diff --git a/src/llmcompressor/transformers/finetune/data/custom.py b/src/llmcompressor/transformers/finetune/data/custom.py
index e849594e7..7b74f30ac 100644
--- a/src/llmcompressor/transformers/finetune/data/custom.py
+++ b/src/llmcompressor/transformers/finetune/data/custom.py
@@ -44,56 +44,73 @@ def __init__(self, data_args, split, tokenizer):
             split=split,
             tokenizer=tokenizer,
         )
-        self.preprocessing_func = data_args.preprocessing_func
-        self.remove_columns = data_args.remove_columns
 
     def get_raw_dataset(self, *_ignore, **__ignore) -> Union[DatasetDict, Dataset]:
         """Get the raw dataset and apply preprocessing func if provided"""
 
-        dataset = self.data_args.dataset
-        if isinstance(dataset, DatasetDict) or isinstance(dataset, Dataset):
-            # user passed in an already instantiated dataset, just use it directly
-            raw_dataset = dataset
-        else:
-            # dataset must be loaded from file or HF Hub
-            raw_dataset = super().get_raw_dataset()
-
-        if self.preprocessing_func is not None:
-            if callable(self.preprocessing_func):
-                func = self.preprocessing_func
-            elif ":" in self.preprocessing_func:
+        # load dataset
+        dataset = (
+            self.data_args.dataset
+            if isinstance(self.data_args.dataset, (DatasetDict, Dataset))
+            else super().get_raw_dataset()  # load dataset from file or HF Hub
+        )
+
+        # preprocess dataset
+        dataset = self._preprocess_dataset(dataset)
+        dataset = self._remove_columns_from_dataset(dataset)
+
+        return dataset
+
+    def _preprocess_dataset(
+        self, dataset: Union[DatasetDict, Dataset]
+    ) -> Union[DatasetDict, Dataset]:
+        preprocessing_func = self.data_args.preprocessing_func
+
+        if preprocessing_func is not None:
+            if callable(preprocessing_func):
+                pass
+
+            elif ":" in preprocessing_func:
                 # load func_name from "/path/to/file.py:func_name"
-                func = import_from_path(self.preprocessing_func)
+                preprocessing_func = import_from_path(preprocessing_func)
             else:
                 # load from the registry
-                func = PreprocessingFunctionRegistry.get_value_from_registry(
-                    name=self.preprocessing_func
+                preprocessing_func = (
+                    PreprocessingFunctionRegistry.get_value_from_registry(
+                        name=preprocessing_func
+                    )
                 )
 
-            raw_dataset = self.map(
-                raw_dataset,
-                function=func,
+            dataset = self.map(
+                dataset,
+                function=preprocessing_func,
                 batched=False,
                 num_proc=self.data_args.preprocessing_num_workers,
                 desc="Applying custom func to the custom dataset",
             )
 
-        self.remove_columns = (
-            self.remove_columns or self.get_remove_columns_from_dataset(raw_dataset)
-        )
+        return dataset
+
+    def _remove_columns_from_dataset(
+        self, dataset: Union[DatasetDict, Dataset]
+    ) -> Union[DatasetDict, Dataset]:
+        remove_columns = self.data_args.remove_columns
+
+        if not remove_columns:
+            remove_columns = self._get_remove_columns_from_dataset(dataset)
 
-        if self.remove_columns is not None:
-            raw_dataset = self.map(
-                raw_dataset,
+        if remove_columns is not None:
+            dataset = self.map(
+                dataset,
                 batched=True,
-                remove_columns=self.remove_columns,
+                remove_columns=remove_columns,
                 num_proc=self.data_args.preprocessing_num_workers,
                 desc="Removing unneeded columns",
             )
 
-        return raw_dataset
+        return dataset
 
-    def get_remove_columns_from_dataset(
+    def _get_remove_columns_from_dataset(
         self, raw_dataset: Union[DatasetDict, Dataset]
     ) -> List[str]:
         """Remove redandant columns from the dataset for processing"""