Many businesses fail to use QuickBooks effectively as their bookkeeping software. Some businesses only use QuickBooks to track only a portion of the accounting cycle (only accounts payable or accounts receivable). This is a common mistake that many business owners make when setting up QuickBooks for the first time. Here is our advice for setting up and using QuickBooks effectively:
- When setting up the company take the time to thoroughly go through the Company Set up interview.
- Use QuickBooks for ALL general accounting aspects. This means it should be your accounting database.
- Enter all customer, vendor and employee information and learn how to use the features of each.
- Develop a system for entering and tracking sales. This can be done through invoicing customers or by entering a daily sales journal entry.
- Develop a system for tracking and paying bills. Use the enter bills and pay bills feature.
- Don't get in the habit of tracking things outside of QuickBooks. QuickBooks is a very versatile software program and can perform many of the tasks you are tracking elsewhere.
Another useful piece of advice is to get a bookkeeper that is certified with QuickBooks. By finding and using a QuickBooks Pro Advisor you will save your business time, money and frustration by setting up QuickBooks correct the first time. Your QuickBooks advisor will also be an ongoing wealth of information on how to use QuickBooks as effectively as possible.
