To have us prepare your business tax return (a 1120 or 1120S corporation tax return, a 1065 partnership or LLC tax return, and then the equivalent state returns), we need access to your accounting records once you’ve closed the books for the year.
We also need you to complete a business return organizer to collect the information that doesn’t appear in your accounting system. And to sign an engagement letter. (To get your business on our list of people we send an organizer and engagement letter to, email or telephone us.)
If you’re using an online accounting system like QuickBooks Online, Xero Accounting, or FreshBooks, you need to provide us with authorization to your books. How you do this depends on the software. But usually the steps work simply.
QuickBooks Online
If you use QuickBooks online, here’s how you can give us access to your data:
- Sign in to QuickBooks Online at qbo.intuit.com.
- In the upper right corner, choose the gear icon next to your company’s name, then Manage Users.
- Go to the Accounting Firms section and click Invite Accountant.
- Enter your accountant’s email address. Entering your accountant’s first and last name is optional.
- Click Next and Finish.
Xero
If you use Xero, here’s how you can give us access to your data:
- Sign in to Xero at https://login.xero.com/.
- Click your company name in the upper left corner, then in the drop-down menu, click Settings
- Click Users. Click the Invite a user button in the upper right corner.
- Enter your accountant’s first name, last name, and email address.
- Check the box next to Business and Accounting. Choose Adviser as the user role and check the box next to Manage users.
- Click Send Invite.
QuickBooks Desktop
If you use QuickBooks desktop, you want to provide us with a backup copy of the QuickBooks file. (You also need to provide us with the administrator username and password so we can restore the backup file.)
Fortunately, the steps to do this work pretty simply, as described below.
Creating a Backup File for QuickBooks for Windows
- Open your QuickBooks company file
- In the upper-left corner of the program window, choose File → Back Up Company → Create Local Backup.
- In the new window, make sure the radio button next to Local backup is selected, then click Next. If a new window appears called Backup Options, click Browse, and choose a location to save your backup file to that you’ll remember. Click OK.
- In the next window, make sure the radio button next to Save it now is selected, then click Next. Save the file.
Creating a Backup File for QuickBooks for Mac
- Open your QuickBooks company file
- In the upper-left corner of the program window, choose File → Back Up to QuickBooks for Windows. Choose the name of your company file and click Save.
- In the Apply Password window, enter a password for the file if you wish to have one. We’ll need this password to open your file later.
- If you want to see the location of the file you’ve just saved, click the Show File in Finder button in the last window.
Sending Us the Backup File
You can hand delivery or even snail mail your backup QuickBooks file.
But the easiest delivery method uses our portal, ShareFile.
If you need help figuring out how to use ShareFile, we have a page to provide help here.
Note: You can use ShareFile to safely send us anything else—documents, tax forms and so on—which we need for your return.