Bookkeeping tip for painters: QuickBooks Online is $30/month but worth it for tracking paint jobs

Been painting houses for 15 years now, and I swear by QuickBooks Online for keeping tabs on material costs like Benjamin Moore Advance buckets and labor hours. It costs $30 a month but saves me headaches come tax time, especially separating out the Sherwin-Williams Emerald orders from general expenses. If you're solo, start with their basic plan; it'll track your invoices for those cabinet spraying gigs without the hassle. Saw a post in Painters Lounge FB group where a guy got audited because he was just using spreadsheets, total crap-show.

Ugh, I tried QuickBooks for my interior trim work but the learning curve pissed me off so bad I went back to pen and paper. Now my receipts for Graco sprayers are a mess, and the IRS letter last year was a nightmare. Shoulda stuck with it, I guess.