4 Best Practices for Quickbooks You Need to Know
Getting through your workdays successfully can usually come from sticking to good habits. It’s not so hard to pick up on good habits when it comes to your bookkeeping as well.
You may be able to follow the same workflow patterns as you would in your average workday in order to get things done in QuickBooks, too. If you’re trying to incorporate as many of the site’s best practices, that may help you in the long run in regards to efficiency. For the most productivity, it would be wise to follow the standard guidelines or best practices in QuickBooks.
If you’re not familiar with using Quickbooks already, there’s no need to stress. Today your McAllen virtual CFO at Abigail Y. Murray CPA, LLC, will list four habits you should consider picking up for optimal results.
1. Set time each day to review your transactions
Being able to connect to your financial accounts and import transactions on the regular is one of the greatest features offered in QuickBooks. However, this works best if you remember to go through your “recently-downloaded” transactions on the daily. If you let too much time pass, this task can get daunting.
You can find an account register by clicking on Banking, then on the account at the top of the screen. After choosing a transaction, a window drops down to show your options. This can be complex if you haven’t worked with defining and clearing downloaded transactions before.
2. Remember to assign categories to costs
It’s imperative that you always assign categories to costs, and mark each of them as billable or not. The more you keep track of it all, the more helpful the reports will be to you.
As you prepare your company’s income taxes, these categorized costs will be extremely important.
3. Run aging reports once or twice on a weekly basis
These reports will help you monitor how much money you owe and vice versa. That is why it’s crucial that your information stays up-to-date.
Although QuickBooks’s Dashboard will mention the given dollar amount for unpaid invoices, along with links to the list, it doesn’t provide you with information about your own upcoming bills that are due or those of which are late.
It would be in your best interest to run at least two reports, Accounts Receivable Aging Summary and Accounts Payable Aging Summary, at both the start and end of the week.
Although these reports should be sufficient, if you need to adjust these reports, click on the Customize button.
There should be no numbers in any of the columns with the exception of the first one (Current). If you notice numbers beyond the initial one, it means that either incoming or outgoing payments are overdue. Click on any number to view the transactions behind it.
4. Establish Reorder points for your inventory items.
It is highly suggested to keep a good focus on your product inventory levels. As you implement an item record (Sales | Products and Services | New), make sure to set a Reorder point.
The Products and Services page lets you know how many items are Low in Stock or Out of Stock. You can also find the Qty on Hand and Reorder Point in the table under those numbers. It is worth noting that inventory tracking is an advanced feature of QuickBooks, so don’t hesitate to ask for help if you need it.
Certified Public Accountant & VCFO At Your Service
There are several other best practices recommended for when you utilize QuickBooks, many of them having to do with reports that most businesses do not completely engage in because some of them are challenging to analyze.
These include standard financial reports such as Balance Sheet and Statement of Cash Flows.
If you wish to apply for financing or share information regarding your company’s financial health with a third party, it is required to have these reports. Their insight can be significantly useful for the process of making important business decisions.
At Abigail Y. Murray CPA, LLC, we offer QuickBooks in your consultation. If you want more information on how we can help you with your bookkeeping needs, do not hesitate to contact us to set up an appointment with our McAllen VCFO.
Need help with Quickbooks? Contact Abigail Y. Murray CPA, LLC today!