Five Quirks in QuickBooks and How to Make Good Use of Them

Life is full of defaults, and for small business owners it seems like QuickBooks is more often than not the default choice for accounting software. Since many of our clients around the country rely on this software to process their bookkeeping data, we thought it would be good to focus this article on five useful QuickBooks tips. Here you will find actual tools, useful for making your QuickBooks experience more productive and enjoyable:

1. Make use of your memorized reports: Like everything else, QuickBooks also has its own defaults. The standard reports that come with the software are very useful in general terms. Reports like the “Profit and Loss Statement” or the “Unpaid Bills Report” are tools we couldn’t live without as business owners. However, each business is different and so you must mold QuickBooks into a tool that fits your personal needs. To do that, you need to learn how to create and manage memorized reports. The beauty of a memorized report is that it’s designed for your data requirements and you can generate it with the click of a button. If you are unfamiliar with this capability and would like to receive individual training, we provide one-on-one training in this area.
2. Learn to love memorized transactions: In QuickBooks you can memorize nearly any transaction. This includes entering a bill, writing a check, recording depreciation, and just about anything else. We suggest that you review the transactions that occur every month within your business and enter them as memorized transactions. This will allow you to automate your accounting to some extent - saving you time and potential error. Simply press “Ctrl + M” when you are performing the routine transaction and QuickBooks will open a scheduling window. You can tell QuickBooks how often you would like the transaction to occur, when it should occur, and how you want it entered. Just remember to review your memorized transaction list frequently to make sure that old or outdated transactions are not continuing to be entered.
3. Know how QuickBooks handles cash: Since cash is your most important asset, you need to know how to properly track it in QuickBooks. The idea is to always have an updated cash balance reflected in QuickBooks so that you are making correct decisions for the direction of your business. Here is what you need to know: When you receive a customer payment, QuickBooks places that increase in cash in an account called undeposited funds. This is because the software believes that even though you have received a payment, it hasn’t been deposited into your bank account yet. It’s not until you click the “Make a Deposit” button and complete that module that QuickBooks increases your cash balance to reflect the customer payment.
4. Reconcile more than just your bank accounts: The reconciliation tool in QuickBooks isn’t just for reconciling your bank accounts. In it you can reconcile practically any account including your credit cards and your long-term debts. When you open the reconciliation module, use the drop down bar to select something other than a bank account. The process will be the same, in that it will ask you for a beginning balance, and statement end balance, and a statement date.
5. Utilize other software tools that link in with QuickBooks: Because QuickBooks has become the default software for small business bookkeeping, many software developers have built tools that work alongside it. One for example is Quivinchi, a reporting tool that helps you see from graphical level how the data in your QuickBooks file looks.

QuickBooks should not be a passive tool. Many business owners see it as something that is time consuming, confusing, and about as fun as sitting through the dentist. That may be true for some, but no matter what your personality type, your QuickBooks file must be in order if you are to be successful. At Dashboard Accountants, we specialize in helping small businesses make the most of their QuickBooks file. As a provider of outsourced accounting and bookkeeping services nationwide, we design a full service accounting team around your needs. Our clients range from start-up garage operations to multi-million dollar enterprises. If you would like to learn more about how we can help you, please call 801-336-5311. You can also read more about our bookkeeping services at our website. In addition, we offer our services free for 30 days to help you get started.

Eddy Hood is author of this article on Bookkeeping Services. Find more information about Top 10 QuickBooks Clean-Up Tips here.

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