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QuickBooks®: News You Can Use |
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| Presented by: Scott Gregory, QuickBooks Specialist |
March 2007 |
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Securely and quickly access your office computer
from any location with an internet connection.
Takes 5 minutes to set up and NO IT person required!
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Take a Hammer to Your Chart of Accounts |
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This month, I have a simple question for you - is
your chart of accounts too complicated for your
business?
Let's consider that question for a moment...
For starters, tap the F2 key on your keyboard, and look
on the right hand side of the screen under "List
Information". Here you will find the number of
accounts that are in your chart of accounts list. Is it
50? 75? 150?
Remember, the purpose of the chart of accounts
is to serve as a "digital filing cabinet" to store copies of
the various transactions recorded in QuickBooks.
It tracks your assets, liabilities, equity accounts,
income and expenses. The more accounts you have
listed in your chart, the more confusing you may
be making your accounting system.
Here is a perfect example that I have come across in
one of the QuickBooks sample data files - there is a
master account called "repairs", and then sub-
accounts called "building repairs", "computer repairs",
and "equipment repairs". Why have four accounts
when one called "repairs and maintenance" will most
likely do the job?
It is easy to forget that you can drill down to any
account within QuickBooks and get more details
about it. Because of this most excellent feature (one
that isn't available in some much higher priced
software by the way...), it isn't necessary to have a
chart of accounts list that is really detailed.
In the example above, you could drill down into the
repairs account, and then see each individual
transaction that it contains. If additional analysis of the
types of repair and maintenance expenses is needed,
you can always do it at that time. In most cases, it
really isn't needed - it's just "nice to know".
A word of caution - before making any
wholesale changes to your chart of accounts, make
sure you review the planned changes with your
outside CPA. They may have some different or
additional suggestions on how you can simplify your
chart of accounts. Less accounts = less room for error
when recording transactions.
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21 Bookkeeping Snafus to Avoid |
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Bookkeeping blunders are a fact of life in many
small businesses today. But they don't have to be in
yours!
Get a copy of "Your Bookkeeping Stinks" today, and
pick up valuable tips on how to avoid 21 common
bookkeeping problems. Your boss will thank you!
Get your own copy of "Your Bookkeeping
Stinks!" in PDF or print format today!
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Reporting 101 - Job Profitability Report |
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If jobs and projects are an integral part of your
business, you can rely on QuickBooks to provide the
reports you need to monitor their profitability (and that
is definitely important!).
One such report, aptly titled the Job Profitability
Summary can be found by simply clicking on Reports
> Jobs, Time and Mileage > Job Profitability Summary.
The report defaults to "all" jobs and gives a quick
overview of the actual revenue and actual costs of all
the jobs in QuickBooks.
If you see a figure in this report that needs a closer
look, just hover over the number in question, and then
double-click the magnifying glass icon. From here,
you will be able to see the details that make up the
number on the report. You can actually keep drilling
down into the individual details to get to the source
transactions if you need to.
The Job Profitability Summary report is an excellent
tool in your reporting kit that gives you a "big picture"
sense of your profits (or losses) on jobs and projects.
Your review of this report may even turn up
some surprises. Take a look at it soon!
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The QuickBooks Coach |
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Q: How do I close an open purchase order?
A: So you just ran your Open Purchase Order
report, and see one or more purchase orders listed
that you just know you have received in full? What can
you do to remove them from this report?
The simplest way to close an open purchase order is
to locate it (remember to use the "Find" functionality in
QuickBooks to make this easy). Once located, go to
the bottom of the purchase order and click
the "Closed" button. Save it, and the purchase order is
now completely closed and will no longer appear on
your open purchase order report.
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Be a Hero! Get QuickBooks Online Backup |
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QuickBooks Online Backup is the perfect solution
to simplify your data backup!
The new QuickBooks Online Backup service now
offers two sizes of digital storage vaults for not just
your QuickBooks data, but other critical files (think
Word documents, Excel sheets, PowerPoints, etc.) as
well.
The pricing for these vaults is as follows:
- 1 GB vault = $49.95 per year
- 10 GB vault = $149.95 per year
With deals like these, there isn't any reason for
you NOT to have a solid data backup solution in place
for your business.
My clients that have opted to use this service have
been very, very happy with the ease of setup and use.
They no longer have to fiddle around with CDs, flash
drives or any other problematic backup - this service
does it automatically for them.
If fact, I had a client tell me yesterday that this was
one of the best decisions she made in relation to
simplifying the daily work in her office!
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Upcoming QuickBooks Classes |
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My teaching schedule at Lakeland is now set for the
spring session. Here it is:
- QuickBooks: Level 1 - Monday, April 16,
2007; 6-
8:30pm
- QuickBooks: Level 2 - Monday, April 23,
2007; 6-
8:30pm
- QuickBooks: Level 3 - Monday, April 30,
2007; 6-
8:30pm
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Where is Scott in April? |
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During April, Scott will be joining forces with Dick
Rutkoski from SCORE and making presentations on
the benefits of SCORE and QuickBooks for small
businesses at:
- Perry Library - Thursday, April 5 from 5:30 until
7:30pm.
- Fairport Harbor Library - Tuesday, April 17 from 6
until 8pm.
If you know of someone in business that could benefit
from these free sessions, please call me at (440) 527-
5696 and we'll get them signed up. You can also
complete the contact page on my web site.
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About the Author |
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The
"QuickBooks: News You Can Use"
newsletter is written and distributed monthly by
Scott Gregory. Scott is a:
- QuickBooks Specialist
- CPA
- Technology Consultant
- Charter Member of QuickBooks Enterprise
Solution Provider Program
- Member, Intuit Speakers Bureau
Scott is also the president of Bond
Technology, a firm that specializes in helping
small businesses use
QuickBooks effectively and profitably. Feel free to
drop Scott an
e-mail if you'd like to learn more about the
services his company can
provide.
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Legal Stuff |
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QuickBooks is a registered trademark of Intuit.
Bond Technology is not affiliated with Intuit in any
way.
Please forward this newsletter to those friends and
associates that have an interest in QuickBooks
software.
The Internet community is constantly evolving, so
exercise diligence in your research as you would any
other purchase. Bond Technology, Ltd. is not
responsible for any third party links or the misuse of
those links. They are presented solely for
informational purposes.
This newsletter is issued free of charge. Please take
a look at the products and services offered in the
newsletter to help defray the costs of publication.
This publication Copyright 2001-2007 Bond
Technology, Ltd. All rights reserved.
Other product and company names mentioned herein
may be trademarks and/or service marks of their
respective owners.
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