Have you ever asked your CPA a question about your Shopify numbers and gotten a blank stare back? Or maybe it went the other way. They asked YOU a question about your Shopify accounting, and you had absolutely no idea how to answer it. If that's happened to you, I want you to know something right off the bat. That is not a you problem, but it's not necessarily a THEM problem either.

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What a CPA Is Actually Trained For

CPAs go through years of schooling and a very brutal 4 part exam on tax law, ethics, auditing, and financial accounting in general. When I was in college getting my own Accounting degree, I had many classmates who were already making preparations to start studying for these exams right after college.

I, on the other hand, had absolutely ZERO desire to do anymore studying or exams after college, so I went the corporate route. But what I'm trying to get at is that CPAs have a LOT of accounting and tax law knowledge. What they do NOT get a lot of, or even ANY, training on is really how to DO the day-to-day bookkeeping for a business that uses any type of point-of-sale system or third party billing system.

In THEORY, they know how all of it is supposed to work. They know what SHOULD happen to your books. But they're not going to be the best resource to tell you exactly where to go inside Shopify to pull what you need, or how to actually get all your Shopify accounting data into QuickBooks correctly.

And to be totally honest, your CPA is probably not doing your bookkeeping anyway. The actual month-to-month categorizing of transactions, reconciling accounts, tracking cost of goods sold… that work usually gets handed off to a bookkeeper. But the same thing applies there too. Unless that bookkeeper ALSO has real Shopify accounting experience, you're in the exact same boat.

This Isn't a Knock on CPAs

Please don't take this as a knock on CPAs and tax preparers. I love them. God bless them, because I did taxes for 2 years and I absolutely hated every minute of it. It takes a very special person to actually ENJOY that type of work.

I also don't want to say that ABSOLUTELY every CPA is this way, because I'm sure there ARE some that specialize in retail and e-commerce and can be a very helpful resource to you. But in GENERAL, they are NOT going to be the best resource for you if you ever have questions on how to do the actual bookkeeping when it comes to how things work through Shopify or Square.

The Assumption That Trips Boutique Owners Up

You may assume “my CPA handles the numbers.” But most CPAs are working from whatever gets handed to them once a year, usually sometime in the first few months of the new year. They're not in the weeds of your Shopify account. And I want to be honest with you here. They're probably not going to take the time required to FULLY understand the ins and outs of Shopify when they're working up against a tax deadline, trying to fly through hundreds of tax returns for hundreds of different clients.

They're gonna use the 1099-K that you get from Shopify (which, please don't just rely on this alone, I do a whole rant on this in this podcast episode if you want to go listen), but they're gonna take that 1099-K, total up some things on your bank and credit card statements, and plug those into your tax return. And if you don't really know what you're looking at, you're probably just going to sign it and call it a day because, well, they're the experts.

Again, this is not a knock on CPAs or tax preparers. They are good at what they do. But I also know how stressed and overworked they are during January through April, and they are just NOT going to give your books the time and attention they require.

A Confession

I contemplated even sharing this, but I'm going to. As I mentioned earlier, I did taxes for 2 years. I absolutely hated it. So I don't even do our own taxes, we use an accounting firm. And I hand them a clean P&L and detailed notes every single year. And in AT LEAST the last 4 years, I have found a mistake on the first draft of my tax return every year. Sometimes multiple mistakes.

They're good at what they do, but they are so busy, stressed, and overworked that they just don't have that same attention to detail that you will on your own books. So please make sure you are reviewing your own tax return before you just sign it and have it filed.

What Actually Happens When You Rely on This Assumption

Here's what actually happens when boutique owners rely on the assumption that their CPA just handles it for them. Messy books get handed off in March. The CPA has to guess at what half the transactions even are, or they come back with a list of questions. And maybe you have no idea how to answer any of them. That back and forth takes time, and CPA time is literally money. So the more questions they have to ask you, the more that tax prep bill tends to climb.

The Reframe

Instead of relying on them to handle it, possibly poorly, for you, here's what I want you to walk away believing today. You do NOT need your CPA to organize or explain your numbers to you. You can understand them yourself. You can walk into tax season with clean books that you put together yourself and actually understand. And if your CPA DOES have questions, guess what? YOU can be the one answering them, instead of just sitting there hoping they figure it out for you.

Think about what that actually feels like. Showing up to tax season with your own Profit and Loss report that you understand front to back. Being able to explain a weird transaction in thirty seconds instead of shrugging and saying “I have no idea, that's just what Shopify says.” That's a completely different tax season experience.

The Bottom Line

You don't need to rely on your CPA to understand your numbers. That's not their role, and it was never a fair thing to expect of them, especially when the only time you work with them is during their busiest time of year. When you know your own numbers, you walk into tax season prepared, confident, and capable of answering questions instead of just receiving them.

If you're ready to stop hoping your CPA will figure it all out for you, and you want to actually understand your own numbers, that's exactly what I teach inside the Bookkeeping Made Simple for Boutiques membership. I'll walk you step by step through setting up and using QuickBooks Online specifically for your boutique, so you walk into tax season with clean books YOU understand. You can join us at findingfreedomfinancial.com/membership.