Quickbooks Accounting Software:
QuickBooks is a small business accounting software program businesses use to manage sales and expenses and keep track of daily transactions. You can use it to invoice customers, pay bills, generate reports for planning, tax filing, and more. The QuickBooks product line includes several solutions that work great for anyone from a solo-preneur to a mid-sized business.
HOW BUSINESSES USE THE ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE:
- Manage Sales and Income
You can manage sales and income in QuickBooks by creating invoices to track sales by customer. Stay on top of what customers owe you (also known as your accounts receivable balance) by reviewing your Accounts Receivable Aging Report, which includes the details of both current and past due invoices. Below is a sample A/R Aging Report from QuickBooks.
2. Keep Track of Bills and Expenses
QuickBooks automatically keeps track of your bills and expenses by connecting your bank and credit card accounts to QuickBooks so all of your expenses are downloaded and categorized. If you need to track a check or cash transaction, you can record it directly in QuickBooks in just a few minutes.
QuickBooks will also help you pay your bills when they’re due. For example, you can ensure that you pay your bills on time by creating an Accounts Payable Report in under two minutes. This report will provide you with the details of your current and past due bills so that you can be sure to quickly address any issues. Below is a sample A/P Aging Report from QuickBooks.
3. Gain Key Reporting Insights to Your Business
By managing all of your cash inflow and outflow activities in QuickBooks, you are able to access several reports that provide valuable insights into your business. All of the reports are pre-built in QuickBooks and can be run in just a few clicks; reports are updated in real-time as you enter and save transactions.
This can be beneficial if you need to provide financials to a potential investor or to your lender for a small business loan or line of credit. In addition to the Accounts Receivable Report and the Accounts Payable Report that we discussed previously, you can run the top three reports that you need in order to assess the overall health of your business:
- Profit and Loss Report
- Balance Sheet Report
- Statement of Cash Flows
Below, you will find a brief description of each of these reports along with a snapshot of what it looks like in QuickBooks.
Balance Sheet Report
The balance sheet report shows the Assets, Liabilities, and Equity for a business at a particular point in time. In just a few clicks, you can create a balance sheet report in QuickBooks. Below is a snapshot of a Balance Sheet report as of September 29, 2016, for a fictitious company
Statement of Cash Flows
You can quickly create a statement of cash flows in QuickBooks. This report will show you all of the activities that affect the operating, investing, and financing cash inflow and cash outflow for your business. Below is a snapshot of the statement of cash flows for the period January – September, 2016 for a fictitious company
4. Track Inventory
If you need to keep track of the inventory you sell, such as on-hand amounts and unit costs, QuickBooks will automatically track and update this for you as you enter transactions. In QuickBooks, there are several reports available to manage inventory.
While keeping track of inventory is doable in an Excel spreadsheet, it can be very time-consuming. Below is a sample Inventory Valuation Summary Report from QuickBooks. This report shows a list of your inventory products, quantity on-hand, average cost, and their total value
Profit and Loss Report
The profit and loss report can be run in just a couple of minutes. It will show you how profitable you are by summarizing your income minus your expenses. It shows you your bottom line net income (loss) for a specific time period, such as a week, a month, or a quarter. Below is a Profit and Loss Report for the period of January 1 – September 29, 2016, for a fictitious company:
5. Simplify Taxes
If you’re still not convinced that you can simplify your taxes by using QuickBooks, just think about how much you dread tax season. Whether you have to consolidate several Excel spreadsheets or organize a shoe box full of receipts, it can take you longer to get your tax professional what they need than it takes to prepare your tax return!
Small Business can use QuickBooks Online to manage all of their business accounting and taxes. All you need to do is to set up a tax professional with a user id and password to access QuickBooks data and pull the information they need to file tax returns. Since everything is tracked in QuickBooks, You won’t spend a lot of time organizing receipts and bank statements. This not only ensures that you have accounted for all income and expenses, but also improves accuracy as a result.
6. Accept Online Payments
One of the best ways to improve your cash flow is to offer customers the option to pay their invoices online. With QuickBooks, you can add the Intuit Payments feature with a simple click of a button.
Once activated, all customer invoices that you send via email will include a “Pay Now” button. Your customer can click on that button and pay their invoice using any major credit card or by entering their bank account information to authorize an ACH payment directly from their bank account.
7. Scan Receipts
Another key to making tax time a breeze is being able to organize your receipts in QuickBooks. All QBO subscribers can download the QuickBooks App to their mobile device for free, take a picture of a receipt, and upload it to QBO in just a few minutes.
No more lost receipts or manually matching up receipts with downloaded banking transactions. QuickBooks allows you to attach a receipt to the corresponding banking transaction! You can upload an unlimited number of receipts to QBO to store in the cloud along with your data. This can be really helpful for companies who track a lot of expenses, like lawyers and law firms.