QuickBooks is a complete accounting software suite used by countless business owners on a daily basis. It has a very simple user interface, excellent security, and more than enough accounting features for different types of small businesses. QuickBooks also has a good price point making it a popular choice in the business world.
The Best QuickBooks Tips to Simplify Your Life
Getting started with QuickBooks and organizing your finances can be a challenge. Even if you’ve been using it for a while, there’s still a good chance you’re not aware of some tips and tricks that could save you quite a bit of time every month. Let’s go over the essential QuickBooks beginner tips that will turn taking care of your finances into a breeze.
Cover the Basics
Like most accounting software, QuickBooks comes with a learning curve. Fortunately, you can take advantage of their tutorials to get started. These tutorials are practical, so it’s worth spending a few hours to familiarize yourself with some basic features. They can help you get the hang of bills management, inputting costs, and much more.
If that’s not enough, you can always find help online (YouTube) or pick up a course on websites like Khan Academy that are tailored to beginners. If you would like something more hands on MCDA CCG provides both classroom and virtual courses using real world data. Our classes are customized for your business.
Take Advantage of ProAdvisor
If you’re just getting started with QuickBooks, don’t forget to use ProAdvisor. This feature is part of the QuickBooks Intuit package and can do wonders for beginners. You can use it to connect to a local accountant, and they’ll help you get the information you need to start using the software. ProAdvisors are well versed in many different business situations so be clear about your business and what you are looking for.
You can also get all sorts of advice on tax requirements, business structure, and other tips to make your life easier. It definitely beats spending hours digging through local and government websites to find that one tiny piece of information you need. Put the ProAdvisors to work for you.
Correct Information
The best way to avoid issues down the road is making sure all your business data (from company structure and tax ID number to reporting forms and calendars for reporting) is crucial. Make sure you enter all this data correctly into the Company tab. As long as you use accurate information, QuickBooks will give you the best results and recommendations. If you need assistance setting up your organization you can use the ProAdvisor team or reach out to us at MCDA CCG and one of our accounting and QuickBooks experts will guide you through the set up step by step.
Client details are just as important. You can enter details for each customer in the Customers tab at the top center of the screen. You should separate your customers, each with their payment methods. It’s best to set up all your customers at once and then add new ones as necessary. This will make invoicing and reconciliation a lot easier at the end of each period.
The same goes for employee details if you plan to use QuickBooks for employee payments and payroll deductions management. To utilize this feature, go to the Employees tab and on to the Employees Center. Once you’re there, you can input relevant information for all your employees, generate reports, etc. It is wise to have your Human Resource Department engaged during this process if you have one. At MCDA CCG we have a full team of certified HR experts well versed in all local regulations to prevent you from being penalized for accidental errors.
Always Keep a Backup
Keeping regular backups is critical for all businesses out there. Keeping the software running on a single system without a backup is an absolute disaster just waiting to happen. QuickBooks offers a handy backup feature that can save hours or even days of work in case of a system crash or failure. Take advantage of QuickBooks Online to automatically back up your data in the cloud. You can also make scheduled or manual offline backups for extra safety. It is just a matter of time before a backup is needed. It is good business practice to have a disaster recovery plan in place.
Create User Accounts
If more than one person in your company uses QuickBooks (like managers, admins, and others), make sure you create a separate account for everyone. This is a great way to ensure each person can only access features and information they need based on their tasks. If a user doesn’t need to use payments or online banking, there’s no reason for them to access these features. QuickBooks has a great logging feature to allow you to see who completed a specific transaction, customer add, journal entry, etc. These logs are only useful if users are logged into their own account.
Connect Your Email
If your company sells services online or deals with transactions that don’t need physical invoicing, consider linking your email account with QuickBooks. By doing this, you’ll be able to better keep track of your transactions and send invoices directly to your clients. You can link Outlook, Yahoo, Gmail, and most other popular email platforms.
In Conclusion
QuickBooks can definitely make your company’s financial management much easier. However, learning to take full advantage of it takes time. We hope these few simple tips helped get you on your way to becoming a QuickBooks guru.
If you would like more information on how MCDA CCG can customize a training course for your organization contact us for a consultation. We have both virtual and in-person courses available. All Courses are taught by a QuickBooks certified ProAdvisor.
We also offer QuickBooks testing for current staff members or employers looking to test potential candidates for their vacant positions. Testing is completed via Zoom with a live test administrator.
Contact MCDA CCG by calling us at (657) 258-0577 or emailing us at [email protected]