Depending on your location, you’re probably starting to see early signs of spring. The nicer weather and signs of new life seem to make people want to spruce up their surroundings.

Now would be a good time, too, to clean up your accounting environment. Some of your screens may be unnecessarily cluttered. And your QuickBooks® company file probably needs attention, too.

So here are some suggestions for streamlining QuickBooks®. You’ll have a tidier workspace, and you’ll save time and frustration.

Make a Clean Start

Intuit did a great job of giving QuickBooks’ home page a fresher, more “open” look in its 2013 versions. But does everything really need to be there? Could you simplify it a bit? There are several things you can do, including:

  • Minimize icons. That pretty graphical process map on the home page is great for quick access to frequently-used actions. Some of them must remain there if they’re related to activities you do (i.e., Invoices has to stay if you use Estimates), but you can remove some of the ones you don’t use. Go to Preferences | Desktop View | Company Preferences. You’ll see this:

Figure 1: You can turn off some of the feature icons on your home page.

Some of the options have been grayed out because they support other processes. To remove an active feature icon like Inventory, click on it. In the window that opens, uncheck the box next to Inventory and purchase orders are active (you can also modify options here).

Figure 2: Clicking the checkbox next to Inventory and purchase orders are active grays out the other options and removed related feature icons from the home page.

To reduce the number of feature icons even more, go to the Finance Charge, Jobs & Estimates, Payroll & Employees, Sales & Customers, Sales Tax and Time & Expenses. QuickBooks® removes the related icons and reroutes the process map on the home page.

More Time-Saving Tweaks

  • Don’t allow multiple windows to open in your work area. Tired of seeing all of those overlapping open windows on your desktop? Open the View menu and select One Window. All of your open windows remain active in the background. To return to one of them, open the Window menu and select the one you want to move to the front (Window | Close All returns you to a blank work area).
Figure 3: Your Icon bar can be your fastest route to often needed screens – if you modify it to only contain the functions you use, in order of importance. You can also change the labels to make them more meaningful to you.
  • Trim down your icon bar. Seems like a minimal change, but it’s one of those things that can add unnecessary moments of frustration throughout the day (Where’s the Calendar!). Click View | Customize Icon Bar.
  • Customize columns in Lists. You probably work in QuickBooks’ Lists often, but are you spending too much time tracking down the right information? Customize their columns so your registers contain only what you usually need (and add additional ones if it’s helpful). Open a list, right-click anywhere within it and select Customize Columns to modify the display (resize column widths by placing your cursor on the vertical set of dots between labels and dragging).
Figure 4: When you customize your columns in Lists, you’ll find what you’re looking for faster.
  • Hide inactive names and items. Highlight an item, right-click and select Make Item Inactive. Open the Item menu in the lower left and click Hide Inactive Items (this action won’t delete them). This should be done with Customers, Vendors, Employees and Items to keep them manageable.

Internal Cleaning

These may all seem like cosmetic changes, but you will save time and frustration over the long run. The most critical spring cleaning task is company file analysis and maintenance. We can handle this for you. QuickBooks® can slow down and start generating error messages when the data file becomes unwieldy. Preventing file corruption before it crashes your system is a lot faster and less expensive than a reconstruction project.

This article of QuickBooks Tips and Tricks was based on the 2013 version of QuickBooks.

What is Cloud Computing?

By now, we’ve all heard about the subject of Cloud Computing. Working in the Cloud simply means that you are accessing servers, software and technology via the internet.

It’s something that most of us are already using on a daily basis when we access our bank accounts and pay our credit card bills online; or when we use Facebook and other social media websites.

That’s the infamous Cloud – you access it with a browser from any computer or mobile device with an internet connection and you log in to use applications that you do not own and that are stored elsewhere to retrieve your data.

Hosting QuickBooks®

Many businesses are looking for an online solution for their QuickBooks® software but are hesitant to move to QuickBooks® Online because it does not have the full functionality of the Desktop versions of the software that we’ve all become familiar with.

A great option for those who want to move to the cloud but don’t want to change everything all at once is to have their licensed QuickBooks® Desktop software hosted by an Intuit Authorized Hosting Provider.

The average cost of hosting is approximately $50/month/user for basic setup and storage space, plus the cost of the software. The following is a list of certified secure data centers with proven reliable up-times:

 Cloud 9 Real Time

Coaxis International

InsynQ, Inc.

My Own ASP

Right Networks

Uni-Data & Comm., Inc.

Xcentric

Swizznet

Qutera

 NovelAspect 

Real Time Data Services

nGenx

Harborcloud

Proxios

WY Technology

Infinitely Virtual

Skysphere  

Many of these providers are also licensed to rent QuickBooks® licenses for currently supported versions of the software which is quite cost-effective.

Benefits

The hosting service provider installs and manages the QuickBooks® software and the company data files on their cloud-based servers. They install the software, update it and maintain it and provide system maintenance, redundant servers, improved security, virus protection and managed data backups.

It’s the full version of your licensed QuickBooks® software hosted on a secure server that users can access anytime, anywhere – remotely and simultaneously with proper licensing. There’s no data conversion and no retraining of users because it’s the same software that they have already been using.

There is no more dealing with Accountant’s Copies and Transfer Files at year end for your tax preparer, as access can be provided to outside professionals to seamlessly share data and collaborate with the business.

You are not required to upgrade to the newest version of the software each year in order to use hosted services, as long as the version is still supported by QuickBooks®, you do not have to upgrade.

If you aren’t satisfied with the hosting service, you can move to a different hosting vendor or you can move back to your desktop – you’re not tied in – it’s your data and your software.

Challenges

There are a number of areas of the QuickBooks® application which are designed directly in conflict with the concept of a hosted, shared application service model, making QuickBooks® hosting a fairly complicated business.

Installing the correct application licensing levels and multiple editions of the product, allowing individual user settings for printers and forms, and even providing multi-user access are areas where some service providers fall short.

In addition, not all hosting service providers support additional third party applications that integrate with the QuickBooks® software and there may be issues with hardware integration, e.g. scanners, bar code readers and so forth.The biggest drawback of all – no internet, no access.

Conclusion

Hosting QuickBooks® can be a great solution for many businesses. It is best to spend some time in advance choosing the right hosting provider; one that best fits your business needs. If you need help, please call us.

This article of QuickBooks Tips and Tricks was based on the 2013 version of QuickBooks.

Modifying the default template makes tracking easier, more accurate.

Part of the reason for QuickBooks’ success is its exceptional flexibility. By allowing users to turn features and preferences on and off, the same software can be used by a wide variety of business types and sizes.

In some cases, the default settings that QuickBooks supplies will work fine for your company. This is not necessarily true in the case of purchase orders, since the whole inventory procurement process is so complex, and users can have such a diverse range of needs.

Figure 1: QuickBooks® 2013’s default Create Purchase Orders screen. You can see that formatting options are available when you click the Formatting tab.

So before you order your first widget, make sure that your purchase order form is designed to accommodate all of the information you want to record and track, with no unnecessary data fields to confuse staff.

Working With Templates

There aren’t many program preferences to check. If you can open a purchase order, you’re set. If not, go to Edit | Preferences | Items & Inventory | Company Preferences and be sure that the box next to Inventory and purchase orders are active is checked.

What you want to find first is the Additional Customization screen for the Custom Purchase Order Template. This is easily accessed from the Create Purchase Order screen itself in QuickBooks 2013, simply choose the Formatting tab and select Customize Data Layout.

If you’re using an earlier edition of QuickBooks, go to Lists | Templates | Custom Purchase Order Template. Double-click on it to open the Basic Customization page. Here, you can add a logo, change fonts and colors, etc. Then go ahead and click on the Additional Customization button at the bottom of the screen. This window opens:

Figure 2: The left pane of the Additional Customization window contains additional fields that you might want on your purchase orders, like Ship Via and Terms.

(Tip: If you want to design multiple purchase order templates, click Manage Templates on the Basic Customization screen, then Copy on the Manage Templates page. In QuickBooks® 2013, the Manage Templates option is also on the Formatting tab of the Purchase Order screen. Rename the form and make your modifications. This new version will be available as an option when you create purchase orders.)

Making It Yours

Each of this window’s four tabs opens a new screen that gives you customization control over a different element of the purchase order form: the top, bottom and midsection, and printing options. You simply check the boxes next to the fields that you want to add to the current form (be sure to check both columns if you want the fields to appear both onscreen and in your printed versions; sometimes, one is not an option) and uncheck any you want to delete.

In the right pane of this window, a dynamic preview changes to reflect each addition or deletion. And when you’ve finished altering the set of fields, you can see an actual print preview. Close that and keep clicking OK until you get back to the Templates window.

This simplicity and ease carries over into the more cosmetic elements of your purchase order. Make sure the template you want to redesign is highlighted and click Templates | Create Form Design, at the bottom of the screen. QuickBooks® walks you through the process of adding a logo and background, colors and fonts, and a grid style, and it lets you apply this same theme automatically to all of your forms. (You can modify your design similarly on the Basic Customization page, minus the wizard-like approach and the background options.)

Simple But Complicated

One more comment about the QuickBooks 2013 purchase order screen. Beyond making your formatting options available in the “ribbon,” it also moves you through purchasing to the receiving process. With the appropriate purchase order open, click Create Item Receipts in the ribbon. This window opens, with the correct vendor name selected. When you click in the Item field, this small window appears:

Figure 3: Click Yes here and select the correct PO, and QuickBooks® fills in the data. If you check the Bill Received box, the Enter Bills window opens.

QuickBooks’ purchasing and receiving tools makes your inventory-tracking job easier, but you still need to understand the workflow. We encourage you to let us work with you as you begin managing inventory – or to contact us if you’re tangled up in what can be a very challenging element of QuickBooks.

This article of QuickBooks Tips and Tricks was based on the 2013 version of QuickBooks.

You work hard for your money. Strong internal controls can keep it from disappearing unnecessarily.

You trust your employees or you wouldn’t have hired them. That’s what everyone says as they watch a valued staff member being hauled off in handcuffs. But I trusted him.

Whether your accounting tasks are done on one PC or you have multiple users working on different screens, it’s critical that you make use of all that QuickBooks offers in terms of internal controls. You’ll also need to establish some common-sense rules.

First Stop: Audit Trail

An audit trail is a very large report that displays every addition, deletion and modification of every transaction. In older versions of QuickBooks you could turn it on and off, but it’s permanently on now.

Because of its size, you’ll probably have to use QuickBooks’ filtering tools to zero in on the user and/or date(s) you’re looking for. Go to Reports | Accountant & Taxes | Audit Trail. Click Customize Report | Filters to set up your search.

Your audit trail won’t alert you when someone tries to enter a prohibited area, and it won’t detect changes to lists. Setting up permissions will help (Company | Set Up Users and Passwords | Set Up Users), but you need more than that.

Figure 1: Be especially careful when granting user access to areas that contain customer, vendor and employee information.

Run the Right Reports

Other QuickBooks features can help prevent fraud. Review these reports regularly:

  • Closing Date Exception. Why were those changes necessary?
  • Voided/Deleted Transactions. Is there supporting documentation? Should you be reviewing these daily?
  • Expenses by Vendor Detail. Look for irregularities, especially multiple payments made to a vendor in a short period of time.
  • Check registers. Use the Balance Sheet for this. Go to Reports | Company & Financial | Balance Sheet Standard and customize the report for the correct period and – if necessary – for specific customers, vendors and/or jobs.

Adhere to Best Practices

You undoubtedly implement financial best practices in your personal life. You reconcile your accounts. You don’t give your online banking password to anyone. And you glance through your recently-posted transactions on your financial institutions’ websites.

If your company is large enough that you have multiple accounting employees, you probably can’t be as hands-on as you are at home. But you can still set up internal control procedures.

Figure 2: Debit? Credit? Reverse the transaction? No one should be making General Journal entries but you. It’s easy to err here; talk to us before using this feature.

For example, if your company has grown to the point where you’re removed from the daily workflow, you may still want to have approval rights for some procedures, like bank balance adjustments, refunds and credits, printed checks (you should still be signing them), timesheets and expense reports.

It goes without saying that you should password-protect your QuickBooks company file and change the password regularly, even – and especially – if you’re the entire accounting department. And protect yourself from external fraud. We can do a review of your security procedures and make suggestions.

Reinforce the rules

Know who your employees are (consider running background checks) and, if you can, rotate the duties assigned to accounting staff. If you have only one person managing all of your bookkeeping work, conduct an even more thorough background search: credit, references, criminal activity, etc.

Finally, make sure that all employees understand the definition and consequences of fraud. Let them know about the steps being taken to prevent it, but do some unannounced auditing on your own. Include a session on fraud in orientation and get current staff up to speed. Explain that this is necessary for their protection, too. Make it easy to report fraud anonymously, with no fear of repercussions.

This may seem like a lot of extra tasks in your workday, but imagine the time you’ll lose tracking down fraudulent activity if it occurs. So spend a fraction of that time upfront.

If you have questions on this subject, or anything else Accounting or QuickBooks related, give us a call or email. We’re here to help.

This article of QuickBooks Tips and Tricks was based on the 2013 version of QuickBooks.

When deciding between QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop accounting solutions, you will need to consider the pros and cons of each platform, the various features available, as well as how you use the software and what works best for your particular situation.

QuickBooks Desktop:

Positive:

  • It’s familiar and easy to use
  • It’s more powerful
  • You buy it
  • You own it
  • You don’t need an internet connection for access

Negative:

  • You install it
  • You update it
  • You fix it
  • You back it up
  • It’s cumbersome to share files
  • Only one user at a timeper license

QuickBooks Online:

Positive:

  • Anytime, anywhere access
  • Multiple simultaneous users
  • Integration with Add-on applications
  • Connects directly to online banking
  • No installation necessary
  • Automatic upgrades
  • Automatic backups
  • New features all the time

Negative:

  • Internet connection required
  • Interface is cumbersome to use
  • Time-consuming to navigate
  • Less features
  • Pay every month
  • Lose access if you don’t pay
  • No integration with POS
  • Time tracking in minutes only

Features in Desktop Only:

  • Sales Orders
  • Inventory Assemblies
  • Progress Invoicing
  • Partial Purchase Orders
  • Item Receipts
  • Balance Sheet by Class
  • QuickBooks Statement Writer
  • Budget vs. Actual Job Costing

Features in Online Only:

  • Invoice Automation
  • Delayed Customer Billing
  • Activity Log
  • Automatic Email Reporting
  • Downloaded Transactions
  • Class AND Location Tracking
  • Multiple AR/AP Lines in Journal Entries

It is best to spend some time in advance choosing the software that best fits your business needs. If you need help with choosing the right software, please call us. It’s what we do.

This article of QuickBooks Tips and Tricks was based on the 2013 version of QuickBooks.

The arrival of QuickBooks® Online (QBO) has provided many new possibilities for small business owners. It is a user-friendly and convenient option for those who are looking for more remote accessibility with their company file. Here are a few quick tips outlined to assist you in navigating the new software.

Supported Web Browsers

Even though Chrome and Internet Explorer are the most popular web browsers, Firefox and Safari also work with QuickBooks® Online. They all have a different look and feel, but the basic features are all the same. Many users feel that Chrome works the best.

Windows

  • Internet Explorer for Windows, version 9 or higher
  • Firefox for Windows, version 4 or higher
  • Google Chrome (recommended)
  • Safari for Windows 5.0.1 or higher

Mac

  •  Safari for Mac, version 4.1.1 or higher
  • Firefox for Mac, version 3.6 or higher
  • Google Chrome (recommended)

Mobile support for Blackberry, iPhone, Android and iPad. There is a mobile version of    QuickBooks® Online for the iPad using Safari to login, but the features are limited.

Open Multiple Windows

This feature has different results depending on the browser you are using. If you are using Internet Explorer, you will already be logged into a QBO screen. With Firefox and Chrome, you will have to type the QBO URL into the address bar, but you won’t need to enter your user name and password. Another option is to open a new tab in the current browser window. For Chrome, right click the tab you’re in and then click Duplicate.

Side by Side Windows

If you want to see the windows side by side, just pull the tab out into its own window. When you are done, drag the tab back over the original browser window to return it.

Open Multiple Companies

Chrome offers a very useful feature by allowing you to create multiple users. This enables you to have two (2) different QBO companies open at the same time. This is helpful if you have a client who owns multiple and related companies and you need to work back and forth between them.

  1. Open Chrome.
  2. Click the Customize and Control Chrome button, and then click Settings.
  3. Click Add new user.
  4. Create a Buddy Icon and Name for your new user.
  5. Once you add an additional user, you can open up a Chrome browser window for each user and log in to QBO separately.

We hope these tips help familiarize you with the basic interface of QBO. As always, if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact our office.

We hope you’ll be ringing out a successful financial year at month’s end. Here’s what you should know about preparing for a new year. 

End of the year: QuickBooks has been hard at work for the past 11+ months, recording and tracking and storing all of that financial data that you’ve entered so faithfully.

But when you turn the calendar page and make a new start January 1, your accounting software could use some closure on the year that’s just passed. Here are some actions you can take to ring out the old and ring in the new. There’s more you can do (we can help you with the advanced activities) but we’ll just hit the highlights here.

  • Reconcile, reconcile, reconcile. Yes, we know it’s not one of your favorite chores, but we really like to see all bank and credit card accounts reconciled by the end of the year if at all possible. Void all checks necessary and enter missing transactions.

Figure 1: You can make yourself crazy looking for a nickel when you’re reconciling, but it’s a critical function.

  • Make accrual adjustments. This is complicated, and it only applies if you accrue payroll and liabilities or prepay expenses that are then carried as assets. We’ll need to create journal entries for you.
  • Close your books. This is totally optional. It depends on whether you want to lock 2012 data to everyone except those who have the password and permissions. If you don’t close them, you’ll have easier access to last year’s transaction details. Regardless of what you choose, QuickBooks® will automatically make some year-end adjustments.
  • Do a physical inventory. Then compare this with what QuickBooks® says. Reports | Inventory | Physical Inventory Worksheet.

Figure 2: It’s good to match up your physical inventory count with QuickBooks® occasionally, and the end of the year is as good a time as any.

  • Check W-2 and 1099 data. You can’t create these forms, of course, until after your final 2012 payroll, but you can get a head start. Ask employees to verify their names, addresses and Social Security numbers for accuracy. Also, make sure that your EIN and SEIN are correct, as well as the company address.
  • Clean up, back up. We can monitor the health of your QuickBooks® data file anytime. But year-end is a good time to scrutinize your software’s performance. Has it slowed down, started crashing or returning error messages? We can troubleshoot to find the problem and clean it up. We’re sure you’ve been backing up your file faithfully, but archive all of 2012 and store it in a very safe offsite location – or use Intuit Data Protect for online storage.


Figure 3: Frequent backups are critical, but you should be sure to have a copy of your entire 2012 data file stored somewhere safe.

  • Double-check tax liabilities. If you’re handling your own payroll, look back to see whether all of your payments and filings have been completed.

Thanks for another year

Again, these are suggestions. QuickBooks® does not require you to do any of them. There’s more you can do, and you will need assistance with some of these. So let’s set up a December or early January meeting to get you started right in 2013.

We want to take this opportunity to thank you for letting us serve your company in 2012. We certainly appreciate your business, and we’re happy to do what we can to help your business prosper.

This article of QuickBooks Tips and Tricks was based on the 2013 version of QuickBooks.

QuickBooks® 2013 has a number of new features as well as improvements to existing ones. It also has a few problems as evidenced by the fact that they have already issued Release 3 to fix the bugs and it only just hit the retail store shelves in October.

Changes in the User Interface

There are major changes in the visual design of the program and how you navigate each of the screens. Fonts, spacing and colors have changed in just about every area of the program. This was done to try to standardize the look and feel throughout QuickBooks®. Change is not always welcomed by people who are used to things the way they were and it will take a little bit of getting used to in order to find where they put your favorite things.

Left Icon Bar

Instead of the top icon bar that we have been using since 2006, the navigation bar is now on the left hand side of the screen much like it used to be back in 2005. If you have a low resolution monitor, this icon bar takes up a great deal of real estate on your screen. You do have the option of moving this back to the top, but it’s not as pretty as it used to be and harder to read with gray on black.

More White Space, Smaller Labels and Scroll Bars

The Home Page and other screens have more white space which makes things less busy but it also shows less information – about 30% less information is displayed in the same size window. Some of the Labels are really small and the light gray color is too faint to actually see. The Scroll Bars are so small it can be difficult to get your mouse cursor on them.

Ribbons on Transaction Windows

The most commonly used transaction windows will have a new “ribbon” interface at the top similar to the ones in Microsoft Word 2010. This combines the features that relate to these transaction windows into one easy to use place. The content of the ribbon will change from form to form, but the general layout is the same.

Improved Centers

This is the most improved area as far as additional features for small business owners who use the software for their bookkeeping needs. In the Customer, Vendor and Employee Centers, Tabs have been added to quickly access Transactions, Contacts, To-Do’s and Notes. You can now have multiple Notes per record, instead of just one. There are now 24 contact-related field labels and you can choose which eight (8) to show on your screen. The To-Do list is much more convenient and can be filtered by Customer, Vendor or Employee.

Color Scheme Preference

In QuickBooks® 2012 we could set each QuickBooks® file to have a different color scheme in the Desktop View preferences. This was helpful when working in multiple company files. This has been removed in QuickBooks® 2013. If you don’t like the color settings in the new program, you can’t change it. You do still have control of some of the colors used in some individual windows and the colors are less intrusive.

QuickBooks® Accountant

There are a number of changes in the QuickBooks® Accountant version of the software. Send general journal entries to clients via email is a simple way to send the year end journal entries back to clients, batch enter transactions allows you to quickly enter (or import) large numbers of checks, credit card charges or deposits, Starter Copy is easier to find and work with, toggle to the Bookkeeper edition is available and the QuickBooks Statement Writer is now supposed to be compatible with 64 bit versions of Microsoft Excel. Client Data Review received a few improvements in converting the Other Names and Writing Off Invoices.

QuickBooks® Enterprise

There are a few improvements that are only available in the QuickBooks® Enterprise version of the software. We now have Automatic Purchase Orders, Default Classes and Larger List Limits. In the Advanced Inventory add on feature to Enterprise, we now have Barcode Scanning, Bin Location Tracking and FIFO Cost Lot History by item Reporting.

Conclusion

Look before you leap. If you don’t have to upgrade right now, don’t – It’s buggy at best and for the regular small business owner using the software for everyday bookkeeping needs, it has no real improvements over the prior year. QuickBooks® will be sun-setting the 2010 version of the software in May of 2013 and hopefully by then they will have resolved most of the issues and we can help you make a smooth transition to the latest version.

At New Business Directions we are always looking for ways to improve our efficiency. By pressing different combinations of keys on your keyboard, you can quickly perform common tasks within QuickBooks®.

Here are just a few of the things that you can do when editing a transaction:

Tab Move the cursor to the next field
Shift + Tab Move the cursor to the previous editable field
Return (Enter) Record the transaction (when highlighted)
Esc (Escape) Cancel editing and close the current window
Ctrl + A Open the Chart of Accounts
Ctrl + D Delete selected transaction or list item
Ctrl + E Edit transaction or list item
Ctrl + F Find a transaction
Ctrl + G Go to the other account register affected by this transaction
Ctrl + H Get the history (A/R or A/P) for the currently selected transaction
Ctrl + I Create Invoice
Ctrl + J Display Customer Center
Ctrl + M Memorize a transaction
Ctrl + N New transaction (Bill, Check, Deposit, List Item, Invoice)
Ctrl + R Go to the register associated with the current transaction
Ctrl + T Display memorized transaction list
Ctrl + Y Display transaction journal
Ctrl + W Display write check window

As always, if you have questions or would like more information about QuickBooks® Keyboard Shortcuts or any other QuickBooks® feature, please call us, we would be happy to help.

This article of QuickBooks Tips and Tricks was based on the 2012 version of QuickBooks.