Bitcoin, Accountants perspective

“Bitcoin,” the most widely recognized digital currency, has gotten some bad publicity for price volatility, illegal use, and cyber theft. Yet, a growing number of businesses including Overstock.com, the Sacramento Kings, Cheapair, over 100,000 Japanese businesses and online gaming company Zynga continue to accept Bitcoin payments. Once you obtain Bitcoin, you can use it to pay for goods or services using a bitcoin wallet installed on a computer or mobile device. When you make purchases, the transactions are automatically posted on a global public ledger that is transparent and is commonly referred to as the blockchain, ensuring that the same unit of digital currency can’t be spent more than once.

Being an accountant in the US and understanding each business’s needs is one thing, but throwing a second currency like bitcoin into the mix is a whole new world.

I don't mean that lightly, a NEW BRAVE VOLATILE WORLD filled with Cryptocurrency.

After reviewing ratings and customer issues on a few bitcoin wallet applications I was able test a few wallets to see which easily imported right away into quickbooks(cause that is my first concern). As part of my search for a good bitcoin wallet I also considered its security reviews and its usability. After a lot of research and exploring, I chose Airbitz and at the end of this article will show a step-by-step explanation on how to download transactions via QBO and/or CSV.

With current currency conversion rates at the tips of your fingers you would expect that technology would easily be able to feed the information into Intuit. Sadly Intuit does not read, nor convert (with a ticker or a website) and instead asks for manual entries. This leaves a larger room for error, and with bitcoin entries that could be off like $100,000.00 easily. As typical accounts currently do, feeding information from Banks and Credit cards can save time and auto fill all that tedious work compared to how information is fed with bitcoin.

For many, including myself, this new financial frontier of cryptocurrencies has been one of the most interesting and stimulating intellectual challenges I have ever accepted.
But seeing all the footwork that is needed, you almost want to ask the US’s biggest small business solution, “Intuit, what is the delay?” You have all the information but choose to only accept a small amount. It’s helpful with Airbitz - Bitcoin Wallet Application, in the memo section of each transaction it does show the exchange rate and the US dollar amount that is associated with each transaction. I am sure as time progresses and Bitcoin goes US mainstream, Intuit will catch on that they have not reached their untapped potential with the Cryptocurrency world.

When downloading my Airbitz QBO (Quickbooks file) and importing it into Quickbooks it’s simple and can be sent via email. Here are some Step by Step directions.

1. Open Airbitz, Start by tapping on Transactions located at the bottom of the screen.
2. Choose the Wallet that you want to export (by default users have 1 Wallet called “My Wallet”.)

1.Tap on the square with the up arrow icon which is the export button.
2.Decide if you are going to download a CSV or a QBO file, or both. In most cases I just grab both one to reconcile against and the other for the import of details. (You can only do one at a time.)

1.Date ranges vary depending on when you performed your last import, so Airbitz made
it simple and allows you to tap on a specific date range of data you wish to export;

1. This week, last week, this month, last month, this year and last year
2. You simply choose if sending it to your email is
   best for you or you can convert that CSV to your Google Drive.

1.Depending on your email application, it will auto
populate the subject line and body of the email.

1. The file is also automatically attached to the email.