Sorry about the delay in getting back to you all. We are leaving for the vet in a few minutes. My wife’s favorite pet is going to have to be put down. So…things have been somewhat hectic as she is pretty broken up about it.
Quickbooks is great program for keeping your records straight. I am a certified Quickbooks Pro Advisor and use the program the program on a daily basis to prepare accounting records for my clients. I do quite a bit of consulting on it as well, going out to client’s offices, like later today.
As far as places like H&R Block go. I have a unique perspective having taken their training course years and years ago to gain continuing education credits. The course was paid for by my employer at the time as it was the cheapest price per credit earned!
What you need to know is that most of the people going thru that course do not have a financial background. They are english teachers, shoe salesman, truck drivers, etc. looking to make extra money during tax season. But, they are not all bad. Several of them showed real aptitude for preparing tax returns. However, you have to ask yourself if you want someone who does this part-time or someone who has made this their life?
For a lot of people H&R Block will be just fine, if your tax situation is fairly straight forward. Fair warning, being a CPA you know which way my answer will be biased towards.