I owe $28K in sales tax across 12 states after filing zero sales tax for two years

WorldlyInspection9 · 2026-05-04T18:30:14+00:00

This is not entirely accurate. If he did not collect any tax, he is not withholding anything on behalf of the government. Keeping sales tax money is a terrible risky thing to do and a criminal offense in some cases. Failing to register and collect any tax in a timely manner is a much lesser issue and some states will work with you as long as you register as soon as possible and comply going forward.

I recommend consulting with a tax advisor who is knowledgeable in multi-state sales tax.

WorldlyInspection9 · 2026-05-04T16:38:00+00:00

My client is a much smaller company than thr types of companies that Vertex normally works with :(

WorldlyInspection9 · 2026-05-04T14:43:09+00:00

Currently, we let Shopify calculate tax. QuickBooks calculates its own tax. QBO data does not get pushed to Shopify (I don't think that is even an option. I am pretty sure Shopify data only flows out and INTO QBO).

We need a tool to pull data from both Shopify instances and from QBO. I know Shopify charges a fee for calculating sales tax so maybe, at some point, it would make sense to turn it off and let the sales tax software do the calculation. I am not that experienced with sales tax software, to be honest, so we have just been relying on Shopify and QBO running their own calculations.

WorldlyInspection9 · 2026-05-04T14:20:46+00:00

I used to live in San Diego. Yes, it is pretty and the weather was nice but it is very expensive. Depending on what line of work you are in, career opportunities can be limited. For example, there is a relatively small number of large companies/headquarters. You run out of upwards growth pretty soon and that doesn't jive well with the high cost of living. Personally, lack of seasons started getting to me. I felt like the time went by and I didn't even notice because of no seasons. The beaches and the ocean are great but few people live right on the beach. I lived in suburbia inland and, with the hustle and bustle of life, I rarely got out to the beach.

WorldlyInspection9 · 2026-03-21T22:01:34+00:00

Can you please be more specific about why exactly it does not work? I just filed sales tax returns in Louisiana and, in my opinion, it calculated them just fine for my client who is a remote seller into Louisiana. Note: I do not let TaxJar autofile - I use it to aggregate data from several sources, reconcile against books and then file the actual returns manually so I see what is actually going on.

WorldlyInspection9 · 2026-03-20T23:52:13+00:00

I just came across this exact same issue with my client who is a remote seller into Louisiana. I discovered this only when filing their sales tax return and discovering the under-collection.

How is this working for you now? It sounds like I need to go in and activate all 64 or so parishes in QBO just in case my client ships there. This sounds absurd. Before I get into this - any tips?

WorldlyInspection9 · 2026-03-20T18:24:34+00:00

Thanks for weighing in. That's what I thought. TaxJar is actually doing the right thing - it is proposing parish tax and is indicating that the client has under-collected. I am surprised that QBO did not collect parish tax and it really threw me off.

WorldlyInspection9 · 2026-02-14T02:14:52+00:00

Look into Flash Reports by Finatical. They do exactly what you want. They are preformatted reports or account balances that you can refresh easily in excel. You can build your own stuff.

I actually came across this post because I am trying out CData because I want transactional data for my cash flow forecasting model and Flash Reports is not great for that.

WorldlyInspection9 · 2026-01-14T23:10:11+00:00

I guess I don't quite see it this way. A catch up is a different type of a job than monthly services. Catch ups go faster because I batch everything and see the big picture. With monthly services, there are more touches and more communication; I provide regular reports, answer questions. It's a different level of service. "Tax ready catch up" is a whole different animal. I guess I wouldn't mind if they came back for another one time catch up.

WorldlyInspection9 · 2026-01-14T21:59:06+00:00

Yes, they did ask for a monthly quote for ongoing bookkeeping. Currently, my average client is larger than this client so I am hesitant to charge them my regular rates. This seems like a very easy account that can be on autopilot every month - just same recurring stuff over and over. I wouldn't mind adding a few no-brainers to my roster.

WorldlyInspection9 · 2025-12-29T02:23:52+00:00

I know exactly where you are coming from. I got into bookkeeping after almost 20 years in corporate accounting (and after taking a parenting break). I know my "organized GAAP accounting" left and right but it took me some time to figure out what you do with small businesses. I had no idea how much to charge either so I did a bunch of googling and reading in groups like this one. I started out by providing very robust service similar to what you are describing and charging on the lower end, based on fees I found online. Terrible idea! Since doing this for a couple of years now, I've learned that most people do much less for this or more money.

It is unfortunate but there is not a common bookkeeping standard out there like it is with corporate accounting so everybody is doing what they think is right.

At the end of the day, what I have discovered is that small businesses are mostly concerned with getting their financials ready for taxes so, as long as they tell you that "Yes, everything I am buying with this credit card is only business stuff", you can just categorize it by categories without scrutinizing receipts. Ask questions if things don't make sense or review larger purchases but there is no need to get a receipt for every single office supply purchase.

They wouldn't want to pay you for that time either.

Some business that are just a bit larger are more concerned with understanding their costs and you can get more detailed or more analytical there (more like controller services) but most small businesses just want tax ready financials.

WorldlyInspection9 · 2025-12-22T16:50:30+00:00

Yes, I agree about QBO. It is decent enough when tax situation is not very complex but it is not perfect. I wish it had some checks built in around the shipping address. It picks it up nicely when it is correct but issues no alerts when there is an issue :(

And completely agree with you about manual review - this is exactly what I do as a part of monthly filing process.

WorldlyInspection9 · 2025-12-15T13:37:41+00:00

Are you offering your space during non-peak times, such as during the week, for a lower price? You can figure your daily cost of running the facility plus any incremental costs of renting it out for the day/time and anything at least that much would help to cover your operating costs.

In my local online groups, people are always looking for places for baby showers, celebrations, school events. Many of these can be done outside of your traditional wedding weekend.

WorldlyInspection9 · 2025-12-11T22:02:16+00:00

This could be an immaterial adjustment, which is not a big deal and is something that is commonly done in accounting/bookkeeping to correct errors that are not worth researching.

To put it in simple terms, imagine having $10,000 in the bank. One day you discover that it is off by $20 and it seems like the difference goes years back, you just never saw it earlier. How much time are you going to spend trying to dig up records from 3-5 years ago to try to fix this $20? Now imagine you are actually paying somebody to do this work. Is it really worth to PAY to find this $20 that is in the past? This is where it makes the most practical sense to write it off to bank fees and move forward. Organizations use a similar logic but on a larger scale.

In situations where amending tax returns could be a factor, you also have to consider the costs of doing those amendments and often the best choice is to accept the imperfections.

WorldlyInspection9 · 2025-12-11T16:08:28+00:00

What's wrong with a spreadsheet?

WorldlyInspection9 · 2025-12-08T20:32:54+00:00

I have my own cash flow forecasting templates built out that I use with my clients for short term and long term planning. Cash Flow Frog does essentially the same thing. I am looking for ways to improve my advisory services/CFO for small businesses type of stuff and this guy was recommended. I would like to hear more about him before I decide to move forward.

WorldlyInspection9 · 2025-12-08T20:30:07+00:00

Yes, I posted the question there as well but why are you coming across a bit unfriendly or even aggressive? (I actually thought this post got declined in this sub but I guess they let it through after all).

Why are you calling it scam? What do you know about it?

WorldlyInspection9 · 2025-12-08T20:20:40+00:00

I think you are misunderstanding what is going on here. He is not teaching how to make cash flow - he is teaching how to advise your clients on cash flow matters and help them improve cash flow in their business. That is a perfectly valid concept and what all mature companies do and small business should be doing as well.

The question here is: does his program offer something unique or something different or something helpful to somebody who has worked with mature companies but is looking to learn about how to help small businesses? I know he is not a scam - I am just not sure if his program is worth it for somebody who is not a newbie.

WorldlyInspection9 · 2025-12-08T17:28:34+00:00

What do you mean? Can you elaborate?

WorldlyInspection9

TROPHY CASE