25 Tips on How to Effectively Use QuickBooks

What is QuickBooks? QuickBooks is bookkeeping software developed by Intuit. It combines a variety of accounting processes into one user-friendly system. The software's primary function is to alleviate the use of multiple tables, spreadsheets, and tracking sheets necessary to document and maintain accounting tasks at a company. Accounting figures are also easily reconciled for tax purposes with QuickBooks. The software can be customized to suite your business needs. QuickBooks is used by more than 4.5 million companies, making it by far the most widely used accounting system in the world. Right from accounting firms, CPAs, lawyers to small businesses, everyone uses them. But are you using QuickBooks efficiently and getting the most you can out of the product? Let us present you a list of 25 tips for by which you can use QuickBooks more effectively for your business.

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25 Tips for effectively using QuickBooks

1. Know your Business well before choosing any Accounting Software Before purchasing an Accounting Software, think about: Your Service and Products Business Needs Accounting Requirement of your Business Size of the Company

Depending on this evaluation, choose an accounting software that is user friendly, easy to operate, and has the ability to run your business smoothly. 2. Choosing appropriate QuickBooks version for your business Well, it all depends on your size of your business or individual needs like Do you work on a MAC or a PC? There is a special version of QuickBooks for both MAC and PC. But majority of clients choose between the different PC versions. The PC versions of QuickBooks are Simple Start, Pro, Premier, Enterprise Solutions, and Online. They are all very similar to each other with each higher version offering additional features. QuickBooks Simple Start The QuickBooks Simple Start is especially helpful for first-time small business accounting software users and new entrepreneurs. Later as your business grows, you can transfers the data to any of the higher versions. QuickBooks Pro The Pro version allows you to create invoices, track sales and manage your basic business accounting needs. It is made for the small business that needs a basic accounting package.

QuickBooks Premiere The Premiere version is for larger businesses that may have more than one person doing the bookkeeping work.

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QuickBooks Enterprise This version is for the large company with many departments, cost centers, products and employees. It includes advanced inventory control functionality and payroll. QuickBooks Online The Online version means you have no software to install; its all done through the Internet. All of the applications and data is store on the QuickBooks servers so you dont have the overhead. 3. Desktop, Online or Hosted QuickBooks When deciding between QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Hosting accounting solutions, you will need to consider the pros and cons of each platform, the various features available, as well as what will work best for your business. Here is a little comparison: QuickBooks Desktop Pros No Internet connection required to access the software Once you buy it, you own it! No monthly fees involved Cons Allows only one user at a time per license You need to install, run the updates, perform backups and fix it if anything goes wrong QuickBooks Online Pros Does not require Installation & anytime, anywhere access Automatic updates, backups and upgrades Direct integration with online banking and third party applications Cons Involves Monthly fees No access to company file in case of no payments made Migration to online version is time consuming process QuickBooks Hosted Pros Can access from anywhere, anytime Multiple users access Decreases Downtime Automatic upgrades and backups and ensures security of client data

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Cons Internet Connection required Monthly subscription fee Though there are pros and cons of each, the hosted version of QuickBooks is the most preferred one as it increases the business productivity, decreases the downtown and gives you flexibility to work from anywhere, anytime. 4. Purchase from a reputed Company or Store Always purchase your QuickBooks software from a trusted store or secured online merchant. 5. Use the latest version of QuickBooks Use latest version of software to have the latest updates and newest features available. Else upgrade your version of QuickBooks on a regular basis. Note: Intuit after a certain period of time stops offering services and support to some of its old products, for which they have their "sunset" policy in place. 6. Watch QuickBooks tutorial for better understanding QuickBooks offers a tutorial which you can view for better understanding of the functionality and features available.

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7. Set up Program Preferences QuickBooks has a setup wizard that helps you lay the groundwork for your company, but it's not comprehensive: There are many more decisions you need to make that aren't covered by the wizard. To do so, click Edit Preferences to open the Preferences window. Please refer to the snapshot below to see the options you can set here:

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8. Know Keyboard shortcuts to Save Time Knowing the keyboard shortcuts helps you complete the task much faster and on time. Here are some essential QuickBooks keyboard shortcuts you must use: Ctrl+ I Ctrl+ E Ctrl+ Q Ctrl+ M Ctrl+ N Ctrl+ T Ctrl+ W Ctrl+ F Ctrl+ J Create invoice Edit transaction selected in register QuickReport on transaction or list item Memorize transaction or report New invoice, bill, check, or list item in context Open memorized transaction list Write new check Find transaction Open Customer Center

9. Use Right- Click Menus Right-click menus are present everywhere throughout QuickBooks. It is a useful alternative to relying only on the toolbar. For example, highlighting an entry on the employee roster helps you perform number of operations, such as, editing & deleting the account, customizing the specific employee column or getting a QuickReport. Using this option changes can be applied to one employee, instead of applying it to all employees. 10. Customize the Icon Bar You can customize the Icon Bar depending upon your needs. You can select the necessary functions and exclude the ones that could possibly confuse the user or disrupt any data already in use. To Remove, Add or Modify an icon Go to View menu Click Customize Icon Bar Select the icon you want to remove or add or modify. Make changes you wish to make in case of editing option Click Delete or Add or Edit Click OK once you are done

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11. Use the QuickMath Calculator Inside Fields You may have used the QuickBooks calculator under the Use Calculator button, but very few QuickBooks users know that QuickBooks also has a QuickMath Calculator. The QuickMath Calculator allows you click inside a field (for example, the amount field on an invoice) and if you press the equal key on your keyboard (=), a mini-tape will appear.

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You can then use the calculator directly in the field to perform your arithmetic and then enter the amount in the field. 12. Use the Find Feature to Locate Transactions Faster To find a particular transaction in QuickBooks, do you open the form and click "Previous" until the transaction you are searching for appears on the screen? This is a very long and time consuming process. But now you can use the FIND feature to locate the transaction easily. This is a powerful tool will search for almost any transaction-level data, depending on your filters. You can add this feature to your Icon bar also to start using it.

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13. Use Classes for better tracking When you're working with Preferences, make sure Classes is turned on by (Edit Preferences Accounting Company Preferences Use class tracking) Using class tracking in QuickBooks is your own way of categorizing and tracking business activity. Assigning class to transaction allows you to report on each class separately. For example you can create separate class for Marketing, Advertising or region A. Then you'll be able to run a Profit & Loss by Class report. This allows to isolate areas that have discrepancies, and allow the user to fix them separately without compromising or affecting the other information. Refer the snapshot below for details:

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14. Customize Your Chart of Accounts QuickBooks will generate a Chart of Accounts based on the type of business entered at the time of initial setup wizard. It will also automatically generate various assets, liability, revenue, and expense accounts. Review the chart of accounts to add, delete, or modify; to better suite your business requirements. Consult with your bookkeeper and Certified Public Accountant to make sure that the Chart of Accounts has all the items required to meet financial reporting and tax needs. 15. Automate Bills And Income( Memorize Transactions) QuickBooks has the capability to memorize recurring transactions. This feature lets you automate all the bills, incomes and savings. Simply enter the bills into QuickBooks through memorized transaction. Only change the amount and date then the transaction will automatically post to the correct credit card or bank account. 16. Vendor list Organization There are always a certain types of vendors with whom you have frequent interactions. All these vendors can be grouped in one section on your vendor list. An easy way to apply this is by using use a numeric digit as first part of the vendor ID. For example, if you are processing an expense report every week for employees, put "1" in front of all expense report vendor IDs. By using "1 Henry Smith" as the vendor ID, Henry Smith is listed at the top of all the vendor list in QuickBooks, and his check will be printed first. Do not forget to edit the "Print on Check" field to simply have "Henry Smith" show up on the printed check. 17. Customer Notes In QuickBooks the Customer Center has a notes section. It is a great place to save all the customer interactions and collection calls. This allows you to make notes on all your communication.

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18. Saving Time by Adding Filters Before Generating any Report When you generate reports in QuickBooks, default information is used and the report is displayed on the screen. How often do you change the information and then generate the report again? In QuickBooks, you can have the Modify Report screen come up before generating any report. For this you have to choose Edit Preferences from the Menu and then select the Reports & Graph option. On the My Preferences tab, check the checkbox entitled "Prompt Me To Modify Report"options before opening a report.

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19. Export reports to Excel QuickBooks reports are highly customizable but limiting the type of operations that can be performed. Excel offers the flexibility to perform various types of financial analysis. If you export the data to excel , more detailed analysis can be performed than you can in QuickBooks. Also, if you find that the same report has to be exported to excel frequently, then you can memorize the report so that it is easily exported to Excel in the format you need to perform analysis.

20. Set a Closing Date Password to Protect Data Make sure you set a closing date password for QuickBooks file before sending it to the accountant. This safety measure will prevent users from changing the closing date periods by requiring anyone trying to make a change to enter the password. 21. Create a QB Download folder on your desktop As we all know, it is easy to forget where we downloaded a file, so it is wise to set up a folder on your desktop for QuickBooks downloads so you can quickly find and access the files to be imported.

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22. Expand Functionality with QuickBooks Add-ons QuickBooks has many add-on products that you can use to expand the functionality. For example, Bill.com for QuickBooks Online enables you to view the electronic bills and pay the bills from your desktop or mobile device with transactions automatically entered into QuickBooks Online. There is another useful add-on, Transaction Pro Importer, a web enabled service that helps you to easily import an Excel or CSV file into QuickBooks online. 23. Download Data Whenever Possible One of the best ways to maximize efficiency is to download banking and credit card activity directly into QuickBooks. There will be some initial set-up time, and you will still want to review the information for accuracy, but in most cases, this step will save you a tremendous amount of time. Downloading data minimizes the chance of human error and records activity in a fraction of the time it takes to input manually. 24. Use Intuit's Free support options Intuit charges for phone support if you have an issue involving more than installation or certain bugs and errors. But the company offers plenty of free assistance online. Have a look at various forums present online to check if some one else has also faced similar problems. If it is not there, click Help Live Community. QuickBooks program-based help is also quite comprehensive. Click Help QuickBooks Help (or press F1) to search. If that doesn't work, click Help Support to search the QuickBooks KnowledgeBase.

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25. Backing up Data on a Hard Drive or in Cloud We all have experienced a time when we had our computer crash and for whatever reasons did not have a data back up. Resulting in permanent loss of all valuable information and data. Fortunately in case of QuickBooks the set up Wizard offers a guide to backing up your data to a removable hard drive. The type of data back up depends on the complexity and size of the business, with a small business needing only a few files on a thumb drive and others needed of all data to a cloud service, for which QuickBooks offers a data backup service in the cloud, but there are other services also available for small businesses. It is advisable to choose any of the options mentioned above to be on a safer side to avoid any dire consequences of data loss on your business. In fact, research shows that approximately 4.7 million U.S. business suffer some type of data losses annually. QuickBooks are a great accounting software and it can save a lot of time. These tips will certainly add ease to using the software's any version, either on your desktop or hosted online.

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References: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/QuickBooks.html#ixzz2a3I9h4in http://www.onthenetoffice.com/QuickBooks-hosting.html http://accountingsoftwarecoupon.com/top-tips-to-choosing-the-best-accountingsoftware/ http://www.onthenetoffice.com/blog/2013/06/QuickBooks-hosting-solution/ http://www.hhcpa.com/blogs/income-tax-accountants-cpa/which-version-ofQuickBooks-should-i-use http://www.onthenetoffice.com/blog/2013/06/host-QuickBooks/ http://www.ehow.com/how_2057401_use-QuickBooks.html#ixzz2a8qhff4w http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/rightclick-for-common-QuickBooks2013-tasks.html

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