QuickBooks Tips Blog

QuickBooks is the most popular accounting software amongst small businesses.  Many QuickBooks users understand the basics of the program and some of the benefits.  However, there are many benefits of QuickBooks that you might have missed.  The general QuickBooks user understands how to use the basic commands of QuickBooks to carry out the day to day transactions.  In general QuickBooks takes care of the accounting behind the scenes.  While you can get by in QuickBooks without much accounting knowledge it is important to understand the basics of accounting and what entries each QuickBooks command makes.  QuickBooks can benefit your business other than just a way to track your day to day activities; here are a few benefits of QuickBooks you might have missed. 

"My Profit & Loss report tells me that I'm making a lot of money, but where is it?"  This is a common question we get asked frequently.  I usually tell that person to open their Accounts Receivable report.  Accounts Receivable is one of those reports that can be scary the first time
it's opened.  This shows the amount of money that the company has invoiced its customers for whom have not paid yet.  In accrual based reporting, these amounts show up on the Profit & Loss and have a major impact on the bottom line.  Streamlining your invoicing process can eliminate having a wrong AR report.  Also, streamlining the process in which your customers pay your company can reduce your AR balance and make your cash flow much more predictable. 

In QuickBooks there is a way to accept online payments.  This allows your customers to pay directly from invoices emailed from QuickBooks.  There is no cost to your customer and the cost to you as a business owner is very inexpensive.  For bank payments it only costs $0.50 per transaction with no monthly, setup or cancellation fees.  You can also allow customers to pay by credit card and Intuit charges a merchant processing fee for this. However, you can choose to accept just bank payments if you wish, keeping your processing costs very affordable at $0.50 per transaction.  Watch this QuickBooks video tip to learn how to enable online payments in QuickBooks.  

QuickBooks can be a valuable tool for any small business to help manage cash flow by customizing a few settings.  If you use QuickBooks to manage your cash flow you will not only know your current bank account balance, but you will also have a snapshot of what your bank balance looks like in the future.  Watch this video for some instructions on using QuickBooks to help manage your cash flow:

When reviewing financials with clients, they sometimes look at their Profit & Loss and almost immediately ask "Well, if I made $40,000 this year, where is it?"  Business owners usually assume that if they made money it should be in their bank account.  If it's not in the bank account, it can be because of a few different reasons.   If they are paying off loans, a line of credit, a large credit card balance from a prior time period, or some other liability the money generated from the profit is usually allocated to these Balance Sheet items.  If the business does not have any liabilities, it could be due to Equity Draws by the owners.  Well if it's not Equity Draws or paying down liabilities, then where is it?  It is most likely tied to your Accounts Receivable balance.  This is the balance that customers owe the business for the purchase of their product or service.

Accounts Receivable Reporting

Having a handle on cash flow should be a major priority of any small business owner.  Business owners are always looking for ways to improve and calculate cash flow.  A great way to avoid cash flow problems is to forecast and manage your businesses financials constantly.