Helpful QuickBooks Tips for Businesses  

The idea of using business accounting software is to make keeping up with your finances easier and more dependable. QuickBooks, one of the most well known versions, is quite easy to use. And with a few tricks, you can make it easier. Here are some tips to speed up and streamline your interaction with QuickBooks.

Use Keyboard Shortcuts

Similar to other Window-based applications, there are several keyboard shortcuts you can use with QuickBooks. When you need to get to an invoice or statement quickly, you want to get there as fast as you can. Here are some tips below:

• To start an invoice, hit Ctrl + I
• To edit a selected transaction in register, hit Ctrl + E
• To find a transaction, hit Ctrl + F
• To open the customer center, hit Ctrl + J
• To memorize transaction, hit Ctrl + M
• To open a memorized transaction list, hit Ctrl + T
• To write a new check, hit Ctrl + W

Modify the Icon Bar

QuickBooks provides an icon bar at the top of the screen. However, you can change or modify the icon bar to better suit your needs. The best part is that it isn’t hard to do.

To Remove an Icon: Go to the view menu and click on the customize icon bar. Pick the icon you want to remove and delete it.

To Add an Icon: Go to the view menu, click on the customize icon bar, and click on add. Pick the desired item from the list. If you want to change the label and description, do so. Click ok.

To Modify an Icon: Go to the view menu, click on the customize icon bar, and pick the item you want to modify. Click edit and make the changes. Click ok.

Use the QuickBooks Calculator

If you liked the old-fashion calculator with the tape, you will find this one much more fun to use. It works just the same. For example, to get the tape going, you just have to click the equal (=) sign.

Use the Program Preferences

QuickBooks has a setup wizard that assists you with laying the accounting groundwork for your company. Even though it is not lengthy, it isn’t all-inclusive. Some of the issues and questions that QuickBooks features can help you with are:

• Setting Up Your Company’s Annual Interest Rate
• Setting Up Your Company’s Use of Multiple Currencies
• Setting Up Your Company’s Sales Tax
• Setting Up Your Company’s Payroll
• Setting Up Your Company’s Price Estimates
• Setting Up Your Company’s Use of Purchase Orders
• Setting Up Your Company’s Inventory
• Setting Up Your Company’s Time Tracking

Use the Right Click Menus

QuickBooks extensively utilizes right click menus. Instead of going to the toolbar icons and menus, you can get to where you need to be by right clicking anywhere in the program. For instance, if you are in the chart of accounts, you can edit an account, transfer funds, or customize the columns by just using the right click feature.

Use the Chart of Accounts

When you go through the setup wizard, it will ask you what type of business you have and assign a chart of accounts that it thinks will best suit your needs. The good thing is that you can customize it so that you have what you need to keep the financials of your company. However, you need to make sure that you choose the right account type to keep your bookkeeping accurate.

Use Classes to Track Profit and Loss

When you are using preferences, you need to make sure that the feature “classes” is turned on. The feature “classes” allows you to categorize elements of your business. For example, when you put in a transaction, you can create your own class such as marketing or advertising. This makes running your profit and loss report more efficient and accurate.

Change Your QuickBooks Reports to Excel Reports

Although QuickBooks reports are quite customized, they don’t have the level of ingenuity as Excel reports. In QuickBooks, you can’t manipulate or format data as you can in Excel. Good for you, you can export QuickBooks reports to Excel.

Create Unique Custom Roles for Each User

To protect yourself and your business against fraud and theft, QuickBooks allows you to create a unique log in for every user. Moreover, it lets you see what each user has done within any file. There are 14 pre-defined roles that you can choose from, or you can create your own. Keeping your QuickBooks files safe is imperative, and creating roles is a great way to do just that.

Use the Permission and Security Options

QuickBooks understands that many businesses want to control what their staff can and can’t view in their accounting files. With QuickBooks Enterprises, the security settings offer no access, partial access, or full access. Furthermore, with the partial access, you can delete or modify balances. This works great if you want to put restricted access to specific bank accounts.

Use Free Assistance

If you have questions, QuickBooks has plenty of free online assistance. You can see if your question or issue has been answered by someone in the community forum. There is also the QuickBooks program-based help, which is very comprehensive. Last, but not least, is the QuickBooks Knowledge Base you can search for answers to your questions. It is important to note that QuickBooks charges for phone support if your problem involves more than just installation or certain bugs and errors.

Use the Backup Data to the Cloud

You can back up your data to a removable storage device. If you would prefer that Intuit, the company that owns QuickBooks, manages your backing up your data, QuickBooks Online Backup Service is an option. Nonetheless, it is not free. Even though it will cost you, you can retrieve your files from any computer with an internet connection.

The goal of QuickBooks is for you and your business to get as much as you can out of the product. Additionally, Intuit wants you to be able to be more productive with its QuickBooks software. Hopefully, these tips will save you time, money, and space and keep the finances of your business correct.

Tags: quickbooks tips

Category: Business