QuickBooks’ marketing makes it look like a simple, all-in-one solution that anyone can manage effectively. But is it really true? QuickBooks Online is an amazing platform that truly does provide an all-in-one solution for small businesses’ accounting needs. However, the idea that it’s simple and easy to use is one that most bookkeepers and accountants would disagree with.
How to Use QuickBooks
If you want to get the most out of your QuickBooks Online subscription, there are a few things you’ll need to do to optimize your QuickBooks account and ensure you’re starting on the right foot. Failure to do these things could result in messy or even inaccurate financial data, so it’s important to get your set up right. Today, we’re sharing some tips for beginners to get you started on your accounting journey!
Step One for QuickBooks Beginners: Start a Business Bank Account that Integrates with QuickBooks Online
Before you even open up a QuickBooks account, securing a dedicated business bank account that integrates with QuickBooks Online is essential. This ensures that you can automatically import important transactions into QuickBooks, which makes your finances much easier to manage.
Integrate Your Payment Processors
Once you’ve set up your bank account and connected it with QuickBooks, you’ll also want to connect any payment processors you use, like Stripe or Paypal. This ensures that all income is categorized correctly and is reflected in your books automatically without manual input needed.
Set Up Your Chart of Accounts Strategically
In order to use all of the functions of QuickBooks Online, you’ll need to set up a Chart of Accounts (COA). On the most basic level, this could just be all of the different bank accounts, credit cards, and other accounts associated with your business. However, we recommend a more customized approach. To see high level insights on your profit & loss, set up your Chart of Accounts to have an account for each different service type, location, or any other helpful way of categorizing your income and expenses.
Enter Your Products and Services Before You Get Started
Though you can certainly start using QuickBooks Online before setting up your products and services, taking this step will optimize your financial statements and allow you to accurately view your income and expenses for each account in your COA right on your profit and loss statement. For each product or service you add to QuickBooks Online, ensure that you attach it to a category so that it will be accurately reflected in your financial statements.
Set Up Recurring Invoices
If you’re the type of business that works with clients or customers on a recurring basis, setting up recurring invoices is a great way to optimize your cash flow. When you set up your recurring invoices, be sure to use the products and services you set up to ensure that your financial statements accurately reflect your accounts.
Implement Bank Rules for Recurring Expenses
QuickBooks is pretty good at determining the categories for your expenses, but it doesn’t always get it right. That’s why it’s important to manually look over your income and expenses every week or at least bi-weekly to ensure that everything is categorized correctly. If you have recurring expenses, you can skip this step by setting up bank rules. Bank rules are a way of telling QuickBooks that a certain expense should be categorized a certain way every time. Doing this can reduce the time you spend manually categorizing transactions significantly!
Schedule Automated Invoice Reminders
Did you know that poor cash flow is the #1 reason that small businesses fail? When it comes to improving cash flow, ensuring that your invoices are paid on time, every time should be a top priority! You can schedule automated invoice reminders when you set up your invoices and even customize when and how frequently they will be sent. This can save you a ton of time chasing invoices and boost your cash flow almost instantly.
Automatically Generate Reports
QuickBooks Online has an amazing feature that allows you to automatically generate your key financial reports and send them straight to your email inbox! By doing this, you can ensure that you keep a close eye on your company financials without needing to manually generate reports often. Just remember: your reports are only as good as the data you provide! If your financial data is inaccurate, your reports will not be useful to your business and can result in poor decision making.
Make Time to Review and Reconcile Your Accounts
This step isn’t easy, but it is necessary! In order to have success with QuickBooks Online, you must be dedicated to checking how your income and expenses are categorized at least monthly and reconciling your accounts. Failure to do so will result in a confusing mess to clean up at tax season, so be sure to set aside some time to do this on your calendar often.
Get help from a Professional
If you’re struggling to keep your books up to date or your accounts just won’t reconcile, seeking professional support is essential! At Accounting Benefit Solutions, we help our clients keep their books up to date at all times, access accurate financial data instantly, and optimize their business for growth!
Need support with your QuickBooks Online account? Schedule a free consultation to speak with a QuickBooks Proadvisor Today!
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