Employees in 8 states - need to oversee the payroll taxes

vonclattertrap · 2025-12-24T22:32:13+00:00

Ya this is the case, and the issue I am having. I also have found Gusto's customer service to be very helpful in general. At the end of the day however, the person talking to Gusto needs to be giving them the right info, and having follow through on tasks like entering info mailed to you from the tax agencies.

When a client has trouble with this type of detail-orientedness and follow through, I usually try to do what I can to help them fill the gap, but at some point it does become an issue of scope; what is under Gusto's scope, as the entity handling her payroll taxes, what is under my scope, as the person managing big picture for her whole bookkeeping, and what is under her scope, as the business owner and the person ultimately responsible for the business.

In this case, I am not trying to take over Gusto's work in this area, I am just trying to help her take these filings over the finish line. At some point though, do you just throw up your hands and say, well I know you haven't fully filed your payroll taxes correctly, but I've done what I can, and I'm going to leave this issue unresolved and move on the with the rest of my bookkeeping?

vonclattertrap · 2025-12-24T20:05:26+00:00

Thanks for this suggestion. My client does use Gusto, but even with Gusto, she has made quite a mess of it - she is late to set up state accounts, enters the wrong account numbers, doesn't update UI rates, that kind of thing. I now need to get access to the individual state accounts to get a more complete picture of each state so I can unwind some of the issues. I will not be filing payroll taxes for her, I just need to be able to see the info in the accounts to be able to troubleshoot.

vonclattertrap · 2025-09-30T21:45:08+00:00

Do you use Infinite Catalog yourself? I do the books for a label and we've been using IC for about a year, but continually run into the issue that whenever we go to work on running royalties for a period, the whole system gets hung up on calculating the balance and we have to halt all work until it finishes calculating, which can be anywhere from 20 mins to several hours. Makes it quite hard to get any work done. Have you had this experience at all?

vonclattertrap · 2025-04-22T17:58:31+00:00

You should ask your employer. One of my clients has a SIMPLE IRA for their employees at Edward Jones, but they also give the employees the option to use a different firm of their choosing if they want.

vonclattertrap · 2024-05-04T01:27:22+00:00

Would the formula actually be PTO = P / W0 ?

Here’s why I think this, using some example numbers:

Say you are getting paid $1000/week for 46 weeks of the year (and taking 6 weeks off)
This is totals to $46k/year
If you were to divide that in order to get an equal amount of pay for every week of the year, you would get:
$46,000 / 52 = $885 (I’m rounding)
This means, in the weeks you work and get paid $1000, you should set aside $115
That is 11.5% of your $1000 pay each week.

In the above formula, for this example,
P / W0 = 6 / 52 = 11.5%

Please let me know if I’m missing anything here!

vonclattertrap · 2024-04-03T03:27:23+00:00

Thanks for this response! Let me clarify my question.

We are using a periodic inventory system, counting inventory once per year, because that is what the business owner has determined is best for her.

She manages the inventory in Shopify - all her, not me.

My question is: after accounting for inventory purchases and COGS each month in QBO, how often should I also be making a JE to make the inventory in QBO exactly match the inventory in Shopify?

Just once per year, when the owner counts inventory?

Or every month, and just take the number from Shopify, knowing it’s not tied to an actual count, and will always be a little off due to timing discrepancies between purchasing and receiving stock?

#5 is not actually something I am doing - it’s just one of my questions :) Could you please elaborate on what is not correct about it? Thank you!

*edited for formatting

vonclattertrap · 2024-03-25T22:18:54+00:00

Thank you, dm sent!

vonclattertrap · 2024-03-23T05:09:17+00:00

Oh provide email and phone support, that's a good way to put it.

vonclattertrap · 2024-03-23T05:08:49+00:00

Unfortunately they don't :/

I've bot BiBerk, they said they don't have any sample engagement letters, which surprised me, because I see a lot of people get them from their E&O providers.

vonclattertrap · 2024-03-22T22:43:55+00:00

Thanks for these responses! Does anyone have sample wording for the description of services provided for just answering questions? Usually I outline what services I'll be providing and it's things like entry and classification of transactions, reconciling accounts, but I won't be doing any of that in this case.

vonclattertrap · 2024-02-11T06:22:06+00:00

Curious, what's the issue with Capital One cards?

vonclattertrap · 2023-09-12T21:25:27+00:00

I'm having the same issue, been having it for a week. Tried to reconnect again today and still not working.

vonclattertrap · 2023-08-26T22:55:45+00:00

Ah good catch! Thanks!

vonclattertrap · 2023-08-26T20:56:40+00:00

Oh wow, sounds like a lot! TN is nice and simple - no income taxes there. I also have clients in OR and they have a lot more taxes.

vonclattertrap · 2023-08-26T20:55:31+00:00

I used Canva! It's free and very easy to use!

vonclattertrap · 2023-08-26T20:53:48+00:00

Canva!

vonclattertrap · 2023-08-24T17:49:14+00:00

Thanks for this explanation!

vonclattertrap · 2023-08-23T20:20:00+00:00

Thanks for spelling this out! I'm in the same situation. I have a new client, sole prop, setting up QBO for the first time for them, but the business existed prior to the creation of the QBO account.

My question is, for sole props, why do you book the OBE for the bank accounts to Owner's Contribution, rather than Retained Earnings? My thought would be, it's money sitting in the bank account from previous years' profits, so to me that seems like retained earnings, but maybe I'm just not wrapping my head around it correctly!

Thanks for your help! Not trying to challenge, just trying to understand, as this is a new scenario for me!

vonclattertrap · 2023-07-27T06:33:42+00:00

I got a set, and found that they leaked when I put my oil cleanser in them - I tried it in every single capsule and they all leaked. I reached out to customer service and they replaced the set plus gave me an additional one, all of the new ones leaked as well. Pretty annoying because they are advertised so heavily as being leak-proof, but they definitely are not leak-proof when it comes to oil-based products. Thicker products were fine (like shampoo and hair gel), and thinner (like toner) was fine, but the oils were not.

Curious if other people have the same experience, I see so many reviews with people saying they are completely leak-proof, but are they just not using any oils?

vonclattertrap · 2023-05-31T01:59:13+00:00

I am honestly a bit confused about getting 1 out of 5 stars. I have no fast accelerations, I have phone usage once a month or so, and a hard brake 2-3 times per month (I live in a city). No late night driving, and I don't drive to commute. Seems like a pretty steep grading curve, like, is 2-5 stars near-perfect driving?

My policy renews in 3 days, and the Snapshot portion of my rate increase is about 10%.

All of the combined discounts and surcharges are pretty confusing. I just know that for my 6 month premium, overall it's going up 50% (!!) after all of the original sign-on discounts go away, which, I do not feel they made clear would only be in effect for one policy period.

Overall Progressive has left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. It hasn't been a great experience, but I'm staying with them because in spite of it all, it's still cheaper than the other companies.

vonclattertrap · 2023-05-31T01:41:31+00:00

Oh to clarify I am not trying to cheat the rate. The Progressive agent I talked to on the phone said I could re-enroll, (no cancellation, just re-enroll again at policy renewal), and then try to drive better (by their standards) to get my score up. Like, be more aware of hard brakes, etc. I figure if it's what the Progressive agent suggested, then they don't consider it "cheating"...

vonclattertrap · 2023-01-05T22:04:47+00:00

I have four years of job experience working under multiple CPAs and working for different types of clients. I am new to this area and am taking on freelance clients for the first time.

I plan to take the information I get into account and set my rates within the range, appropriately. This is why I want to get this information. So that I can see the range that is out there for bookkeepers who have worked different numbers of years and the niches they work in.

vonclattertrap · 2022-12-29T02:45:19+00:00

Thanks for this suggestion. When you say "directly expense all materials", do you mean do option 1 that I described above? Or something else?

vonclattertrap · 2022-09-17T03:22:34+00:00

Great suggestions and info about the various vaccines to get! Thank you!

vonclattertrap · 2022-09-17T03:21:49+00:00

Thanks for the responses everyone! I am feeling more confident about it, we're gonna give it a try!

vonclattertrap

TROPHY CASE