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(Thursday, December 17, 2009)
Using QuickBooks in Your Small Business
Summary
Many small businesses overlook the features of QuickBooks accounting software that will save time and allow for more accurate processing in their small business. The true value of a software program is using it to its full potential. In the following paragraphs, we will point out several strategic features of QuickBooks that are easy to use and beneficial to small businesses. We will point out the major systems in QuickBooks that can help you work more efficiently in your business.
Article
QuickBooks continues to add new features to its software on a regular basis. Sometimes, you need to visit an online forum to discover them. In the online forums, you can correspond with other QuickBooks users who are trying to use a function that may be of assistance to you. This is the first step when you’ve encountered a problem. Chances are someone else has had the problem before. To access the online forums, open your QuickBooks program, choose Help – QuickBooks online – User to User Forums. The Forum is divided up into specific areas of QuickBooks. Just find the area you are having a problem with and search through the postings. You can also login and post a question you may have. You should get replies within a few days. For immediate assistance, you can call QuickBooks Tech Support or a Certified ProAdvisor near your location.
In many small businesses, having your payroll processed by an accountant or outside payroll company is a very costly monthly expense. With QuickBooks payroll module, payroll is simple and can be processed in house. The business owner can set up the employees as users in the QuickBooks software and limit their permissions to only be time entry. This way, the employee will access the time entry portion of QuickBooks daily and enter their time allocating it to the appropriate customer if required. Then, when processing payroll, you select the dates for the pay period and QuickBooks will pull the hours worked from the time entry module. The added bonus of this is when you prepare an invoice for that customer; you can select to bill them for the employee’s time in the invoice by selecting time/costs on your invoice screen.
If you don’t want your employees to access QuickBooks, there is also a timer that can be set on an employee's desktop to use for time entry. This would record their time and it could be imported into your QuickBooks data file. Please note this feature is only available in QuickBooks Premier – Accountants and Bookkeepers Edition.
When your company has more than one division, QuickBooks classes are very easy to use. Using classes entails entering the class of your income or expense when posting entries. You can then view reports that will display the details of each division and their respective incomes.
There are also industry specific versions of QuickBooks for Accountants, Contractors and Non-Profit industries. The Contractors version enables the company to issue progressive invoices based on estimates given to the client. This version includes reporting specific to contractors such as a comparison of the estimates to the actual invoices and profit and loss by job. The Contractors version also gives you the ability to set up a vendor as a subcontractor therefore allowing for ease when filing the Canada Revenue Agency required form T5018.
You may wish to discuss with your accountant how the special features of QuickBooks can help you work smarter not harder.
J.A. Smith & Associates Inc. is located at 2147 Bowen Road, Nanaimo, BC. The firm offers tax and financial planning, accounting services, management consulting services, outsourced accounting and accounting systems selection and training
