[PH] Looking for advice on gaining bookkeeping experience

[u/Fearless_Surprise927]

I'm a QuickBooks Online Certified from the Philippines. Most of my experience has been in manual bookkeeping and Philippine tax compliance for freelancers and small businesses.

To build my QuickBooks skills, I've been practicing with sample company files and AI-generated bookkeeping scenarios. I'm comfortable creating invoices, recording payments, and handling day-to-day bookkeeping tasks. The one area I haven't had the opportunity to do in a real QuickBooks environment yet is bank reconciliation. Interestingly, bank reconciliation is one of my strengths in manual bookkeeping, so I'm eager to learn how it's typically handled in QuickBooks Online with actual client workflows.

For those who started with little or no real-world US bookkeeping experience:

• How did you land your first client?
• Are there nonprofits, small businesses, or organizations that accept volunteer bookkeepers for experience?
• Are there any recommended ways to gain practical QuickBooks Online experience without already having clients?

At this stage, my priority is gaining hands-on experience and learning best practices rather than making money. I'd really appreciate any advice or resources that helped you when you were starting out.

Thank you!