At The Accountants for Creatives, we’ve built our practice around helping photographers, designers, and creative small business owners gain clarity and confidence in their finances. Our clients are passionate about their craft, but they often come to us feeling overwhelmed by bookkeeping and unsure where to start.
As our firm has grown, we’ve looked for ways to deliver the same high-touch support without overwhelming our clients or their budgets. One of the most important shifts we made was moving many of our lower-touch clients to QuickBooks Ledger, a simplified version of QuickBooks that offers just what they need: Clean books, timely reports, and peace of mind.
Why Ledger works for our clients
Many of our clients don’t invoice customers, manage inventory, or run payroll. They just want to know where their money is going, if they’re saving enough for taxes, and that someone is keeping an eye on things in the background. These business owners weren’t logging into QuickBooks Online, but they were still paying for it.
Ledger gave us a better way to serve these clients.
QuickBooks Ledger allows our team to manage bank feeds, reconciliations, and reporting internally, while removing unnecessary features and reducing software costs. For the client, the experience is simple: They get accurate books and clear financials each month, without having to lift a finger.
Who Ledger is for
Ledger has been especially helpful for our “set-it-and-forget-it” clients—those who want to stay out of the day-to-day of their bookkeeping, but still expect professional-level oversight. They include:
- Photographers who are constantly on the road and want to check in only at tax time.
- Designers juggling multiple clients and vendors with no interest in learning a new app.
- Small creative studios that have outgrown spreadsheets, but aren’t ready for a full-featured accounting platform.
For these clients, Ledger is the sweet spot. It gives our team the tools we need while giving them the simplicity they want.
Real-world wins
Emma, wedding photographer—North Carolina
Emma had been paying for QuickBooks Online Essentials for years, but never logged in. We moved the business to Ledger and set her up with a streamlined process to answer questions about her transactions. Now, she gets a clean monthly report, reminders for quarterly taxes, and her software cost is a third of what it used to cost.
Studio Bloom—California branding agency
Studio Bloom’s founders were managing their finances in spreadsheets until it became too much. With Ledger in place, they now receive accurate reports without needing to manage the process themselves. Bookkeeping takes them less than 30 minutes a month, and they’ve told us it’s been a game-changer for their growing team.
Tools that complement the process
While Ledger handles the bookkeeping, we occasionally need to ask clients about transactions, especially when we see vague vendors such as Amazon or Venmo. For that, we use our own app, Debits.com, to send quick, secure questions without requiring the client to log in to any software. It’s efficient for us and hassle-free for them.
Final thoughts
As a firm that specializes in helping creatives, we’re always looking for ways to reduce overwhelm and increase clarity. QuickBooks Ledger has become one of our favorite tools for doing just that. It keeps our workflows efficient, helps clients stay informed, and ensures their finances are handled with care, even if they never want to touch the books themselves.
For firms like ours, serving clients who value simplicity and trust their accountant to guide the way, Ledger is the right-size solution.
