Are You Getting the Most Out of Quickbooks for Your Business?

The most common off the shelf accounting software used today is QuickBooks.  Many of our clients use QuickBooks to record their business’s income and expenses.  QuickBooks was designed to be user friendly and allow users with little or no experience to summarize accounting data.  We honestly feel QuickBooks can be a wonderful tool in assisting business owners with their accounting needs.  However, many users are not realizing the true benefits and capabilities of QuickBooks because it has not been set up properly. 

QuickBooks has a desktop version that allows a lot of customization and reporting options and while online versions may not allow for all of the flexibility, it will allow you to login from any internet connection and have immediate access to all of your accounting data.  The online version requires a monthly fee while the desktop version, once purchased is good for a number of years unless you are using the payroll module and need to update your payroll tables annually.  QuickBooks also allows for single users on a single machine or a multi-user license can be acquired.  Each user can have a unique login and password limiting their access to certain functions and reports within the software.     Some of the things QuickBooks can help you with are:

• Business Management – Profit and loss statements, balance sheets, budget vs. actual reports, historical data, etc., allow you to monitor how your business is doing on a timely basis.
• Customers and Receivables – QuickBooks will allow you to set up all of your customers’ information within the software. You then have the ability to set your billing preferences on a customer by customer basis, such as payment terms, billing method (printed invoice, emailed invoice), and sales tax rate charged based on the customer’s sales tax district.

If customers are billed a recurring amount, you can set up memorized transactions to automatically bill those customers on a designated frequency.  QuickBooks allows you to track the aging of your accounts receivable, assess finance charges on past due balances and send out statements for accounts that are considered past due.

Sales Tax – Sales tax rates for various counties, districts, and states can be established and customers can be assigned their applicable rates.  If set up correctly, QuickBooks will track your sales tax liability so that amounts can be remitted on the appropriate due dates.

Vendors and Payables – Payables can be input into QuickBooks with applicable payment terms and discounts available to allow management to determine when invoices will be paid based on cash flow and discounts.  When the payable system is used, management can determine which invoices are to be paid at a given point and simply print the checks to pay the invoices.

Payroll – There are several choices for processing payroll using QuickBooks.  Each of which has a fee schedule dependent on the level of assistance you require.  The time tracking feature available within QuickBooks can be integrated with the invoicing process to assist in accurately billing your customers.  

Inventory – QuickBooks will help you track your inventory levels and products sold and will integrate with your sales, invoicing and purchasing procedures.