Cutting Expenses Key To Profitability, But How? Some Tips

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Sharon Gannon

It may seem like a no-brainer – cut expenses to make more money – but many small changes can result in significant savings.

It looks like the economy may finally be looking up. Still, this is no time to loosen the purse strings in terms of your business expenses. Rather, why not re-double your efforts to cut costs and boost your profitability?

Excessive expenses cause debt, which in itself can be very costly. So any money-saving actions you take will be doubly rewarding.

More Effective Money Management

To cut expenses significantly, poke into every corner of your company’s finances. Inventory is a good place to start. If you sell multiple units of the same item and reorder regularly, you should be using QuickBooks’ inventory-tracking tools. Go to Edit | Preferences | Items & Inventory | Company Preferences.

Figure 1; Make sure that these settings are correct. If you need advanced features like FIFO costing, serial number and lot-tracking or inventory management at multiple locations, contact us about upgrading to Enterprise Solutions.

You should be stocking your inventory to match the pace of sales. You don’t want to be caught short, nor do you want to be sitting on too much and tying up money unnecessarily. QuickBooks can help, but you’ll need to calculate the sweet spot for each item. Several built-in reports can help, including:

• Inventory Valuation Summary. Displays the current asset and retail value of each item and inventory as a whole

• Inventory Valuation Detail. Shows how individual transactions have affected the value of your inventory

• Inventory Stock Status By Item. Helps you set up smart reordering procedures

• Open Purchase Orders. Outlines each purchase order and its expected delivery date

Figure 2: To maintain profitable inventory levels and minimize expenses, you’ll need to study QuickBooks’ related reports regularly. When you’re making buying decisions, consider factors like reorder turnaround time and seasonal sales upticks.

Ratio reports, like profit over sales, can also be very telling. QuickBooks does not supply these, but I can help you create them in Excel.

Using Available Tools

The efforts you make toward reducing expenses in other ways can result in more savings than you might think. Here are some actions you can take that will accelerate your cash flow:

Use QuickBooks’ budgeting tools. This doesn’t need to be as onerous as you might expect – you can start by pulling in your real data from the previous year as a base. Build in line items for ongoing accounting support like QuickBooks maintenance. Click on Company | Planning & Budgeting | Set Up Budgets.

Figure 3: Selecting this option simplifies your task.

Minimize your April 15 obligation with year-round tax planning. Work with me throughout the year on the next year’s taxes to, for example, make smarter quarterly payments, and I’ll help you reduce your tax bill by making better decisions every day.

Get discounts by paying invoices early. Set up a custom field in vendor records to track this.

Figure 4: Get to know which vendors offer early discounts – and take advantage of them.

Analyze the cost-effectiveness of your transportation. Can you replace some in-person sales calls with web-based communication? Make sure that your delivery routes and sales call paths are efficient.

Change product/service prices to build in your own cost increases. Do it across the board, in small increments. It may not even be that noticeable to customers.

Talk to me about establishing a line of credit. I’ll help you determine if this is a viable option for emergencies. It’s cheaper than using credit cards.

Cross-train employees. Have employees train each other on their tasks where it makes sense. You can avoid costly temp help and relieve overworked departments.

Don’t try to change everything at once. Establishing these new procedures will require some extra work. And you may not notice a reduction in expenses immediately. But over time, you will see a positive change – one that will give you extra dollars and hours to invest in making your company flourish.

 

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Billing for Time and Expenses: How It Works

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Sharon Gannon

QuickBooks handles billable expenses capably, but it’s critical that you understand the process thoroughly before proceeding.

Billing for inventory parts is easy. Pick the items from a list and specify a quantity. Poof. Done.

Billing for costs, time or mileage is a little more complex. QuickBooks has built-in tools to help you do this, but it’s a bit of a process.

To simplify your workflow, do this groundwork first:

• Go to Edit | Preferences | Time & Expenses | Company Preferences. Click the Yes button under Time tracking and indicate your choices under Invoicing options. If you plan to mark up some costs and want a default number, enter a percentage and account (these can be changed on individual invoices).

Figure 1: As you do with other QuickBooks processes, make sure that your Preferences are set correctly.

• Add any billing items necessary by clicking Lists | Item List and then Item | New in the lower left corner.
• If you plan to bill for mileage, go to Lists | Customer & Vendor Profile List | Vehicle List and enter information about every business vehicle.

Invoicing for Services

If you’re a service-oriented company, you bill for time frequently. This is easy. You’re probably already familiar with the Enter Time entry in the Employees menu. Whether you make individual time entries or complete a timesheet, it’s critical that you make the correct selections for each Customer: Job, Service Item and Payroll Item field, and check the Billable box.

When you create invoices, this box will open after you select a customer:

Figure 2: QuickBooks lets you know when there are time and costs to be billed for each customer.

You can let QuickBooks enter the time totals now, or add them later by clicking the Add Time/Costs button. Either way, the Choose Billable Time and Costs window opens. Add a checkmark next to each entry that should be billed, and click Options… to indicate whether you want one line for each time entry or would rather combine all similar service item types.

Figure 3: QuickBooks wants to know which entries should be invoiced.

More Complexity

If you’re done with billable expenses for this invoice, click OK. If there are other costs that you covered, click the Expenses tab to see all transactions that you earmarked for this client on a bill, check or credit card. You have the option here to mark up the cost by a percentage or amount (even if you established this in Preferences), and to specify an account.

Do the same for Mileage, which you would have entered previously – when it was incurred — at Company | Enter Vehicle Mileage. Then select any Items that you purchased for the customer. Your records should be correct – assuming that you were conscientious about assigning expenses to customers and jobs.

Figure 4: It’s easy to pull billable expenses into invoices if they’re documented carefully.

Turning expenses into invoices and then into income can be complicated. Let me know if I can help. I am  your partner in building a successful business.

QuickBooks Tip

Here’s a cool little keyboard shortcut. Hit F2 while you’re in QuickBooks, and you’ll get the Product Information screen. It’ll tell you everything you want to know about your specific copy of QuickBooks, like your release and license number, the file size, number of users logged in, audit trail status and the total number of accounts, customers, employees, etc.

QuickBooks News

As of May 31, 2012, Intuit is discontinuing support for QuickBooks Pro, Premier and Simple Start 2009, QuickBooks for Mac 2009 and QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 9. You can continue to use these solutions, of course, but live technical support and add-on services like payroll, credit card processing, online banking and bill-pay will not be accessible. Talk to me about upgrading if you’re using any of these products or services.  

If you find this post helpful, please feel free to pass it on.  If you would like to be added to my email list, sign up below - 


 

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When You Bounce a Vendor Payment

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Sharon Gannon

Nobody ever wants to have a check returned, but in can happen. If it does, several things need to happen -

  • You have to return the money back into the bank account
  • You have to show the bill still needing to be paid
  • You have to record the fee that the bank charged you for bouncing the check
  1. From the Vendor menu, select Enter Bills.
  2. In the Vendor field, select the Vendor name.
  3. On the Expenses Tab, select the Bank Account that was originally used to pay the bill.
  4. Enter the Amount of the bounced check.
  5. Click Save & Close.

This returns the money to the bank account and recreates the bill to the vendor.

Record a Bill To The Vendor

Figure 1 - Record a bill to the vendor

To record the NSF fee, simply make a register entry -

Record the NSF Fee

Figure 2 - Record the NSF Fee

 If you have questions about QuickBooks transactions, send me an email or post it to FaceBook.  I love answering questions!

 

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You Keep Your Receipts In a Plastic Bag?

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Sharon Gannon

 

There’s a QuickBooks commercial that teases a business owner about keeping her receipts in a plastic bag. I get a kick out of this because whenever I pick up bookkeping paperwork from one of my clients I always put it in a 2.5 gallon Hefty bag.

I do this because I like to keep the paperwork contained.  I will only ever have one clients’ work on my desk at a time. It would be horrible to mixup client paperwork and take someone’s bank statement to the wrong company!

I was telling a client about my habit the other day as I bagged up his work. He must like to watch CSI because he said I was bagging the evidence to avoid cross-contamination.

Absolutely correct!

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Do You Use QuickBooks For Your Household Accounts?

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Sharon Gannon

There are good reasons for using QuickBooks to keep track of your personal accounts -

  • You’ve already invested in the software, so you might as well.
  • It’s good to keep track of your personal spending habits and be aware of those money leaks.
  • It’s easy to set up a budget with QuickBooks.
  • It’s easier than writing everything down in a checkbook.
  • You can download your bank transactions into QuickBooks making data entry a snap.
  • It’s easy to go back to see if and when  you have paid a bill.
  • It helps at tax time – you can pluck out the exact numbers for medical, property taxes, etc.
  • It makes it easy for you and your spouse to have those “money talks”.
  • If you ever want to talk to a banker to refinance your home or get a student loan all the information is right at your fingertips.

I do personal bookkeeping for about half of my monthly bookkeeping clients.  It’s not a service that I market, but it seems like after a while they always ask me about it.

It’s really easy to set up a new “company” file for your personal bookkeeping – you just add accounts for personal care, groceries, pet expenses and whatever else you need.  Track anything that is a deduction on your income taxes very carefully.

Use QuickBooks for Your Personal Accounts

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Portable Productivity: Smartphones Do Invoices, Expenses, Time Billing

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Sharon Gannon

These three web-based apps – accessible via your smartphone — provide mobile access to QuickBooks data.

Accounting in the cloud is closer than you might think. In fact, it’s here, in some cases. QuickBooks Online, of course, is entirely cloud-based, but it does not yet offer all of the features found in Intuit’s top-of-the-line products, Premier and Enterprise.

In the meantime, Intuit itself, as well as third-party developers, have built online apps that fill in some of the gaps. These add-on solutions exist on websites, but they can collect data and synchronize it with desktop QuickBooks. So can that iPhone or Android that’s sitting on your desk right now.

Many Mobile Applications

To find these apps, go to the Intuit App Center and click on All Apps. There are dozens of them, arranged by category (Billing and Invoicing, Customer Management, Inventory Management, Apps by Intuit, etc.).

Your first stop should be at Intuit’s QuickBooks Connect (this is the name of the online application that you’d use on a remote PC or laptop; the name of the smartphone app is QuickBooks Mobile). This app gives you easy access to your customer and sales datawhen you’re away from your office.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 1: QuickBooks Mobile, shown here on the Android operating system, gives you sales tools when you’re away from desktop QuickBooks.

Remote Sales Tools

Whether you’re working in web-based QuickBooks Connect or on a smartphone, your data and transaction options are similar. QuickBooks Connect has a few more features, like an Item List and Customer Center, but both let you:

• Access multiple company files
• View, add, and edit customers, estimates, invoices, and sales receipts, using QuickBooks’ custom templates
• E-mail these forms to customers

QuickBooks Mobile and QuickBooks Connect use the Intuit Sync Manager – located on the desktop where QuickBooks is installed — to keep data current everywhere. That computer must be running for syncs to work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2: You can create and e-mail invoices from QuickBooks Mobile.

Prices start at $9.95/month for one user; a 30-day free trial is available.

Manage Travel Expenses

Concur Breeze grabs the data you need (customers, employees, jobs, etc.) from QuickBooks to record expenses on the road. You can enter charges directly into a form or snap a picture with your phone – it’ll be attached to your expense report. These charges are then sent to a report template that thoroughly documents the charge, letting you specify variables like the trip purpose, travel policy type, project and client. The status of your approval and payment are also included here.

You can send travel itineraries from your free TripIt Pro account and credit card charges directly to an existing expense report to accelerate the process. And once an expense report is approved, money can be moved automatically from the designated company bank account to an employee’s account. $8 per month per user; free 30-day trial.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 3: Concur Breeze provides mobile expense management.

Mobile Time-Tracking

If your company has employees or contractors who work remotely and submit hours for approval, consider eBillity Time Tracker for Intuit QuickBooks. After it pulls in customers, service items, and employees from QuickBooks, you can invite workers to track their time on their smartphones by either entering it manually or using the timer, and then sync it with the online application.

Mobile workers can use the application in offline mode; entries are uploaded when they reconnect. Prices start at $10/month for Admin and one user.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 4: eBillity Time Tracker for Intuit QuickBooks is a great companion app for remote workers.

The Cloud = Convenience And Accessibility

Synchronization – especially across three or more devices – is a simple concept whose implementation can be not-so-simple. We can help you determine which apps make sense for you and get them up and running.

Integrated, web-based applications accessed by whatever computing device happens to be nearby are the essence of cloud-based accounting. Intuit and its companion mobile apps offer the convenience and accessibility that the Internet is making possible.

If you need help with any of these applications, or questions about “the cloud”, please email or call me. I am your partner in building a successful business.

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How to Acess QuickBooks From Your iPhone, iPad or IPod Touch

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Sharon Gannon

I love my iPhone – it’s the one thing that I own that is never more that arm’s reach. I love my iPad as well, and I wish there was a great QuickBooks app for it. While I wait, I found this great blog post from Michelle Long that explains different ways to access QuickBooks from your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

http://longforsuccess.com/2011/03/23/how-to-access-quickbooks-from-an-ipad-iphone-or-ipod-touch/

 

 

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Resort QuickBooks lists when names or items are out of order or missing

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Sharon Gannon
  • A list appears out of order
  • Some of your list elements are missing
  • New entries appear at the top of your list
  • Reports appear out of order
  • You aren’t able to do things like turn on account numbers
  • Highlighting a customer, vendor or employee displays no transactions
  • Name filter drop-down auto-fill not working in the Advance Find

QuickBooks stores data pertaining to Customer:Jobs, Vendors, Employees, Other Names, Accounts and Items, as well as other things, in lists. A particular Customer or Employee or Item is an element of a list. Your lists can become damaged.

How to fix it
Re-sorting your lists can fix the list damage. A re-sorted list is more or less a refreshed list. There might not be any changes on the screen, but QuickBooks is working in the background on the changes. When you have successfully resorted your lists, close and reopen your company data file.

Re-sorting your lists affects the following:

  • The Master Name list (a combination of Customer:Jobs, Vendors, Employees and Other Names)
  • The Chart of Accounts
  • The Item list

    •  

    Important: Back up your company data file before re-sorting your lists.

    Re-sort the Customer list, Vendor list, or Employee list from a Center (QuickBooks 2006 and later):

    1. In the QuickBooks Icon Bar, select the appropriate Center.
    2. Select the appropriate Tab to display the Customer, Vendor, or Employee list.
    3. In the QuickBooks menu bar, select View and then select Resort List.
    4. Click OK on the message “Are you sure you want to return this list to its original order.”

    Re-sort the Master Name list from the Banking menu:

    1. In the QuickBooks menu bar, choose Banking > Write Checks.
    2. Click into the Pay to the order of field and press Ctrl+L.
    3. Select the Include Inactive checkbox.
    4. Click the Name button, and select Resort List.
    5. Click OK on the message “Are you sure you want to return this list to its original order.”

    Re-sort the Master Name List from the Find window (If you do not have Banking permissions):

    1. In the QuickBooks menu bar, choose Edit > Find.
    2. Click the Advanced tab.
    3. Select Name in the Filter box.
    4. Click in the Name field and press Ctrl+L.
    5. Select the Include Inactive checkbox.
    6. Select the Name button, and select Resort List.
    7. Click OK on the message “Are you sure you want to return this list to its original order?”

    Re-sort the Master Name List from the Journal Entry window (If you do not have Banking permissions):

    1. In the QuickBooks menu bar, select Company and then select Make General Journal Entries.
    2. Click into the Name column and press Ctrl + L on your keyboard.
    3. Place a check mark in Include Inactive check box.
    4. Click the Name button, and select Resort List.
    5. Click OK on the message “Are you sure you want to return this list to its original order?”

    Re-sort any other List (Chart of Accounts, Item List, Payroll Item List, etc.):

    1. In the QuickBooks menu bar, choose Lists and then select the list you want to re-sort.
    2. Select the Include Inactive checkbox.
    3. Click the List button at the bottom left.
    4. Click Resort List.
    5. Click OK on the message “Are you sure you want to return this list to its original order?”

    Important: After re-sorting your lists, close your company data file and reopen it to be sure the changes to your lists are completed.

    If you have questions on this or any other QuickBooks feature, call or email me. I’m your partner and I’m here to make your business better.

    If you’ve found this blog post to be useful, please sign up for my newsletter.  No marketing – just great content.


     

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QuickBooks Income Tax Reports And Filtering Options: Target The Right Output

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Sharon Gannon

April 15 is getting uncomfortably close.

QuickBooks, of course, can’t do your taxes for you. But it helps you lay some of the groundwork. Following up on last month’s column on customizing reports, I’ll look at the program’s tax-related reports and its powerful report-filtering options.

But first, you’ll need to make sure that this output will be accurate.

Describe your company accurately


Your tax entity setting should have been established when you first set up QuickBooks, but verify that you’ve specified the correct one. Go to Company | Company Information. Your Report Information is in the lower left corner. Click the arrow next to Income Tax Form Used to see what’s active.

Figure 1: Make sure that QuickBooks is set up for the correct tax entity.

QuickBooks automatically assigns some of your accounts to their matching lines on the 1040 and assorted forms and schedules; this is called tax line mapping. So when you create tax reports, related transactions will be grouped by these designations.

This can be a real time-saver – as long as you’ve specified the correct entity. If:

• <OtherNone> was selected
• This setting is incorrect
• You’re starting a business and don’t know which to choose…

… please contact me. If you switch entities, your existing tax line mapping will disappear and will have to be reassigned.

Dedicated tax reports

Many of QuickBooks’ general financial reports provide tax-related information. But there are some that specifically relate to the numbers that will go on your return. Go to Reports | Accounting & Taxes | Income Tax Preparation. Here’s an excerpt of what you’ll see:

Figure 2: QuickBooks automatically assigns many accounts to the appropriate tax form lines, based on your specified tax entity.

Here, QuickBooks shows you which tax lines have been pre-assigned to your accounts. You can specify a tax form line for unassigned accounts, but this is something you should not attempt on your own. This report, though, will give you an idea of how useful your report output will be and where you’ll need our assistance.

Other reports provide tax-related data. You can access them by going again to Reports | Accountant & Taxes and clicking:

• Income Tax Summary. This displays totals for each tax line that’s relevant to your particular tax entity. Double-click on any number, and the Tax Line By Account report appears, detailing every transaction related to every tax-related account (you could add a column for Tax Line in Display options and make this quite a useful report).
• Income Tax Detail. This lists all individual transactions by tax form/schedule line assignment.

Paring it down

Some tax reports can be very lengthy; you may want to filter them to look at various “slices.”  Click Customize Report | Filters:

Figure 3: This window displays a powerful set of filtering options.

The options listed under Choose Filter are available on other reports; they help you set up incredibly complex searches using multiple filters.

Let’s say you want a report that displays your installation labor costs on new residential construction from the last year (you could also throw other variables in). You’d simply choose the filters from the left pane and then select related options in the next pane (usually a list). You’d want to also click on the Display tab to make sure that the appropriate columns appear.

Figure 4: You can apply multiple filters to your reports.

QuickBooks reports can shave time off of tax preparation, and filtered views help you scrutinize your data in quite creative – and very useful – ways. The program’s boilerplate reports have their place in simple examinations of your financial status, but filters are potent tools. They can facilitate the kind of deep analysis that helps you make critical business decisions.

If you have questions on this or any other QuickBooks feature, call or email me. I’m your partner and I’m here to make your business better.

If you’ve found this blog post to be useful, please sign up for my newsletter.  No marketing – just great content.

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More Keyboard Shortcuts –

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Sharon Gannon

Last week I shared the keyboard shortcuts that help you quickly edit dates. Today I will show you a few general shortcuts.

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