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Keep Up With Payables: Entering Bills in QuickBooks

2/9/2021

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Did you resolve to pay bills on time in 2021? Here’s how QuickBooks can help.

 
Managing your paper bills manually is a dangerous practice. It’s too easy to lose them, for one thing, and it’s impossible to keep all of those vendors and amounts in your head. Even if you keep them in a safe place, how do you track their due dates? You can write them on a paper calendar, but it’s easy to miss them considering everything else that is probably scribbled there.
 
So what’s the solution? You need a system that will keep you from paying bills late, which can lead to finance charges and bad relationships with your vendors.
 
QuickBooks provides that. You can enter bills as they come in and designate them as paid when you send the check or authorize a credit card payment or bank transfer. Besides making these records available, the software offers other ways to stay informed about the status of your accounts payable, through its Bill Tracker and assorted reports.
 
We’ll look at how QuickBooks helps you enter bills.
 

Creating a Record

 
To use QuickBooks’ bill management features effectively, you need to develop a couple of new habits. The first involves entering information about your bills as they come in. It will take some extra time as you first record each vendor and bill, but it will save time recording bill payments and entering bills in the future - and paying them.
 
To do this, open the Vendors menu and select Enter Bills. A window like this opens:
 
QuickBooks allows you to create a record of each bill as it comes in.
 
To record a bill, simply fill in the blanks and make selections from drop-down lists. Below the bill itself is a table containing two tabs. If the bill involves Expenses, like a utility bill, you click on the corresponding tab, choose the Account (Utilities: Gas and Electric),and enter the Amount. If it’s an expense that should be billed to a Customer:Job, select the name from the drop-down list and click in the column under Billable.
 
If the bill is for Items, click on that tab and choose the item(s), completing the rest of the fields for each line (Quantity, Customer:Job, and Billable). Should you get a bill that is for both expenses and items, you can split the amounts between the fields under the two tabs.
 

Memorizing Bills

 
Before you save the bill, look over at the vertical pane on the right. QuickBooks uses this to display any Open Balance with that vendor, as well as Related Transactions. This is one of the ways the software keeps you updated on the status of your accounts payable. You’ll notice, too, that the toolbar at the top of the window contains links to related actions, like Attach File, Enter Time, and Pay Bill.
 
Another icon is labeled Memorize. To save time down the road, you can ask QuickBooks to “memorize” the bill you entered. Basically, this means that the software saves it. So the next time you have to pay that vendor, you can go to Lists | Memorized Transaction List and find it, then make any changes necessary, (QuickBooks will change the date). This works best for regularly-scheduled bills that only vary in amount.
 
 
When QuickBooks memorizes a bill, it gives you several options for managing repeat occurrences.
 
The window pictured above opens when you click Memorize. If you want a reminder in advance of that bill’s due date, you click the button in front of Add to my Reminders List. You can opt not to have a reminder, or to add the bill to a Group of related bills. If you select Automate Transaction Entry, QuickBooks will enter the bill automatically on the date you specify and the interval you choose, like Monthly. It will also stop the recurrence on a specific date if you enter one.
 
Note: Don’t have Reminders set up? Go to Edit | Preferences | Reminders | Company Preferences.
Entering bills is just the first step in QuickBooks’ bill-paying process. Next month, we’ll talk about the next step, paying bills, and show you how you can track them easily. In the meantime, contact us if you have questions about what we covered in this column or about any other element of QuickBooks.
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Should You Charge Late Fees? QuickBooks Can Help

1/5/2021

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Do you have a lot of aging receivables? Assessing finance charges can speed up customer payments.

 
Have your customers been submitting payments later than usual these last several months? It wouldn’t be surprising. Many businesses are struggling to pay bills these days. Still, you need to get paid - and on time. Tardy receivables have a negative impact on your own cash flow.
 
We’ve discussed ways to encourage prompt payment in past columns. For example, you can start accepting credit/debit cards and direct bank transfers, make sure invoices go out immediately after a sale, or offer a premium like a small one-time discount for paying on time 12 months in a row to name a few.
 
You can also assess finance charges on remittances that come in after the due date. QuickBooks provides the tools to allow this.
 

Setting It Up

 
Before you start charging extra for late payments, you’ll need to do some setup work in QuickBooks. Open the Edit menu and select Preferences, then Finance Charge. Click the Company Preferences tab. You’ll see a window like this:
 
 
You can set your own preferences for assessing finance charges in QuickBooks.
 
You’ll have to answer these questions and enter your responses in the window:
 
What will your Annual Interest Rate (%) be?
 
What will you set as a Minimum Finance Charge?
 
Will you allow a Grace Period? This is the number of days given to your customers to make their payments after the due date before finance charges kick in. This is typically from 15-21 days.
 
Where should captured finance charges go? In this example, the Finance Charge Account has been assigned to Other Income.
 
Do you want to Assess finance charges on overdue finance charges? Some jurisdictions don’t allow you to charge interest on overdue interest charges. If you want to do this, check on your local lending laws - specifically state usury laws which may limit the amounts that can be charged.
 
When will you start to Calculate charges? In this example, the due date is selected. So, QuickBooks will start to add finance charges 21 days after the stated due date. If you choose invoice/billed date, you’ll want to make your grace period longer. This can be rather a confusing concept. Contact us if you want a deeper explanation.
 

Assessing Finance Charges

 
There’s one more issue on the Preferences screen that you’ll need to resolve. QuickBooks offers two ways to notify customers about finance charges. You can’t include them on invoices, like you may be used to seeing on credit card bills. Rather, you have to print separate invoices that only contain the finance charges.
If you put a check in the box in front of Mark finance charge invoices “To be printed,” you can print them out separately. If you leave the box blank, the finance charges will appear on the customer’s next statement. Click OK when you’re done with this window.
 
 
QuickBooks can find the overdue invoices that need to have finance charges applied and display them in a window like this one.
 
Open the Customers menu and select Assess Finance Charges. A window like the one in the image above will open. Make sure that the Assessment Date is the actual date you want to assess charges, which may not be the current date. Click in the Assess column to create a checkmark for every customer you want to charge. When you’re done, click Assess Charges.
 
When you’re ready to print finance charge invoices, open the File menu and select Print Forms | Invoices to open a window like this:
 
 
Invoices with an FC preceding the number are finance charge invoices ready for printing.
 

Lots to Learn

 
Besides knowing whether you can charge finance charges on existing finance charges, there are other considerations. For example, do your state’s lending laws allow you to use the phrase “finance charge” or must you use something like “late fee?” When should you assess finance charges? Have you notified your customers of your intent to begin assessing finance charges? This is definitely something they should know in advance. You might need to add this to your customer message on invoices.
 
We can’t tell you whether finances charges are the path you should take to improve your cash flow as there are many issues to consider. But we can help you with the mechanics of doing so and are here to answer any questions. Let us know if you want to get started using this tool, we can help.
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New to QuickBooks? Try These 5 Activities

12/8/2020

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QuickBooks can be overwhelming when you first start using it. Here are five ways to familiarize yourself with some of its features to get you up and running in no time.

 
Tackling any new piece of software can be daunting. Add a complex process like accounting to the mix, like QuickBooks does, and you may feel apprehensive about your ability to learn how to use it.
 
But QuickBooks was designed for small businesspeople, not for accountants nor technical wizards. It uses familiar language and forms, and it works like other Windows programs. That doesn’t mean, though, that you’ll be able to just jump in and start completing your accounting tasks.
 
Here are five steps you can take to start familiarizing yourself with QuickBooks that will get you up and running in no time. We’ll assume that you’ve already created your company file. If you need help with this critical first step, let us know.
 

Open a sample file.

 
While you’re exploring QuickBooks, it’s a good idea to work with a sample file. That way, you can look around and practice without risking compromising your company file. You’ll be able to see how completed records and transactions should look and try your hand at entering sample data of your own.
 
 
 
QuickBooks comes with sample files that allow you to practice entering data without harming your own company file.
 
Before you open a sample file, you’ll need to close your current company. Click on File in the upper left to open that menu, then select Close Company. A window will open that should have your company file in its list. Below that, you’ll see three boxes containing different options. Click on the down arrow next to Open a sample file, as pictured above (this may look slightly different in your version). Choose the one you want to open and click on it. QuickBooks will load again with that file open. When you’re done looking at the sample file, go to File | Close Company again. The No Company Open window should appear again. Click on your company file name and then on Open to return to your own file.
 

Learn where your lists are.

 
You’ll be storing a great deal of information in lists. QuickBooks maintains these automatically sometimes when you enter information in a record or transaction. For example, when you create a record for a product or service you sell, it goes into a master list that you can access by opening the Lists menu at the top of the screen and clicking on Item List. You’ll also open the Lists menu when you want to add options to an existing type of list, like Class List (QuickBooks allows you to assign Classes to transactions so you can group related information, like New Construction or Remodel if you’re a contractor).
 
 
 
You’ll sometimes select from lists of commands in QuickBooks. This is the menu for the Item List.
 

Try a Transaction.

 
There are two transactions you’ll probably be using the most: invoices and sales receipts. QuickBooks comes with templates that resemble these sales forms’ paper counterparts. You simply fill in the blanks by entering data and selecting options from drop-down lists. Open the Customers menu and select Create Invoices. Click the back arrow above Find in the upper left corner to see sample invoices. Then click the right arrow to get back to a blank form and create an invoice by clicking the down arrows in blank fields to see your sample lists.
 

Explore Snapshots.

 
Once you start entering records and transactions, you’ll want to be able to access that information in ways that provide insight on how your company is doing. You’ll eventually start running reports in QuickBooks, but the software also accomplishes this through its Snapshots. There are three of them, and they all provide these overviews by using data tables and charts. Open the Company menu and click on Company Snapshot, then click the tabs to move between Company, Payments, and Customer. You’ll learn how QuickBooks provides real-time information about your finances.
 

Look at the Income Tracker.

 
It’s easy to see the status of your invoices (and estimates) in QuickBooks. Open the Customers menu and select Income Tracker. Colored bars at the top of the screen show you what’s outstanding and what’s been paid. A list of the related transactions appears below these bars.
 
 
 
This partial view of the Income Tracker tells you how much money is tied up in unbilled Time & Expenses and unpaid Invoices.
 
As we said earlier, QuickBooks can be overwhelming when you first start to use it. We can ease that transition by providing training and helping you move your existing accounting information over to the software. If you’ve started using QuickBooks on your own and you have questions, we can always step in to offer answers.
 
Stay healthy, and best wishes for a more prosperous 2021.
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How Do You Create Price Levels in QuickBooks?

11/3/2020

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QuickBooks allows you to create Price Levels that you can assign to customers and jobs and to individual items.

 
You already know that when you create a product or service record in QuickBooks, you must assign a sale price to it. But did you know that QuickBooks gives you a great deal of flexibility when to comes to pricing items you sell? The software allows you to create one or more additional Price Levels that you can access in invoices, estimates, sales receipts, credit memos, and sales orders.
 
There are three ways you can use these. Once you’ve created them, they’ll be available in a drop-down list in the Rate field. This means you can assign them manually to individual transactions. The second option is to assign them globally to specific customers or jobs. Once you’ve done so, that price will apply every time you create a transaction for one of them. Finally, you can create price levels for selected items.
 
Here’s how it works. Let’s say you want to be able to create a price level that’s 15 percent below the actual price that you can use in individual transactions. You open the Lists menu and select Price Level List. Click the arrow in the lower left corner next to Price Level and select New. A window like this will open:
 
You can create price levels in QuickBooks and assign them to individual sales transactions.
 
Fill in the field next to Price Level Name, and then click the arrow next to Price Level Type. Select Fixed %. Select decrease from the drop-down list on the next line and enter your percentage number. Round up to the nearest is an optional field, Click OK when you’re done. The next time you create a sales transaction, your new price level will be available as an option when you open the drop-down list in the Rate column.
 
When you need to edit or delete a price level, go to Lists | Price Level List again and click the arrow next to Price Level in the lower left corner. You have several options here. You can, for example, make a price level inactive so it doesn’t appear on the list. The field next to Price Level is labeled Reports. Click on the arrow to see what’s available there.
 

Customers and Jobs

 
You can also apply a price level you’ve created to a specific customer or job, perhaps to reward a customer for frequent purchases. When you do so, that rate will appear every time you enter a sales transaction for the customer or job you selected.
 
Open the Customers menu and select Customer Center. Double click on a customer or job’s name to open the record. Click on the Payment Settings tab. Click the arrow in the field next to Price Level and select the right one, then click OK.
 
You can assign a Price Level to specific customers or jobs.
 

Per Item Price Levels

 
QuickBooks also allows you to set custom prices for specific items that are associated with preferred customers or jobs (this option is only available if you’re using QuickBooks Premier or Enterprise). Let’s say you want to give a 10 percent discount to specific customers who purchase your website development services. Go to Lists | Price Level List and click the arrow next to Price Level in the lower left corner again, then select New (you can also get to the New command by right-clicking anywhere in the window).
 
Give your price level a name (like Web Development 10 Off), then select Per Item from the Price Level Type drop-down list. Click in front of the Item you want to include. The fields in the next line should read as pictured in the image below: 10% | lower | standard price. Click Adjust. You’ll see your reduced prices in the Custom Price column in the table above.
 
You can establish a Price Level for specific items in QuickBooks.
 
Again, the rounding field is optional. When you’re finished here, click OK. The next time you create a sales transaction for a customer who is eligible for the lower price, you’ll select Web Development 10 Off from the drop-down list in the Rate column.
 
Feel like you’re outgrowing your current version of QuickBooks, or is it several years old? Talk to us about upgrading. We’re here to support you and to help you more effectively use the software as your business changes and grows.
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4 Ways to Get Paid Faster Using QuickBooks

10/6/2020

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Click to set custom HTML

It’s probably one of your toughest challenges. How do you encourage customers to make payments faster?

 
Cash flow is a problem for so many businesses right now. Unless you sell products or services that are in high demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, you’re probably struggling to get payments from customers who are also cash-strapped. Adding a line to your invoices that says something like, “We appreciate your prompt payment” isn’t making a difference.
 
QuickBooks provides numerous ways for you to nudge customers who have let payments slide beyond their due dates. You don’t have to be heavy-handed about it (though you may have to be eventually on seriously delinquent accounts). Here are four ways you can speed up your receivables.
 

Assess finance charges on late payments.

 
You don’t want to make customers unhappy, but consumers and businesses are accustomed to having interest assessed on late or partial payments. QuickBooks can help you set up finance charges. Once you’re logged in as the Admin, open the Edit menu and select Preferences | Finance Charge | Company Preferences. You’ll see a window like this:
 
 
Setting up and assessing finance charges can be complicated. We suggest you consult with us if you want to take this route.
 
You might consider what you pay some of your other vendorswhen you’re deciding on variables like Annual Interest Rate (%) and Grace Period (Days). Keep in mind that in some jurisdictions, you can’t charge finance charges on existing finance charges, so you’ll need to know your local laws if you want to check that box. Then, tell QuickBooks how you want it to calculate the charges.
 
To see who owes finance charges and have them applied, click Customers | Assess Finance Charges. Select the Assessment Date and the customers who should be charged. If you click the box in front of Mark invoices: “To be printed,” QuickBooks will print a separate finance charge invoice in addition to the main invoice for each customer. Otherwise, the charges will just be included on their next statement.
Warning: Please let us work with you if you decide to add finance charges. We can help prevent mistakes that will most likely make your customers very unhappy.
 

Allow your customers to pay online.

 
This is actually our number one suggestion. You’re not penalizing your customers in any way. You’re simply providing them with an easier way for them to settle up their debts. It’s a courtesy to them, actually. They don’t have to dig for their checkbooks and stamps, address an envelope, and get their payment to the post office. QuickBooks adds information to your invoices telling customers exactly how to proceed.
 
The benefits to you are obvious: You’re more likely to get paid quicker, and you won’t have to deal with cashing checks and chasing down deposits. You’ll have to first sign up for QuickBooks Payments, which will allow you to accept credit card, debit card, and ACH bank transfer payments electronically. There are no monthly or setup fees, but you’ll of course pay transaction fees. The money should be in your bank account by the next business day, and QuickBooks takes care of all the background work, matching payments with invoices. We can help you get set up here.
 

Send statements.

 
You can always run an A/R Aging report to see who’s past due. But you’ll also learn which customers are in arrears if you create and send statements. Click Customers | Create Statements to produce comprehensive lists of your customers’ invoices and payments. You can define a date range and send statements to everyone (or a hand-selected group). You’d be more likely to send statements to everyone who is a specified number of days past due, as pictured below.
 
 
You can tell QuickBooks which customers should receive statements by completing the fields in this window.
 

Polish up your invoices and send them promptly.

 
You have more control over your sales forms’ content and layout than you might realize. Open the Lists menu and select Templates. Double-click on the invoice form you use the most, then click Manage Templates. Highlight the desired form and click Copy (it’s best not to alter your existing templates until you’ve practiced a bit). Give it a new Template Name if you want, then click OK. You can change colors and fonts in the window that opens. Click Additional Customization at the bottom of the window, and you’ll be able to add, edit, and delete fields and columns in your forms.
 
Send your invoices as soon as possible after you’ve completed the sale. You want customers to remember shortly after the fact that they need to pay you.
 
Poor cash flow is a perpetual problem for a lot of small businesses - and not just during a pandemic. If we can help you use QuickBooks’ tools to evaluate your current cash flow and forecast into the future, or if you need further explanations of anything we discussed here, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
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How to Track Employee Time, Part 2

9/8/2020

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If you have to track a lot of employee work hours, you might want to use QuickBooks' Timesheets.

 
Last month, we introduced the concept of time tracking in QuickBooks. Using the software's tools, you're able to record individual blocks of time that employees have worked, so that you are able to include them in payroll and billing customers when necessary. We went through the steps required to set up QuickBooks for time tracking and walked you through the process of creating individual time entries. A completed record for billable time should look something like this:
 
 
To enter an individual time record, you open the Employees menu and select Enter Time | Time/Enter Single Activity.
 

Using a Timesheet

 
QuickBooks offers another way to enter time records that's especially useful if you have multiple employees and a lot of work hours to track. Open the Employees menu and select Enter Time | Use Weekly Timesheet. You can also get there by clicking the down arrow next to the Enter Time icon on the home page. This screen resembles a paper timesheet, with columns for all of the information you would enter if you created a single activity.
 
At the top of the screen, click the down arrow next to Name and select the correct employee. To the right of that is the Week Of field. If you need to change the dates, click the small graphical calendar, then click anywhere in the correct week. If you have already created individual records for that employee during that week, the information for each will appear in the corresponding date column at the end of the row. And anything you enter on the Timesheet will also appear as an individual entry.
 
To create a new entry on the Timesheet, click the down arrow in the Customer column and select the correct Customer:Job. Next, choose the Service the employee provided by again clicking the down arrow in that field. You want to be sure that the Payroll Item code is the right one, so choose carefully there; the WC Code (Workers' Comp) should fill in automatically. Enter Notes if you'd like, then the number or hours the employee worked for that customer for that service in the date column. Be sure to click in the Billable box to create a checkmark if the service was billable.
 
 
Any data you enter on a QuickBooks Timesheet will also appear as a Single Activity, and vice versa.
 
Totals for each column appear at the bottom. Save the Timesheet and repeat the process for any other employees as needed. These hours will now be available to you when you run payroll and bill customers.
 

Time Reports and Invoicing

 
QuickBooks makes it easy for you to see the time data you've entered. It offers four pre-formatted reports that tally this information in different ways. Open the Reports menuand select Report Center. Locate Jobs, Time & Mileage in the left vertical pane and click on it. Scroll down to the Time heading to see these four reports. They are:
  • Time by Job Summary (tells you how much time your company spent on each job, broken down by services provided)
  • Time by Job Detail (shows you the same thing, but includes employee name and billing status)
  • Time by Name (lists employees and the hours they spent on each job)
  • Time by Item (tells you how much time your company has spent on each service type, broken down by job)
When you open a report, you can double-click on any number in the Duration column to see the underlying detail.
 
When you create an invoice for a customer who needs to be billed for services provided, QuickBooks displays this message:
 
 
To make this standard procedure, check the box in front of Save this as a preference.
 
QuickBooks offers another way to bill for time and expenses that allows you to create invoices in batches. Open the Customers menu and select Invoice for Time & Expenses. In the window that opens, specify your Date Range, and make sure the Template showing is the one you want.
 
Click in the column in front of each Customer:Job you want to bill and then click Next Step. You can Review Billables to see details and Edit Options by clicking on those buttons. Click on Create Invoices and make sure each customer's Preferred Send Method is correct in the next window before dispatching them.
 
QuickBooks' time tracking tools may be all your company needs. But if you find them lacking, talk to us about adding TSheets, an integrated solution that adds more advanced features. And let us know if we can help with your use of QuickBooks' own tools - or any other aspect of your accounting.
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How to Track Employee Time, Part 1

8/4/2020

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Whether you’re recording employee hours for payroll or customer billing, your entries must be accurate. QuickBooks can help.

 
It’s easy to track sales of goods in QuickBooks. You create an invoice or a sales receipt, select the product the customer wants along with the quantity, and save the transaction. QuickBooks reduces the corresponding inventory level and records the purchase in the correct account.
 
Accounting for services sold, however, is a bit more complicated. Whether you’re charging customers for consulting, labor, or any other task that gets billed by the hour, you have to both create records for that billable time and track the hours spent on it carefully. QuickBooks provides tools that simplify both chores.
 
You’ll use those same tools if you need to record the hours employees work for payroll purposes. QuickBooks allows you to track time in individual records and/or traditional timesheets. Here’s what you need to know.
 

Editing Preferences

 
Before you can start tracking time, you’ll need to make sure that QuickBooks is set up for that job. Open the Edit menu and select Preferences, then click on Time & Expenses.With the Company Preferences tab highlighted, click the button in front of Yes under Do you track time? if it’s not already filled in. Click the down arrow in the field next to First Day of Work Week to open the list and choose the correct day. If it’s appropriate, check the box in front of Mark all time entries as billable.Click OK.
 
 
 
QuickBooks needs some information from you before you can start tracking time.
 
While you’re still in the Preferences window, click on Sales & Customers, then My Preferences. When you create an invoice for a customer that has unbilled time, QuickBooks can open a window listing the billable services (Prompt for time/costs to add) or display a small box asking you whether you want to include those items (Ask what to do). Select your preference or Don’t add any, then click OK.
 

Individual Time Entries

 
Let’s look first at creating individual time entries. Click the arrow to the right of Enter Time on the home page (or Customers | Enter Time) and select Time/Enter Single Activity. In the window that opens, make sure the Date is set to the date the service was provided (if that is different from the current date that appears). Click the down arrow in the Name field and choose the correct employee, and in the next field, select the Customer:Job.
 
Warning: If this work was done for a specific job, be sure to click on the actual job, not the main customer entry.
 
 
The Time/Enter Single Activity window
 
Next, select the Service Item, the actual work that the employee did. Below that, you can either enter the Duration worked manually, or click Start to launch the automatic timer. If the work is Billable, be sure to check that box in the upper right. Add Notes if you’ d like.
 
The Payroll Item (pay type) and WC Code (workers’ compensation) fields will only appear if you have QuickBooks set up for payroll. If this is the case, and you don’t see those fields, minimize the Time/Enter Single Activity window by clicking in the small horizontal line in the upper right. Click Employees in the toolbar (or Employees | Employee Center) and double-click on the name of the employee. Click on the Payroll Info tab to the left. You’ll see a line toward the bottom that says Use time data to create paychecks. Check that box and click OK, then reopen the Time/Enter Single Activity window by clicking the double box icon in the lower left of the screen. The two fields should be there.
 
When you’ve completed all of the fields required, save the time entry.
 
Note: Are you still doing payroll manually? It’s much easier to track time and pay employees if you’re doing payroll through QuickBooks. But setup can be complex, and we would want to guide you through the process. Let us know if you’re interested.
 
Creating time entries isn’t difficult, but it can be time-consuming if you have a lot of employees being paid by the hour. So, next month, we’ll look at QuickBooks’ Timesheet feature. We’ll also show you how to get information about the time entries you’ve created and what to do if QuickBooks’ time-tracking isn’t robust enough to meet your needs. In the meantime, be sure to contact us if you need help with QuickBooks or your accounting in general.
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Communicate with Customers: QuickBooks and Microsoft Word

7/7/2020

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The pandemic has forced businesses to find new ways to connect with customers. QuickBooks has built-in tools that can help.

 
Businesses are starting to cautiously re-open in the U.S. (at least partially), but we’re still a long way from “normal.” Because of COVID-19, some companies have done very well. Most, though, have had to make changes to comply with health guidelines and keep their customers and employees as safe as possible. And many consumers and businesses are less willing to spend money until they know more about the country’s path to recovery.
 
If your business has had to shut down temporarily, or at least scale back operations, we hope you’ve found ways to stay in touch with your customers. Even if you’re struggling, it’s important to communicate with the people who have helped you build your company.
 
QuickBooks can support you in this effort. Its integration with Microsoft Word makes it possible to create and dispatch letters or emails to customers that can fit a variety of common situations. There are dozens of pre-written templates that you can personalize and send to one or 10 or hundreds of the consumers and companies with whom you’ve built a relationship. Here’s how it works.
 

Finding Your Message

 
To get started, open the Customers menu and select Customer Center. To explore what’s available, click the down arrow next to Word in the toolbar, then select Customize Letter Templates. This window will open:
 
 
Before you start preparing customer letters, you should see what’s available.
 
Click the button in front of View or Edit Existing Letter Templates, then click Next. You’ll see the letter templates that are available, divided into types. Spend some time clicking on each type to see what your options are.
 
Let’s say you want to send a letter to customers who haven’t been active for a while. Click the button in front of Customer and scroll down to Inactive customer. Select it and click Next. You’ll notice that Microsoft Word has opened and is displaying your letter template, which is now saved to your QuickBooks folder. If it’s in your taskbar tray, click to open it. Read through it and make any changes you want, then save to the current folder and close it. Click Use Template.
 
In the window that opens, you’ll select the recipients of your letter. Under Include names that are, you’ll click the button in front of Inactive.  You want to direct your correspondence to customers, not jobs, so click the button in front of Customer. Look at the list that QuickBooks has displayed and make sure all of the entries have a checkmark in front of them. If you want to remove any of them, click the checkmark to turn it off. Click Next.
 
 
You can select the customers who are to receive your correspondence on this screen.
 

Editing Your Letter

 
In the window that just opened, Inactive customer should be highlighted. Click Next. Enter the Name and Title that should appear in your letter’s signature. When you click Next again, a single Microsoft Word document will open containing all of your letters in one continuous document (each letter will start on a new page). You’ll be able to edit these letters without affecting the original template.
 
If you want to print envelopes, you’ll click Next. If you want to continue on to edit and send your letters, click Cancel. Your personalized letters should be in your Windows taskbar tray. Open the document and scan through it to see if you want to change anything.
 
 You can edit your customer letters individually.
 
In the example above, you might want to, for example, delete the customer’s first name so it just reads Dear Mr. Burch. Or, you might want to change the words “Have we disturbed” to something like “worried” in the second paragraph.
 
If you want to save these letters as edited, you can go ahead and do so. Otherwise, just print them as you would any Word document. Of course, you could copy and paste them into your email system and send them that way. But sending a signed, printed letter during these times provides a more personal touch.
 
You may have already developed the habit of communicating with your customers outside of exchanging sales forms and payments. If not, consider finding ways to interact occasionally with those individuals and companies that keep your business going. This is especially important right now, as we all wait to see how the recovery will continue to progress. Let us know if we can help in any way during this uncertain period.
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Make QuickBooks Yours: Customize the Desktop

6/9/2020

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Make QuickBooks work faster for you by changing a few settings.

 
Whether your business has been locked down because of the pandemic, or you’re scrambling to hold things together with fewer employees or diminishing sales, you’re probably leaning on QuickBooks more than ever. You may be watching dwindling inventory items closely or monitoring your daily cash flow or trying to collect on invoices that aren’t being paid because your customers are short on money.
 
QuickBooks can help with all these accounting tasks. But you certainly don’t want to waste time now just dealing with the software’s mechanics.
 
As always, we’re available to help as you deal with the toll that COVID-19 is taking on your company. We’d also like to suggest that you spend a little time customizing QuickBooks. Streamlining its operations will take some of the unnecessary frustration out of your work life.
 

Getting Around Quickly

 
QuickBooks tries to accommodate different work styles and preferences by providing multiple navigation methods. These are:
  • The old, standard Windows menus.
  • The home page’s icons.
  • The Icon Bar that appears in the left vertical pane by default (you change its position by opening the View menu).
 
If you’re going to use the Icon Bar, we recommend that you set it up to make your most often-used tools prominent. Right-click in the toolbar and click on Customize Shortcuts to open the Customize Icon Bar window. In the upper left corner, you’ll see a list of your icons as they’re currently arranged. You can rearrange them by grabbing the small diamonds to their left with your mouse and dragging them to their new positions. You can change their labels by clicking Edit, or Delete them.
 
 
 
You can add almost any window in QuickBooks to your fast-access Icon Bar.
 
You’re not limited to the items in the list. Click Add, and the Add Icon Bar Item opens, as pictured above. Click on any of the ones you want to include in the Icon Bar, then click OK.  QuickBooks allows you to add almost any screen to your Icon Bar. Navigate to the window you want to add, then open the View menu and select Add...to Icon Bar. If you never use the Icon Bar, you can collapse it by clicking the small arrow to the right of the Search box at the top of the pane. You can also close the home page by clicking the lower of the two small X’s in the upper right.
 

Tile Your Windows

 
If you regularly work with the same handful of screens, there’s a faster way to access them. Open them all, then open the Window menu and select Tile Vertically. All the windows will be displayed on the same screen, arranged vertically. If there are enough of them, they will overlap. To activate one, just click on it. You can open it to full screen by clicking the small rectangle in the upper right and return to your vertical arrangement by clicking the double rectangle in the upper right.
 
If you’d prefer, you can Tile Horizontally. Or, you can click Cascade to display them stacked on top of each other with only each window’s title label showing, as shown below. If you want to go back to a blank screen and start over, click Window | Close All. The Window menu also displays a list of open windows that can be used for navigation.
 
 
 
If you click Window | Cascade with multiple windows open, QuickBooks will stack them, with only the bottom screen showing. Click on a title label to open a different window.
 

The Desktop View

 
There are other ways you can make QuickBooks work the way you want it to. Open the Edit menu and select Preferences, then Desktop View. Click on the My Preferences tab if it’s not already highlighted. There are several preferences here. Look under the Desktop heading. You can have QuickBooks open to the configuration of windows you want. Your options are:
 
  • Save [the windows that are already open] when closing company.
  • Save current desktop (a specific set of windows).
  • Don’t save the desktop (always open to just the home page).
 
Click the Company Preferences tab to add or remove icons from the home page. This is also where you turn features on and off.
 

We’re Still Here

 
All these suggestions may seem minor to you. But they will save time. More important, they will give you a better sense of control over the hours you spend on accounting tasks. And with so many things out of our control right now, creating a software environment that is tailored to your workflow can benefit you.
 
We know that you may be struggling right now to maintain your financial health, as well as your physical health. More than ever, we hope you’ll contact us if you have a QuickBooks or general accounting problem that we could solve. We’ll be happy to do what we can to help you through during this very challenging period.
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Using QuickBooks' Reminders and Calendar

5/5/2020

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Now, more than ever, you need QuickBooks to track what needs to be done.

 
COVID-19 has transformed the entire U.S. small business landscape in just a few short months. Companies are struggling to stay afloat. We all just want to get back to “normal,” but it’s unclear when that will happen.
 
We’d like to help you as much as possible during these uncertain times. One of the ways we can do that is by supporting you as you keep a close watch on your income and expenses. QuickBooks is our go-to tool for that purpose, and we hope you’re making the best possible use of the software right now.
 
There are steps you can take to ensure that QuickBooks is working quickly and well for you, and that you’re attending to the work you must do every day. The software’s Reminders and Calendar can help you stay current with your accounting.
 

Setting Up Reminders

 
You don’t want to let anything slip through the cracks right now. It’s nearly impossible to keep up with your QuickBooks tasks without using the software’s Reminders feature. Before you start using this, you’ll have to set up its structure. Open the Edit menu and select Preferences | Reminders. This window will open:
 
You can tell QuickBooks which situations should trigger Reminders.
 
This window should open to the My Preferences screen. Click the box in front of Show Reminders List when opening a Company file to create a checkmark. Then click Company Preferences. You’ll see a list of QuickBooks “events,” like Checks to Print. You can tell QuickBooks how many days in advance you’d like to be warned about this pending activity by entering a number in the box in front of days before check date. You can also request that this appear in either Summary or List form. If you don’t want to be notified about any of them, click the button below Don’t Remind Me.  When you’re done here, click OK.
 
The next time you open QuickBooks, your reminders will appear in a window on top of your home page. When you double-click on one, the transaction or other item will open. Two icons in the upper right of the Reminders screen open your Preferences and a blank To Do form. Here, you can schedule a call, task, appointment, etc. and associate it with a customer, vendor, or employee if desired. This item will then appear in your Reminders list.
 
The Reminders window appears when you open the related Company file; you can add To Do’s manually.
 

A Graphical View

 
QuickBooks’ Reminders are not the only way you can ensure that you’re meeting your accounting obligations. You can use the Calendar to see what you’ve scheduled and accomplished every day.
 
As you did with Reminders, though, you should visit this tool’s Preferences page (Edit | Preferences | Calendar). Here, you’ll only need to work with the options under the My Preferences tab. You can choose from among a Daily, Weekly, or Monthly view, or just have QuickBooks Remember last view. Your calendar can display your choice of a Weekly view:a Fixed view of 5 or 7 days or a Variable view of 5/7 days. And, you can show All Transactions, To Do, Transactions Due, or choose one type of transaction (Invoice, Sales Receipt, Bill, etc.).
 
 
How would you like your Calendar displayed? QuickBooks lets you choose from among options.
 
You can also define Upcoming and Past Due Settings. You can Hide or Show these, Show only if data exists, or remember the last settings. QuickBooks allows you to choose the number of days’ worth of data that will be displayed for both Upcoming data and Past due data.
 
You can open the Calendar itself from the Company menu and by clicking a link in the Toolbar or on the Home Page. You’ll see a graphical calendar in the View you selected. Every day where there’s been-or is scheduled to be-activity will say either Due or Entered, with the corresponding number of transactions in parentheses. Below that is a list of Transactions Entered; you can double-click on any of them to see the actual transaction form.
A list of upcoming and past due transactions appears in the right vertical pane. Fields and buttons at the top of the screen allow you to change the View and limit the list to a specified type of transaction. You can also add To Do’s from this page.
 
We hope these tools are helpful for you as you navigate through today’s choppy financial waters. Please do let us know if we can assist you in managing your company’s critical accounting tasks. We want you to keep your business going as best you can until we get to the other side of the ongoing crisis.
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    Author

    Julie L. Davis, CPA is the founder and owner of JD and Company in Yorba Linda, CA.  The company specializes in both for-profit and non-profit organizations, providing accounting, bookkeeping services, and tax preparation for small businesses. 

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