It’s a Labor Day pun, get it?
I know, not all bookkeepers can be as humorous as me, but I digress.
QuickBooks Online can really be a task sometimes, with so many tools, reports, and possibilities, it gets confusing. On the other hand, it’s one of the most powerful bookkeeping tools available. Used in the right way, it can bring lasting change to your business, along with an increase in profit and a decrease in costs.
Here’s 4 ways to lessen the amount of labor in your day (no more puns, I promise).
#1 – Bank Feeds
If you’re not using Bank Feeds, you’re not living life to the fullest (in Quickbooks.) Bank Feeds automatically connect your checking, savings, or credit cards to QuickBooks. Don’t worry, QuickBooks doesn’t have any ability to touch, alter, or move your money, it only shows a current update of what’s happening inside of your account. With this first tip you’ll no longer need to do the irksome and tiring task of uploading your bank statements. It’s all connected automatically, saving you time and giving you a constant stream of information of what’s going on inside of your bank account.
#2 – Reports
QuickBooks has more reports than 99% of humans would ever want (It actually has over 70!). Which reports are actually helpful to you? You could make a case for needing each of the reports at some point, but most of them are going to sit in QuickBooks collecting dust (virtual dust?) for the life of your business. Three reports that you definitely need in your life are the Balance Sheet, the Profit & Loss (sometimes called income statement), and the Statement of Cash Flows.
Most business owners only look the Profit & Loss because it shows how much money they’ve made. Take a monthly look at these reports on your own or with your bookkeeper and you will have an outstanding idea of the financial health of your business. I especially like the Statement of Cash Flows, it’s the “dark horse” of reports. Many people don’t use it but it’s your best tool to see how cash is actually moving in and out of your business and thereby showing you how healthy your business actually is.
#3 – Bank rules
Do you enjoy manually reconciling each transactions every month? I didn’t think so. Even people who actually enjoy bookkeeping (me) don’t enjoy manually doing this every month. That’s why bank rules rock. Tell QuickBooks that “Speedway” is always going to be for gas and it’ll remember forever. In the future, all you have to do is click “add” on the transaction and you have one less transaction to worry about. Make a few bank rules each month and soon QuickBooks will be automatically guessing (correctly) where all of your transactions should go.
#4 – App
Receipts are probably the most overwhelming part of bookkeeping if not handled properly. They’re like the fruit fly of the finance world. You know they have a purpose, but you’re not quite sure why they have to be around and what that purpose is. Receipts are important because if your business is ever audited, the IRS is going to want proof that what you’re recording on your taxes and on QuickBooks is true. Receipts are the physical proof! The unfortunate part is that you have to hang on to those buggers and store them somewhere.
Well, no more! When you add a new expense in the (free) QuickBooks app, click on the camera icon, snap a picture of your receipt and get rid of that receipt/annoyance. You can also go back and add receipts to transactions that have already been entered. QuickBooks stores all of your receipts online on the cloud and you don’t have to worry about storing or losing them ever again. As long as you snap a few photos a day, this will feel like no work at all and it’ll save you (and your bookkeeper & accountant) a lot of time during tax time and in case of an audit.
Now that you have these 4 tips, this Labor Day you can spend more time grilling that perfect burger and less time laboring over QuickBooks.
Do you have any Quickbooks tips/tricks you love that aren’t included here? I’d love to hear about them in the comments section!