the change is not in fact hitting us during tax season any longer! That’s certainly a “win” in my book.

Another win? They’ve also expanded the capabilities of custom fields to support both sales and expense forms, and each custom field will support up to 100 values with a dropdown format.

From Intuit:

What action do I need to take?
From today through May 15, 2025, you and your clients have the option to migrate all tags to a custom field. Read this help article to learn how to use the Tags -> Custom Field migration tool. Alternatively, you can input your current tag values into the custom field by hand or not transfer the tags at all. Lastly, be sure to download any tags reports so you have them for your records.

Deadlines
  • March 17, 2025 – Custom fields expanded functionality launches.
  • March 17, 2025 – May 15, 2025 – Migrate your tags to custom field(s). 
  • May 16, 2025 – Tags become read-only. You cannot create new tags. 
  • May 16, 2025 – May 15, 2028 – You can view tags and generate reports for historical transactions. After May 15, 2028, the ability to view tags and generate reports will no longer be available. Tags will be removed from QuickBooks Online and they will disappear from historical transactions.

Unfortunately, so far it appears that the “migration tool” released a few days ago only migrates the fields, not the historical data. More here: Migrate tags to custom fields in QuickBooks Online.

— most recent update follows — then original article —

UPDATE as of March 5, 2025: I’m getting folks asking about whether I’ve received any emails from Intuit on the topic, given how close we’re getting to their March 8 deadline. Here’s my response —

Unfortunately, I did not receive an email about it, nor did any clients forward one to me.

Check the resource I mention in the article, the Facebook “QB Power User Community”. There are lots of conversations going on in there if you search the term “tags” and then sort by “most recent”.

One comment:
“This is what I was told today on an online chat:
March 17, 2025 – Extended Custom Fields become available to customers
March 17, 2025 – May 15, 2025 – Customers can use the migration tool to migrate tags to custom field(s).
May 16, 2025 – Customers no longer can create tags.
2025 – June 16, 2028 – Customers have read-only access to tags.”

Another was this share for setting up custom fields — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TEup6VqvO4

And a response to my follow-up comment in there, by the amazing Alicia Katz-Pollock, QuickBooks Queen of Royalwise Training: “they’re pushing it out a couple weeks, which is why there haven’t been any announcements yet as they finalize the timeline. They are working on a tool to turn your tag groups into a new custom field, but I don’t believe that it’s going to bring over the history, only give you a new tool moving forward. That gives us a few weeks to run all the historical reports.”

— original article follows —

Did everyone get the memo? QuickBooks Online will no longer support tags, and they’re making the change one week before the S-Corp and Partnership tax deadline.

While I appreciate the need for this kind of decision, I encourage Intuit to reconsider the timing of big changes so that they come between May and November. It’s not just tax pros that struggle with “busy season”… it’s also bookkeepers and CAS practices that have to tie out the annual financial statements in QBO to effectively hand off the books to tax pros — which y’all know is my passion when teaching and in our ‘Ask a CPA’ subscription.

As for the specifics — they are adding an additional custom field to most plans and are creating a tool to facilitate the migration from tags to this new custom field.


More from the announcement here —

What action do I need to take?
In February 2025, you and your clients will have the option to migrate all tags to a custom field. Watch for an email from the QuickBooks team in the first week of February. You and your clients will get access to a tool to facilitate the migration. However, you can also input the values, e.g. tags, into the custom field by hand or not transfer the tags at all, if you prefer. Additionally, be sure to download any tags reports so you have them for your records.

What deadlines should I be aware of if my clients are currently using Tags?
– Week of February 3, 2025 – Both you and your clients will receive an email notification. It will include a link to a tags → custom field migration tool and a how-to FAQ.
– March 8 – April 30, 2025 – You and your clients will have read-only access to existing tags, whereby you can view and generate reports for tagged transactions for your records.
– All Tags UI will be removed after May 1, 2025. You will no longer be able to run reports for tagged transactions.

A lot of people got really mad on social media when I posted about this, saying that it was a really useful feature and skewering Intuit for taking it away… but in reality, from a corporate standpoint, anyway — not enough folks are using it, partially because it’s underdeveloped and kind of buggy, and the reporting usage isn’t robust. As my friend Margie Remmers-Davis said, “either flesh this feature out or let it go”. So, personally — I’m actually on-board with it. EXCEPT for the lousy timing. Increasing the number of custom fields in the three lowest levels of subscription and creating a way to migrate from tags to the new custom field is a good way to facilitate this transition — but it’s going to take work to implement this, and we just don’t have time in Feb/March to make that happen. Beyond that, it’s been pointed out by other colleagues that changing reporting mid-year is really challenging, and that this should have been timed to coincide with next January 1st.

The always-amazing Alicia Katz-Pollock had this to say about it in the QB Power Users Community:

The rest of the comments on this particular post are truly worth reading, in my opinion, as you can get some good insight as to how the folks who do depend on tags are using them — for example, Dena Martin and Megan Tarnow talked about why they use them for event-tracking for non-profits, so they don’t muck up the financial statements — and what workarounds they’re considering. Custom fields are not likely to handle this well. Projects may, but that’s a lot of work to set up and maintain.

There are also folks who are going to be severely limited by the fact that only one custom field is being added. Comparatively, QBO Essentials allotted unlimited tags and 40 tag groups. The new arrangement takes it down to only four custom fields. Several clients are going to be forced to a Plus subscription to use classes — or in some cases, come up with an external workaround. It was pointed out that QBO Advanced clients who are already using classes for other purposes and were using Tags as well are out of luck if using Projects won’t solve the issue. Each client is different, so if you’re a bookkeeper or accountant with clients in this situation, please hit that Feedback button in QBOA and let them know your concerns. And if you aren’t already following the thread I mentioned above on Facebook… it’s definitely worth your time.

Ah, QuickBooks — you giveth and you taketh away. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

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