Last updated: September 2026.
Every guide on this site touches something that changes: a piece of software’s price, an error message’s exact wording, a settings menu that got redesigned last quarter. This page explains, specifically, what we do before we publish a number or a fix, and what we do when we can’t verify one.
How we test error fixes
For error and troubleshooting articles, our first choice is to reproduce the error ourselves in a real or trial instance of the software, usually a dedicated test install or a virtual machine set up specifically to trigger that error condition, rather than write from memory or from what other sites describe. When we can do that, the article’s screenshots are our own, taken during that reproduction, not stock photography or images pulled from someone else’s article. We date every error article with a “last verified” line so you can judge how current it is.
Reproducing an error properly can take days, some depend on a specific combination of software version, operating system, and network setup that isn’t always straightforward to recreate. Where we haven’t finished that process for a given article yet, the article says so directly instead of presenting general troubleshooting knowledge as something we’ve personally confirmed. We would rather be upfront about that gap than fake a screenshot or imply first-hand testing that didn’t happen.
How we verify pricing
Pricing pages for QuickBooks, Xero, Gusto, Square, and the other software we cover change without much notice, tiers get renamed, promotional discounts appear and disappear, and add-on costs move around. Before we publish a specific dollar figure, we check it directly against the vendor’s own current pricing page, on the date noted at the top of the article. When a number can’t be confirmed that way, for example a regional price or a rate that depends on a quote we can’t obtain, we describe it as a range or note the uncertainty explicitly rather than state a precise figure we haven’t verified.
Because these prices do shift, treat the number in any article as accurate as of its “last verified” date, and check the vendor’s own page directly before making a purchasing decision based on it.
What “last verified” actually means
Every article on this site carries a “last verified” date near the top. That date marks the last time we personally checked the specific claims in that article, a price, a menu location, an error’s exact behavior, against the current version of the software or the vendor’s own current page. It is not a publish date and it is not a promise that nothing has changed since, it is our record of when we last confirmed it ourselves.
When we get something wrong
Software changes fast enough that an accurate article can go stale within months without anyone making a mistake. If you notice a price, a step, or a screenshot that no longer matches what you’re seeing in the software, tell us. We update the article and its “last verified” date once we’ve confirmed the change ourselves, we don’t take a reader’s word for a correction without checking it first, for the same reason we don’t publish an unverified number in the first place.
What this doesn’t cover
This page describes our process, not a guarantee. We are not accountants, and nothing here or elsewhere on this site should be treated as professional accounting, tax, or legal advice, see our Disclaimer for the full detail on that, on our independence from the software vendors we cover, and on how the site is funded.
Questions about a specific article
If something in a specific guide looks outdated or you spot an error in our testing, contact us at contact@smallbizsoftwarelab.com and reference the article. We’d rather fix it than leave it wrong.