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Terry - a few things I've learned over the years concerning clients and Quickbooks include keeping the chart of accounts short and sweet. Lots of clients come to me with pages and pages of accounts on the COA. That makes for lots and lots of opportunities for coding errors, IMHO. But, as long as the QB type is correct (expense, income, asset, liability, equity), the data errors are manageable. I might suggest that you perform your work on a monthly or quarterly basis since this also has worked better. The bookkeeper will probably be able to ask and answer questions as the issues are more recent than looking back annually. Also, I don't think trying to force QB to a strict tax accounting basis is going to work for the reasons you mentioned above. I think you can figure the AAA, etc. from preparing the tax return. Again, I see no benefit to angsting over AAA, OAA, and AEP if the company has always been an SCorp. I have only needed to consider the ordering rules when the shareholder takes distributions in excess of basis, and I keep track of that via the shareholder basis worksheet in Drake. You might be making the bookkeeping in QB a lot more difficult than it needs to be. My own philosophy is that simpler is better. I am a simple woman

I have only used the AAA account when the company had AEP from previous years as a C Corp.

The last one I suffered through was a retail venture with two high maintenance bored ladies. I discouraged them from setting up a partnership. A lot. But they acted like I would do the bookkeeping, so how bad could it be? Well, guess what? High maintenance bored ladies need manicures and stuff like that more than bookkeeping as it turns out. Pssshh. we have a computer we'll just keep these little ole books do you love my glitter nail? Yes, six months. The "we're sorta partners" dufus guy came in about a month ago asking about bookkeeping fees. He was all of 120 pounds, and they were opening a security agency. He looked like he's never had a bank account. You know that look. And you know, 120 pounds. I wanted to give him half my sandwich. Sorry I'm all booked up, but good luck! I hope he was the brains of the outfit and the other guy at least weighed more than me.

Thanks for the support but I am in near retirement mode now. This incident was several years ago and I primarily do only individual returns for long time clients. There are a few Sch. C's and 2 partnership LLC's that do not have these issues but I won't be taking on more. I was just reinforcing your comments about basis issues and partnership wrinkles in general. They do exist and can be pretty unpleasant!

All I do are tax returns. No accounting, no payroll. I'm not ready to retire yet, but at 61 I am still thinking about how many more years I want to work. "WANT" being the operative word. This year I did clean up my client list by sending several clients away, for a better fit. We all know what that means. I don't want to work forever. I am getting less and less enamored with being locked to my computer for 4 months, having over 40 extensions, and having the tax season drag on until October 15th. I want to play. I want to go outside and play in the sun. Without any work hanging over my head. I love my clients, love my work, love the challenge. But most of all, I love the "seasonality" of the business. And that season is spreading out too much. The responsibilities and complexities of being a tax professional might be what actually has me whipped. It's almost like I have to stay sober all year long. Geez...