Oh and hey! If you use QB for mac please save a backup for Windows (we do not have MAC computers in our facilities even though we know QB for Mac very well).
I will be installing and reviewing QuickBooks 2010 right in front of you. It has some pretty amazing features from what I am reading, so this should be pretty exciting.
Click here and go into the ‘Live Webinars’ Meeting room:
Many times in all business we are faced with the situation where we are being reimbursed for an expense. In other words – I go out and purchase a chair for a client and then I sell it to that client. It is not really inventory, because I am not in the habit of selling chairs to clients. Maybe this was a onetime thing or it will happen once in a while, but not as a normal course of business. There are a few ways to handle this in QuickBooks. The first thing to understand is that the cost is not “Cost of Good Sold”. I know it seems like it should be, but Cost of Goods Sold or COGS are defined as all of the costs necessary to get our inventory ready for sale. Since this is not Inventory, we do not want to book the purchase to COGS.
We can do it one of two ways:
By doing this and then changing the method based on seeing the results you will wind up needing to troubleshoot this. So in the following video tutorial we go over how to make the mistakes and fix them as well.
Once you think you have entered this correctly you will want to run a Profit and Loss for that customer to be sure that the transactions are showing up correctly. Specifically you want to see that the cost of the item is in there and that what you billed for it is properly netted out by that cost. We will show you how to do this in the video tutorial that we’ve recorded online:
Please enjoy the FREE video tutorial:
Reimbursed Expenses ßClick
The accountant’s copy is a special file ending in .qba. This is the working copy that the accountant uses to post entries prior to a set cut-off date. The full version of the QuickBooks file is the .QBW and when an accountant’s copy exists, you can only enter transactions after the set cut-off date. So what if you decide that you don’t want to import the accountant’s changes? You have the ability to remove the restriction, but beware this cannot be undone. At the same rate the accountant can also convert the accountant’s copy into a full .QBW. I will show how to do both here starting with converting the accountant’s copy into a QuickBooks Working file – .QBW. It is actually really simple and can be shown in one screen shot. You simple click File–>UtilitiesàConvert Accountant’s Copy to Company File/QBW:
To cancel the accountant’s changes on the original QBW (Client copy) simply click FileàAccountant’s CopyàClient ActivitiesàRemove Restriction
Once this is done you will not be able to import the accountant’s changes. It is not a bad idea to create a special backup prior to doing this, so that if you need to you can restore a copy with the accountant’s changes still pending. This way you can get back the ability to import the accountant’s changes should you decide you need/want to after all.
Remote bookkeeping is going to become more and more prevalent for small businesses for a few basic reasons. First, it is efficient for the bookkeepers. This means we can charge less because we can go from one client to the next with no travel increasing our billable hours. This is good. Second, it is convenient for the client because you don’t have to make space for a physical human being. Depending on the setup option you choose, you might have to reserve a computer while we are logged in, however if the computer that hosts the QuickBooks file is is used during the day, we can have a bookkeeper log in during the evening hours when no one is there. This means less interruption during normal business hours. Because of the portability of QuickBooks we can also log in and upload a copy of QuickBooks to ourselves. This will mean 5 minutes that someone has to stop working on that computer while we do this. Then when we are finished we can log in after hours and download the updated copy of QuickBooks to your computer. Of course during this time no changes can be made by anyone at your office to QuickBooks. I have one client that I work this way with (actually through a VPN, no computer needed) and it works beautifully. I can even pay his bills by setting the checks “To Be Printed”. When the QuickBooks Company File is back on his server I e-mail him to let him know, and he just opens up his QuickBooks as if it never left his server. Then he prints the batch of checks and signs them. This is convenient for him and I, and it is really efficient while still allowing for him to review all checks before they are sent.
I mentioned “portability of QuickBooks files”. The reality is that with services like yousendit and other FTP site options it is easily to seamlessly transfer your file without interruption on your part. If the file is particularly large, then we simply save a QuickBooks Portable Company file before we upload. None of this really matters to you as the business owner, all you care about is that we will get your file, work on it and put it back without you even feeling it!
So how do we get your information in order to work on your books remotely? There are a few ways to do this. The BEST way is when the client is comfortable and trusts us with the login info for their bank & credit card accounts. It is possible to give us read only access with most banks so that all we could ever do is download the information into QuickBooks and categorize the transactions. The other way is you send us the PDF’s and we enter them manually. It really doesn’t matter to us. In some cases we will set up a private blog site – you can easily upload documents as well as post notes for us as far as things you need us to follow up on. Yes of course you could e-mail that too, but the blog gives us nice platform to track the progress on things while e-mails get filed and forgotten!
So how do we log in to your computer?
The best way is that we set up a VPN (Virtual Private Network) on your server where the QuickBooks file is hosted. This enables us to get to your file without you even needing to interrupt anyone at any computer there. The other way is that we set up one of our gotomypc accounts on your computer. Finally you can set up your own gotomypc (or other remote access) and give us the information we need to log in to your computer. If we provide the gotomypc account there is an annual charge of $150 (about half of what it costs to have your own) and you can use it all you like to get access to your files and of course your own QuickBooks file. As long as you are a client the account is yours to use.
Setting up the VPN will of course require about 3 hours of time with our IT department at $150/hour, once this is done, however you have permanent remote access set up and it doesn’t cost another dime. Oh and yes – we can do this remotely!
In the process we will also be working with you to go as much paperless as possible – scanning bills and other documents in order to make them available to us for input. This is better (more efficient) for you and of course better for the environment – and we like that!
What About Security?
Of course we do everything in our power to protect your information. Everything we see is confidential and treated as such. Our service agreement provides for a bi-lateral NDA (we give you information about our company that we do not want disclosed to the general public as well). The VPN’s are all very secure as is gotomypc.
You can read more about remote bookkeeping services in our main website:
http://www.nerdenterprises.com/accounting/in_house_bookkeeping.htm
Please feel free to post your questions in the form of comments here.
We have a new QuickBooks class in our learning center – QuickBooks Tips & Tricks.
This is a GREAT download whether you are new to QuickBooks or a veteran!
For a full length video tutorial on QuickBooks – Invoicing and Accounts Receivable visit our Learning Center Today.
Every business needs Revenue to survive. Accordingly the accounting software that we use whether it is QuickBooks or something else, will always have to have ample resources providing us with the ability to record and track our Revenue. The most common of course is the invoice, but that is not all. There are many ways a sale can be made across every type of business and the invoice may not always be the best device to use in recording our sales or revenues. The intention of an invoice is to capture the sale of a product or service that will be paid for at some time in the future. Of course there are sales that happen in your store and paid for immediately and those are captured with a “Sales Receipt”:
Figure 1 – Enter Sales Receipts
When we start a business one of two things happens. Either it starts with our first customer and the initial revenue, or we invest money into the business and use that in some way shape or form to get the word out that we are offering a product, or service, or both. At some point the first revenue dollar comes in. One way or another this has to be recorded in QuickBooks. It will usually be handled with an invoice or a sales receipt. Possibly before the invoice we may have issued a Sales Order to that customer when they placed their order with us. The sales order works exactly like an invoice does, except it is a “non-posting” item. In other words no income is recognized yet. Try this by posting a sales order in QuickBooks and the running a profit and loss. You will of course see that the sales order is not included in income. Of course there is a direct relationship between the sales order and the customer to whom that sales order is issued. In other words I cannot have a sales order without a customer associated with it. QuickBooks will not allow me to save the transaction unless a customer is chosen.
Once a sales order is posted, the next time I go to invoice that customer, the second I select the customer and then hit ‘TAB’ to move on to the next thing QuickBooks will deliver a pop-up message listing any and all outstanding Sales orders for this customer:
Figure 2 – Sales Orders
You can check off this sales order and QuickBooks will pull all of the information from the sales order and drop it into your invoice or you. If you go in and change the quantities on the invoice to something less that what was on the Sales order originally, then the sales order will remain open with the difference available to be used. Otherwise you will want to close the sales order without using it:
Any time the transactions get any more complicated than simple applying the entire sales order to the invoice you will want to use the Sales Order Fulfillment worksheet:
Figure 3 – Sales Order Fulfillment
The best way to learn how to use this stuff is to go in and play around to see what you can do with it. Back up your file first or use a sample company file so you don’t ruin the integrity of your actual QuickBooks company data.
One way or another we get the sale recorded. Of course you could just post journal entries, but that would defeat the purpose of using a program like QuickBooks which takes that technical accounting out of it and gives you these easy to use modules like an invoice form that allow you to enter transactions.
If you record a sale with a sales receipt then the next phase in the revenue cycle happens simultaneously with the recording of that sale. With an invoice as I mentioned earlier it happens some time later, but hopefully sooner than later J. Of course I am talking about payment. With the sales receipt you record the payment right there in the form. There is a drop down in the form where you either choose to deposit the payment directly into a bank account or you choose to deposit the payment into “Undeposited Funds”. This is a special account used in QuickBooks to help capture payments that need to be grouped into the same deposit. I will explain more about this in a minute and I also go into great detail on how this works in our QuickBooks Invoicing & Accounts Receivable video tutorial. When you are working from an Invoice, you are receiving a payment as a separate transaction and QuickBooks gives you a dialogue very specific to this:
Figure 4.1 – Receive Payments
Then you will see this dialogue:
Figure 5 – Receive Payments Dialogue
Here what needs to be done is pretty straight-forward. You select the customer who paid and enter the amount, the payment method and so on. Notice the dialogue has a hyperlink that says “where does this payment go?”. This is the default setup and I recommend keeping it this way. The payment by default goes to undeposited funds.
This account is setup for the purpose of capturing multiple payments, which will be deposited together. Otherwise each individual payment goes separately into the QuickBooks Bank account register. This will not match up with the bank unless you deposit each check separately. As for credit cards QuickBooks simply will not match up with the batch totals that get deposited into your account. This way all of the payments are initially grouped in this “Bucket” called Undeposited Funds. This also properly breaks the cycle up into its proper segments, because receiving the payment is one thing, depositing it is another event. I could receive a check and hold it for 3 weeks or longer before I deposit it. I can accept American Express and they may not fund my money for as much as a week from the transaction date. So I can leave the money sitting in “Undeposited funds” until they actually get deposited. As long as there are payments sitting in Undeposited Funds any time I go to make a deposit the “Payments To Deposit” dialogue shows up. Any checks that are being deposited together should be checked off, then you click ‘ok’ and you are taken into the make deposits dialogue. Either you can add to the deposit if for example you were depositing your own check into the bank along with these customer payments, or you can simply click ok. As far as credit cards are concerned you should check off any Visa & Mastercard from the same day and deposit them together. Then go back and enter a separate deposit for any Amex transactions from the same day. There will likely be cases where two or more days are batched together even though you batch out every day. I suspect that the way the merchant services process this will almost always be a complete mystery – probably even to them. At the end of the day I just care about being able to match the transactions in QuickBooks with the bank account so I can reconcile the bank statement 100% accurately. This way I know for sure nothing was missed. The classic argument is that it isn’t worth worrying about a $2 difference. The flaw in that thinking is that a $2 difference could actually mean $1,000 deposit and a $998 check. And believe me I’ve seen this kind of thing many times.
For an approx 10 minute YouTube video on how to document your deposits click here.
Here is a sample of the Payments to Deposit screen:
Figure 6 – Make Deposits
Figure 7 – Payments To Deposit
Then when you click ‘ok’ you can complete the deposit the same as any other:
Figure 8 – Make The Deposit
Once the money is in the bank, the revenue cycle has been completed.
This is just an overview. Please comment with questions or actual comments.
Remember that we have a full length video tutorial in our Learning Center on our Main Site.
