VENMO PAYMENT · $1,240 · “parts?”
No receipt. No reply. Month-end is Friday.
Do you guess, park it, or chase the client again? No course video covers it, and there's nobody to ask.
Bookkeeping gets different when you have to decide.
Make your mistakes where nobody's watching
Every new bookkeeper gets it wrong the first time. QBO Dojo practice clients are realistic small businesses with 90 days of messy books. You make every call, then check your work against the Practice Review.
Practicing with a team? See QBO Dojo for Firms
Every bookkeeper has one of these moments. The question is who pays for it.
RECONCILIATION · OFF BY $2,180.62
It started as $12 in January.
Small misses grow, and on a real client the CPA is usually the one who finds them.
DISCOVERY CALL
“Have you ever done a cleanup before?”
“Sort of” loses the client. Finish one start to finish and you have a real answer.
On a real client, these mistakes cost money, trust and sometimes the client. In a QBO Dojo practice client, they cost nothing, and you find out exactly where you went wrong.
Inside a practice client
Fieldstone Design Studio, a White Belt client. Excerpts from the client files, condensed.
Who you’re working for
A designer who spent five years at a large agency has opened a studio of her own in a converted mill. She put her savings in, opened the business account on April 1, and took her first commission the same week.
- Card sales are processed by Northfield, which deposits the next day
- Two clients are invoiced for project work on 15-day terms
- Studio rent is $1,650 a month, paid by check
- No salary. She draws money once a month
“She keeps every receipt in a folder she has not opened since April.”
What you’ll run into
90 days of bank and card activity, including:
- Two card purchases with no receipt kept
- Bank lines where a card-processor prefix hides who was paid
- A clothing store and a pharmacy charge among the license renewals
- A Friday run of client checks deposited as one line
- A rent check written before quarter end that never cleared
Nobody flags these for you.
How your calls are checked
Is the Imagebank charge a job cost or studio overhead?
Treatment: Job materials
Also defensibleSoftware subscriptions
The job margin moves depending on which you choose.
Is the clothing store charge on the business card a studio cost?
Treatment: Personal. Reclassify to owner’s draw
Coding it as an expense overstates costs and understates the draw, which misstates both profit and tax.
Where your answer differs, the Practice Review shows you why.
How It Works
Take on the books. Make the decisions.
01
Choose your client
Pick an industry and challenge level. Read the client story and check the QuickBooks requirements.
02
Work the books
Download the files, follow the included setup guidance, and work through the records in your own QuickBooks practice company.
03
Check your work
Compare your completed books with the included Practice Review and investigate any differences.
The 90 days describes the client's business activity. Download your files within 30 days of purchase and work at your own pace.
How a practice client is built
Each client starts with a business story: what it sells, how it gets paid, what it owes, and the bookkeeping decisions its records will raise. That scenario becomes 90 days of simulated business activity, with a Client Brief, importable records, statements, and supporting documents.
Before release, accounting and package checks compare the transactions, statements, source records, and Practice Review for agreement. The customer PDFs and download package are also inspected for identity, dates, readability, and completeness. The Practice Review gives you the intended accounting outcome to compare with your own work after you finish.
Difficulty Levels
Same 90 Days. Different Challenge.
Every standard Practice Client covers 90 days of business activity. White, Orange, and Black Belt describe increasing bookkeeping complexity, not duration. Practice Client belts are difficulty labels, not credentials. Applied Bookkeeping Belts are earned only through Live Client Simulation.
Choose a belt to browse that level’s Practice Clients.
White Belt
$49
90-Day Practice Client
Minimum QBO Plan: Simple Start
Clearer client facts, lower transaction volume, fewer interacting workflows, and more direct bookkeeping decisions.
Orange Belt
$79
90-Day Practice Client
Minimum QBO Plan: Plus
More activity, greater workflow interaction, additional ambiguity, more active A/R and A/P, and more bookkeeping judgment.
Black Belt
$119
90-Day Practice Client
Minimum QBO Plan: Advanced
Greater complexity, more interconnected activity, increased ambiguity, more difficult reconciliation, and broader feature requirements.
Best Value
Want All Three Challenges?
Take on all three 90-Day Practice Clients in the same industry: White Belt, Orange Belt, and Black Belt. $247 purchased separately. $197 as a set. Save $50.
You can start with a free 30-day QuickBooks trial. See how to set up your practice company.
New This Month
Meet a new business. Take on its books.
Each monthly release is another chance to practice with distinct, unfamiliar businesses, including another client in an industry you have already worked.
White BeltWellness / Health Practice
Tidemark Pilates and Barre
The reformers are in, the studio beside the rail station is open, and her savings paid for the fit-out. Class members tap their cards at the desk, two employers buy lunchtime class blocks, and two instructors send invoices twice a month. Tidemark’s first quarter brings several ways to earn money and several ways to misread a bank deposit. Build the books from the start. Separate owner funding from class income, account for card fees and a client refund, and identify two personal errands on the business debit card. Reconcile the quarter with two checks still outstanding. Practice explaining how a studio’s sales become cash without treating every deposit as revenue.
$49
One-time purchaseOrange BeltTransportation / Trucking
Ballast Point Hauling
Ballast Point’s three trucks haul for a quarry, excavator, ready-mix plant, and county road department. The second truck was financed, but its loan was recorded as hauling income. A hauling day was billed twice, material supply posts to the wrong income line, and neither account has been reconciled. Establish the loan, split its installments, and apply combined and partial customer receipts. Correct the duplicated hauling invoice and material-supply item, then reconcile both accounts. Practice cleaning up the financing and billing behind a working truck fleet.
$79
One-time purchaseBlack BeltProfessional Services / Legal
Hogback Engineering Partners
Hogback’s partners run structural engineering and building inspections from the same office. Testing equipment and a drone fleet were financed with a loan that the books called project income. Before you can rely on the firm’s results, that borrowing and the customer activity need to be separated. Remove the loan from revenue, correct the condition-assessment item, and place the annual design-software license. Split installments from the lender’s statement, apply combined and partial receipts, and reconcile three accounts. Work through the evidence behind income, debt, and cash in a practice with two lines of work.
$119
One-time purchaseWhite BeltAutomotive
Throttle Lane Motorcycle Service
After working at a dealership, he’s opened a motorcycle service shop on the highway. His savings paid for the lift and tire machine. Riders pay at the counter, while a rental fleet and the sheriff’s office receive service invoices. A canceled tire order has been refunded. Now you’re taking responsibility for the shop’s first quarter. Record parts as cost of goods, account for the refund without treating it as a business cost, and follow counter payments alongside fleet accounts. Reconcile checking with two checks still outstanding. Practice building the books behind a new shop where parts, services, and customer payments move together.
$49
One-time purchaseThree Ways to Develop
Choose how you want to build the skill.
01
Free
Free Learning
Understand the bookkeeping concepts first. Free lessons, explanations, and exercises build the knowledge behind the work before you take on a client.
Start Free in the Learning Library02
One-Time Purchase
Independent Practice
Take on a simulated business, work through its books at your own pace, and make the bookkeeping decisions yourself. Use the included Practice Review to check your work.
Browse Practice Clients03
Paid Engagement
Live Client Simulation
Step into an active client relationship. Live Client Simulation adds ongoing client behavior, follow-up, and an Applied Bookkeeping Belt assessment on top of the practice work.
Explore Live SimulationFAQ
Frequently Asked Questions.
The Dojo Dispatch