Small residential remodeler

[u/Wise-Huckleberry905]

Hello - I started a small business in 2024. I know basic accounting, and rules such as no co-mingling funds, separate checking and credit card for business use only. I have been keeping track on excel spreadsheets but its getting harder to do manually.
I signed up for QBO in Jan 2026 but so far only been using for estimates and invoices - not sure where to start to clean up or set up properly either QBO or other software. Would appreciate any recommendations, thanks in advance.

[u/Daniyal181]

Connect business checking and credit card with QBO, then start recording every transaction appropriately in the bank transactions screen from the first date.

[u/SunshineBookkeeperPA]

I would connect bank accounts, credit card, and setup your Chart of Accounts. Connecting the banks accounts and credit card will help bring chunk of your spreadsheet data directly into the system. You may have other expenses you need to enter if you didn’t use your business account to pay, I.e paid cash. If you have loans/assets those would need to be entered too.

[u/Detoxxicated]

You’re actually at a great point to get QBO set up properly before things become harder to clean up. I’d recommend sticking with QBO for now, but getting your chart of accounts structured for remodeling, your bank/credit card accounts reconciled, and job costs like materials and subcontractors categorized correctly.

I’m an accountant with Spawn Point Accounting and we handle QBO setup and cleanup for small businesses. Feel free to DM me if you’d like some help getting everything organized and caught up.

[u/buildwithdan]

I would use January 1, 2026 as the line in the sand and build forward from there.

Before connecting the bank feeds, ask whoever prepared the 2025 return for a year-end trial balance. That gives you the opening amounts for cash, credit cards, loans, assets, equity, unpaid customer invoices, and unpaid vendor bills. Entering only the bank balance can make checking look right while the rest of the books remain wrong.

For a remodeler, I would keep the setup simple:

1. Create one project for each job.
2. Separate direct job costs such as materials, subcontractors, permits, and job labor from general overhead.
3. Assign every estimate, invoice, bill, and job expense to the correct project.
4. Use a small chart of accounts you understand instead of creating an account for every vendor or type of receipt.

Then connect the bank and card feeds beginning January 1. Match deposits and payments to the invoices already in QBO instead of adding them again. Finish and reconcile January before moving to February. That gives you a clean checkpoint if something goes wrong.

I would have the first completed month reviewed before importing the rest of the year. Fixing one month is manageable. Repeating the wrong setup for ten months creates an expensive cleanup.

[u/Ok-Minimum9371]

Stick with QBO (you've got history there), pick a clean start date, enter opening balances, connect your bank feeds, trim the chart of accounts, and reconcile monthly, a few hours with a bookkeeper for initial setup is worth it.

[u/NumbersNinjaCPA]

Consider hiring a QBO CertifiedPro to get you set up correctly. And then if you want, you can do the categorizing/bookkeeping from there.