Tools we actually use with clients.
No fluff. These are the platforms in our daily workflow — many with special discounts when you sign up through our links.
Some links below are affiliate links. We only recommend tools we use or have personally evaluated. Affiliate-free tools are labeled "Tool We Use."
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Checklists, templates, and guides you can use today. No email required — just click and download.
Monthly Bookkeeping Checklist
What to do every month to keep your books clean, reconciled, and ready for tax time. Works for any service business using QuickBooks Online.
- Bank and credit card reconciliation steps
- Revenue and expense review tasks
- Month-end close items
- What to send your accountant
QuickBooks Online Setup Checklist
12 things to configure before you record a single transaction. Skipping these is the #1 reason small business books end up a mess six months in.
- Company settings and chart of accounts
- Bank feed and payment connections
- Tax settings and user permissions
- Common setup mistakes to avoid
Mileage & Expense Tracker
Track business mileage and out-of-pocket expenses throughout the year. IRS-ready log format with auto-calculating totals. Works in Excel and Google Sheets.
- Mileage log with IRS standard rate calc
- Expense log organized by category
- Monthly and annual summary tabs
- Ready to hand to your accountant
Crypto Tax Prep Checklist
Everything you need to gather before handing off your crypto history to a tax pro. Following this list cuts reconciliation time — which cuts your bill.
- Exchange and wallet inventory template
- Document types you’ll need (CSV exports, etc.)
- DeFi, staking, and NFT considerations
- What to do if an exchange went bankrupt
Crypto Transaction Log Template
Manual log for wallets and exchanges that don’t export CSVs — or where records are incomplete. Captures everything the IRS needs for accurate cost basis tracking.
- Date, type, amount, asset, USD value
- Cost basis and fee tracking columns
- Exchange and wallet identifier fields
- Notes column for edge cases
Crypto Taxable Events Cheat Sheet
What’s taxable, what’s not, and what the IRS expects you to track — covering every common situation from simple trades to DeFi, staking, airdrops, and bankrupt exchanges.
- Full taxable vs. non-taxable event table
- Gray areas with current IRS guidance status
- What to track for every transaction
- Cost basis method comparison (FIFO / HIFO / Spec ID)
Accounting & Bookkeeping
Cloud-based accounting, payroll, and bill pay. These are the core tools in every client’s financial stack. We build and maintain all client books in QuickBooks Online.
QuickBooks Online
The industry-standard cloud accounting platform. We build and maintain every bookkeeping client’s books in QBO — bank feeds, reconciliation, P&L, and tax-ready reports. Works with most banks, payroll tools, and expense apps.
Our first recommendation for every bookkeeping client. If you’re not in QBO, this is where we’d start.
Get QuickBooks →Xero
A strong QuickBooks alternative with clean reporting, solid bank feeds, and a well-designed interface. Good ecosystem of third-party integrations. Popular with service businesses that prefer a different workflow than QBO.
Good fit if you’ve tried QBO and want something different, or for non-US businesses.
Get Xero →Gusto
Full-service payroll with HR features built in. Handles direct deposit, benefits administration, employee onboarding, and tax filings. Popular for small businesses that want a dedicated payroll platform separate from their accounting software.
Ideal if you want standalone payroll with strong HR tools included.
Get Gusto →Melio
Free bill pay platform. Pay vendors by ACH bank transfer or check — even if they only accept checks. ACH is free. Syncs with QuickBooks. Great for service businesses managing multiple vendor payments each month.
Cuts down on manual check writing. Free for ACH transfers and worth it for any business paying multiple vendors.
Get Melio →Crypto Tax Software
These are the platforms we use to reconcile client portfolios — from simple exchange history to complex DeFi, staking, NFTs, and multi-wallet situations. We’ve processed over 1,000,000 crypto transactions across these tools.
Koinly
Our primary crypto tax platform for most clients. Supports 700+ exchanges and wallets, DeFi protocols, staking, and NFTs. Generates IRS-ready tax reports (Form 8949, Schedule D) compatible with most CPAs and tax software.
Best starting point for most investors. Excellent coverage, clean reporting, and the strongest exchange integration library.
Get Koinly →CoinTracker
Strong crypto tax platform with excellent DeFi and NFT tracking. Portfolio tracker built in so you can monitor holdings alongside tax liability. Integrates directly with TurboTax and H&R Block for streamlined filing.
Good fit for clients with heavy DeFi activity or NFT portfolios who also want built-in portfolio tracking.
CoinLedger
Reliable crypto tax reconciliation with strong multi-chain support and NFT handling. Clean interface, solid exchange integrations, and straightforward report generation. Good alternative to Koinly for specific portfolio types.
Solid alternative — especially for NFT-heavy portfolios or clients who prefer a different interface than Koinly.
Get CoinLedger →
ZenLedger
Enterprise-grade crypto tax and accounting platform. Particularly strong for complex cases involving high transaction volumes, multi-chain DeFi, and institutional-level reporting needs. Integrates with QuickBooks for full accounting workflow.
We use ZenLedger for complex client situations — especially high-volume and institutional cases.
Get ZenLedger →Awaken Tax
Specialized in DeFi tax reconciliation. Handles LP tokens, yield farming, liquidity provision, cross-chain bridges, and protocol-specific edge cases that other tools approximate or miss entirely. Built for the hardest DeFi situations.
Our go-to for heavy DeFi clients. No affiliate link — pure recommendation based on real results with complex portfolios.
Arkham Intelligence
On-chain intelligence platform that maps blockchain transactions to real-world entities. Useful for tracing transaction history across wallets, identifying exchange flows, and documenting provenance for complex crypto tax situations involving multiple addresses or missing records.
Helpful when a client can’t fully explain their wallet history or needs to trace where funds moved across chains and exchanges.
Get Arkham →Expense & Document Management
Tools that automate receipt capture and document organization. Less manual entry means cleaner books, fewer missed deductions, and a lot less work at tax time.
Dext (formerly Receipt Bank)
Scan or photograph receipts and invoices — Dext extracts the data automatically and pushes it directly into QuickBooks. Eliminate manual entry for clients with lots of receipts, vendor bills, or employee expense reports.
If receipt tracking is a constant problem in your books, this is the fix. Integrates natively with QBO and saves significant time.
Get Dext →Shoeboxed
Mail in your receipts and Shoeboxed scans, categorizes, and digitizes them for you. Also has a mobile app. Great for clients who have months of paper receipts they haven’t touched and just want to send in a pile and be done with it.
Perfect for clients who hate apps and just want to mail in a pile of receipts and have it handled.
Get Shoeboxed →Operations & Project Management
Tools for running your business more efficiently — task management, workflows, and SOPs. We use these internally and recommend them for clients who are scaling their operations.
ClickUp
Our own project management and client workflow platform. Tasks, docs, automations, time tracking, and dashboards in one place. Highly customizable for almost any workflow — from solo operators to growing teams.
We run our own operations in ClickUp. If you want one tool for tasks, SOPs, and team coordination, start here.
Get ClickUp →Process Street
Build checklist-based SOPs and run them as structured workflows. Great for onboarding checklists, recurring financial processes, compliance procedures, or any repeatable task your team needs to run consistently every time.
Ideal if you need strict process compliance — monthly close checklists, client onboarding, or audit prep workflows.
Get Process Street →Monday.com
Visual project management for teams. Board, timeline, and calendar views for tracking projects, clients, and deliverables. Strong automations and integrations. Less complex to set up than ClickUp for teams that want something visual out of the box.
Good fit for teams that want a visual, polished project tracker without a steep setup curve.
Get Monday.com →Proposals & Client Tools
Tools for winning and onboarding clients faster — proposals, contracts, e-signatures, and lead generation.
PandaDoc
Our proposal and contract signing tool. Build polished proposals with pricing tables, send for e-signature, and track when clients open and review documents. Templates make sending fast. Full audit trail for compliance.
We use PandaDoc for every engagement letter and proposal. Polished, fast, and legally solid for service agreements.
Get PandaDoc →Outgrow
Build interactive calculators, assessments, and quizzes for lead generation. Create a "How much does bookkeeping cost?" calculator or financial health assessment that captures qualified leads — far more effective than a plain contact form.
Excellent for service businesses that want to generate leads with something genuinely useful for the visitor.
Get Outgrow →Other Tools We Recommend
Tools across security, outreach, documents, and industry-specific platforms that come up regularly with our client base.
Waalaxy
LinkedIn prospecting and outreach automation. Build multi-step sequences, send connection requests, and follow up automatically — without leaving LinkedIn. One of the cleanest LinkedIn outreach tools on the market for B2B service providers.
If LinkedIn is part of your client acquisition strategy, Waalaxy makes it significantly less manual.
Get Waalaxy →Proton
End-to-end encrypted email, calendar, and cloud storage. Switzerland-based, privacy-first alternative to Google Workspace. Strong choice for businesses handling sensitive financial data, crypto portfolios, or client records who take data security seriously.
If privacy or data security is a concern — especially for crypto-active clients — Proton is worth considering.
Get Proton →Foxit PDF Editor
PDF editing, annotation, and e-signature at a fraction of Adobe Acrobat’s price. Create, edit, redact, and sign PDFs. Great for editing financial reports, tax documents, or client agreements on the fly without a bloated enterprise subscription.
Solid, affordable Acrobat alternative. Does the job for 95% of PDF editing needs.
Get Foxit →Houzz Pro
All-in-one business management platform built specifically for home renovation and design professionals. CRM, project management, client portals, estimates, invoicing, and lead generation — all in one place for contractors and home service businesses.
If you’re a contractor, remodeler, or home service business, Houzz Pro handles the business operations side of your work.
Get Houzz Pro →Common Questions About These Tools
Straight answers on the platforms we recommend and how we use them.
What crypto tax software does Bugaboo Bookkeeping use?
We primarily use Koinly, CoinTracker, CoinLedger, ZenLedger, and Awaken Tax — selected based on each client’s exchange history, DeFi activity, and transaction complexity. Koinly handles most standard cases. Awaken Tax is our go-to for complex DeFi protocols where other tools make approximations rather than accurate reconciliations. We’ve processed over 1,000,000 crypto transactions across these platforms.
Are these affiliate links?
Some links on this page are affiliate or referral links — we may receive compensation if you sign up through our link, at no additional cost to you. We only list tools we actively use in client workflows or have personally evaluated. Tools labeled "Tool We Use" carry no affiliate relationship and are listed because we use them and trust them — full stop.
Is QuickBooks Online the best accounting software for small businesses?
QuickBooks Online is the industry standard for small business accounting and the platform we use for every bookkeeping client. It offers the strongest bank feed integration, financial reporting, and payroll options for service businesses in the $150K–$5M revenue range. Xero is a legitimate alternative if you’ve tried QBO and prefer a different interface or workflow.
What’s the difference between Koinly and CoinTracker for crypto taxes?
Koinly and CoinTracker both reconcile crypto transactions across multiple exchanges and wallets. Koinly has broader exchange and wallet coverage, making it our default starting point for most clients. CoinTracker has excellent DeFi and NFT tracking and integrates directly with TurboTax and H&R Block. We select the tool based on each client’s specific portfolio composition, filing situation, and which exchanges they used.
Do I need receipt scanning software if I already use QuickBooks?
Receipt scanning tools like Dext and Shoeboxed automatically capture and categorize expenses, reducing manual data entry and keeping your QuickBooks records more accurate. They are especially useful for businesses with high transaction volumes, frequent vendor invoices, or employees submitting expenses. QuickBooks has a built-in capture feature, but dedicated tools handle volume and edge cases better for busy businesses.
Affiliate disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate or referral links. If you sign up for a tool through one of our links, we may receive compensation at no additional cost to you. We only recommend tools we actively use in our client work or have personally evaluated. Tools labeled "Tool We Use" carry no affiliate relationship — they are listed because we use them and trust them. This page is not sponsored and no tool has paid to be featured here.
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