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Viewing entries tagged with 'QuickBooks'
Remember to Accrue Revenue and Expenses In QuickBooks at Year-End
Accrual based businesses typically need to make some adjustments before closing their books at year-end. Different businesses make different decisions regarding exactly what to accrue, but whenever an expense is incurred in one year for which the benefit won't be received until the next year, or revenue is received in one year for products or services that won't be delivered until the next year, then it is worth considing whether or not to make an accrual adjustment.
QuickBooks Tutorials: Statements, Customer Register, Handling Independent Contractors
We recently added a number of QuickBooks tutorials related to using statements in QuickBooks, using the customer register and handling independent contractors. Samarak's QuickBooks tutorials include detailed instructions and screen shots so you can see exactly what we are talking about.
Handling Independent Contractors in QuickBooks
When setting up independent contractors in QuickBooks, set them up as vendors, not as employees. This is an important distinction. If you aren't certain whether the individual is an employee or independent contractor (and hence a vendor), see my prior blog titled "Independent Contractor or Employee?".
Creating Statements in QuickBooks for All Open Transactions
One of the best ways to increase the amount of cash you have in the bank is to increase the speed at which you collect your receivables. One of the best ways to collect your receivables faster is to remind customers with overdue invoices that they owe you money. Fortunately, QuickBooks makes this very easy. I recommend creating statements in QuickBooks on a regular basis (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly - depends on your business) for all customers that have overdue invoices. Then quickly scan through the statements and decide which ones to send out. Why create statements for all customers if you will only send some of them out? Because it's so easy to do so and doing so prevents you from forgetting to send statements to some customers that should get them.
Using the QuickBooks Customer Register Instead of Invoices
Some businesses choose to record charges to their customers in the customer register, as opposed to creating invoices. They then send statements summarizing the entries in the customer register to their customers on a regular basis. While there are some limitations of using billing statements in QuickBooks, this method of billing customers is practical for some businesses.
Creating Statements in QuickBooks for One Customer
Sending statements to customers who owe you money is an important piece of an effective cash management system. If a company isn't paying your invoices, then it's probably either a mistake or because they are having cash flow problems. If it's a mistake, then a reminder will be appreciated. If your customer is having cash flow problems, then you want to keep your invoices at the top of their list. If you don't keep requesting payment, then you will be a lower priority than those companies that do keep asking. Fortunately, QuickBooks makes it very easy to create statements.
Limitations of Using Billing Statements in QuickBooks
Some businesses choose to bill their customers via statements instead of invoices. While this is not the best choice for most businesses, it sometimes is for businesses that bill periodically (weekly, monthly, etc.). These businesses record charges to their customers in the customer register instead of creating invoices, and then create statements summarizing the entries made in the customer register to send to their customers. Before choosing to do this, it is important to be aware of the limitations of doing so:
When to Use Statements in QuickBooks
The primary reason for using statements in QuickBooks is to remind delinquent customers that they owe you money and to summarize the amount they owe. However, some businesses use statements instead of invoices.
QuickBooks 2009 Live Community Makes Getting Help Easy
QuickBooks 2009 Live Community greatly simplifies getting help in QuickBooks. If you keep the Live Community/Help window open while you work in QuickBooks, it continually changes to suggest relevant topics to whatever it is in QuickBooks that you are currently working on. And you can choose between getting help via the standard QuickBooks Help (which is faster and easier to use than it used to be) or using Live Community to ask a question. If you choose to ask a question in Live Community, the first thing Live Community does is to check to see if your questions has already been asked and answered, in which case you can go right to the answer, as opposed to waiting for someone to answer your question.
QuickBooks 2009 Company Snapshot is Great
The QuickBooks 2009 feature that I am most excited about is the Company Snapshot. It doesn't really add any functionality, but it does make it really easy for a manager to quickly see key information that in the past they probably did not look at as often as they should. For this reason, I think the Company Snapshot alone is a reason to consider upgrading to QuickBooks 2009.
