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Quickbooks, Small Business Accounting

How to Use QuickBooks Services for Your Small Business Accounting

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In these days of COVID, (I’ll be so glad when I won’t have to use that term anymore!) it’s good practice for small business owners to do much of their accounting online using software designed specifically for them. It saves money, time, and protects them from exposure to others. 

QuickBooks *** is a popular and economical program for business owners and accountants. Its features, functionality, and ease of use are all strong reasons to use this program. 

If you are considering QuickBooks as a tool to manage your books, here are some ways you can use it:

  1. Invoice customers: QuickBooks lets you invoice your customers to decrease accounts receivable and increase cash flow.
  2. Manage bills and accounts payable: Keep updated on your bills to your vendors and suppliers by using the enter bills and pay bills function. Keeping your vendors and suppliers happy is important as well.  You don’t want to fall behind on your outstanding bills with vendors. You just enter the payment and due date. No longer do you have to write and print checks. QuickBooks online pay function is easy and efficient. Plus, it saves you money from having to buy checks.    
  3. Employee time management: Enter the employee time data on the home screen. It can be a one-time event or a weekly payroll period. QuickBooks measures employee productivity and job costing, if applicable.
  4. Payroll management: QuickBooks lets you process payroll directly or you can integrate a third party for it. You will record your outsourced payroll in QuickBooks. You can also import your payroll data from QuickBooks to the accounting firm. 
  5. Memorized transactions: You should use QuickBooks memorized transactions to automatically enter transactions that occur on a regular and predictable basis.  This can include invoices, bills, journal entries, and payments.  The idea is to boost efficiency and have certain items be entered automatically into QuickBooks.  One example of good use of a memorized transaction is a bill that you have set up to be automatically deducted from your checking account like the monthly internet payment.  By memorizing a check you can have the payment automatically post to your checking account a certain number of days in advance. 
  6. Online banking: Major banks are now integrated into the QuickBooks software. So, you can set up your business to do all its online banking through it. 
  7. Printed checks: If you do need to print checks, you can keep cash flow analysis updated. Then you can print from it. It is extremely efficient!
  8. Journal entries: You may need to correct bookkeeping issues and create year-end entries per with your CPA so it matches your tax return. These detailed entries may be necessary when you file your tax return. 
  9. Online payments: The QuickBooks Intuit Payment Network gives your customer a convenient way to pay your invoices online. 
  10. Financial reporting: QuickBooks allows you to run reports to help get a snapshot of where your small business is at the moment. Your bookkeeping will be enhanced by its financial reporting.

If you are not using QuickBooks services, you may want to consider it. For the reasons listed above it may benefit your business to look into purchasing and using a software such as QuickBooks.

At A.K. Burton, PC, we help our small business clients with their taxes. We are familiar with QuickBooks as it is one of the many software that we use to serve our clients. Call us at (301) 365-1974 for a consultation. Our office is open! We serve the Bethesda, Rockville, and Montgomery County. MD area.

*** For more about QuickBooks Small Business Services, click here.  

Small Business Accounting

Planning for the Fall: Small Business Accounting Practices to Keep You Ahead of the Game

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Summer is half over. The days are getting shorter.

Parents are preparing to send their children back to school next month.

This season, as we know it, is coming to a close. Pretty soon, we are all back from vacation, kids have returned to school, Labor Day is over and the next holiday is Thanksgiving, months from now.

The end of summer can be a drag. two men sitting across from one another working on laptops

However, as a business owner, you can do some things now during these low-key summer days, that will benefit you, your employees, your clients and other stakeholders (i.e. The IRS). So, take some time now and do these small business accounting practices that will keep you ahead of the game before the cooler days of fall hit:

  1. Business and Personal bank accounts need to be separated: Much of the confusion and stress business owners have in accounting has to do with bank accounts. If you are using your business account also as your personal bank account, you will run into some serious tax issues that could take many hours and days to untangle when tax time comes around. So, create separate bank accounts for each and save yourself lots of confusion and billable hours with your accountant (or worse, an IRS auditor).

  2. Record bank deposits accurately: Make sure all loans, sales, refunds and other receipts are recorded accurately. You may have to set up a meeting with the small business account specialist at your bank to make sure you are doing it correctly. They can go through each monthly statement with you. Your accountant can also advise you on the best accounting program to use.

  3. Record all business expenses: During a typical business year, your company could be spending thousands (or more) in expenses. From inventory to travel to fuel to rent, there are many business expenses that need to be recorded accurately and backed up with receipts. Make sure you and your administrator(s) are tracking all expenses. Many business expenses are tax-deductible, so failing to record them could be costly.

  4. Bring in an outside accounting expert: Accounting and bookkeeping can be agonizing and time-consuming. So, perhaps, once a month or once a quarter, hire an accountant to take a few hours and review the books. They can make recommendations and corrections, keeping your company on track.

  5. Set aside time for accounting: It all will pile up very quickly and become a monster if you don’t watch out. So, set a day and time each week or month to record and file receipts or visit the bank.

  6. Labor expense tracking: This is the largest expense for most companies. Keep track of hours paid, overtime, bonuses and other expenses to make sure you are paying your employees accurately.

  7. Inventory control: You may have a warehouse full of inventory. If so, take  time to record all of the items in your inventory, including items that are being returned to the manufacturer/supplier.

  8. Meet with your administrator monthly: If your company has a staff member dedicated to accounting, meet with them monthly or regularly to review statements. It may be quite boring to do, but it keeps you and your admin on top of the bottom line: expenses and income. After all, that is why you are in business!

Poor accounting practices have damaged or sunk many businesses. Just doing even a few of these tasks will keep you and your business on track and successful.

A.K. Burton, PC, which serves the Washington,D.C. and Bethesda, Md area, has experienced and licensed individual financial advisers who can help you sort through your bookkeeping. Contact us at (301) 365-1974 for more information or email us at info@cpa-maryland.com.