Accounting Software, Bookkeeping & Chart of Accounts

[David Begley]

My CPA recommended last year that I purchase Quickbooks for my business, and if I sent his firm the chart of accounts for my business, his bookkeepers could log-in to my account, post transactions, balance accounts and provide the basic bookkeeping for me.  I really didn't have sufficient activity last year to justify going forward, and have tried to manage everything with spreadsheets.  However, now I would like to take him up on this offer, but haven't purchased the software and have no way to know how to set up the chart of accounts.  I initially need basic rehab accounting, with and without partners, but with the flexibility to account for buy and hold activity later.

His firm seems to be more Quickbooks focused for clients, so I don't really need alternative software suggestions.  I do, however, need some direction or feedback as to what steps need to be accomplished before I make the purchase - in other words, if I downloaded the software today, what steps need to be followed prior to being able to send transactions to the bookkeepers for their processing?  Does one need to create a "chart of accounts" from scratch?  Any suggestions?