5 Time Saving QuickBooks Tools You Need To Know-

Okay, we’re going to try and keep this one brief. After all, the point of this blog post is to save you time and the clock is ticking. Here are five easy-to-use QuickBooks tools to help you turn your hours into minutes when it comes to the time you spend in the accounting software-

1. Bank Feeds- Eliminate missed or duplicated transactions connecting your bank and credit card accounts directly to your QuickBooks software. You can match expenses you’ve entered on your chart of account with the bank feed to streamline your monthly reconciliation process and ensure you haven’t missed anything. (Finances are one area where surprises are rarely welcomed.) On the flip side, not that we recommend it, but we know many companies don’t regularly input their day-to-day expenses. In that case, you can also use the bank feed to directly allocate transactions as they appear on the feed without manually entering your expenses like you would with traditional bookkeeping. However, you miss out on the due diligence the feature was originally designed for, so consider this our official disclaimer for this secondary approach.

2. Rules- Have a repetitive expense? There’s a rule for that. A rule can be created within QuickBooks for just about anything. When using the rule tool, you tell the software how you want certain expenses or deposits coded and where to place them. For example, you can set a rule to recognize your utility provider and have all withdraws from the company that appear on your bank feed to be filed under utilities and marked as an expense. QuickBooks will auto populate your expenses and place your spending within the correct line item automatically. After you’ve set up your rules, you’ll be amazed at how much work has already been done for you the next time you log in to allocate your expenses. Chances are that the software has already done the bulk of the work for you. Looks like you have time for that coffee run after all!

3. Sales Tax- Never overlook your sales tax again by taking advantage of QuickBooks Sales Tax tool. First, you need to set up your invoicing within the software by entering all your products and services in the product and services section. Moving forward your invoices will be streamlined and have the appropriate sales tax applied to each service or product before the invoice is sent out to clients for payment. Then, the QuickBooks Sales Tax Tool can be set up with the sales tax agency you file with, and you can tell it what your frequency to file is. Every month, quarter, or year in which you need to pay sales taxes, QuickBooks will remind you to avoid any penalties or fees. At the time your taxes are due, just go into the sales tax feature and download a report showing how much sales tax you owe. Then, go into the tax agency’s website to file and pay. Finally, go back to QuickBooks to record your payment. Done!

4. Transfers- If you are moving money from a savings to a checking account, you should be filing it as a transfer instead of an expense. The same goes for paying a credit card bill. It is not an expense. Why double your work by documenting a withdraw and a deposit? When you use the transfer tool, the transaction will show on both accounts as a “transfer” and save you the extra steps. At SMART, we commonly see this error during account clean ups for our clients. People frequently get withdraw/deposit backwards which makes the bookkeeping incorrect. Using the transfer tool eliminates the chance for error.

5. Payroll- Do you run your own payroll? QuickBooks Payroll feature can streamline this time-consuming task. All you’ll need to do on payday is review, edit and approve all hours and wages worked, and you’re done! You can also select an “automate pay schedule” feature to have payroll done automatically, so you can sit back and relax. However, we only advise people to use this automated feature if all their employees are salaried or their hourly employees work a set schedule. Also, if you’re running payroll through the software, you want to make sure that you have a subscription for full tax service. Full tax service means that the QuickBooks team will automatically file and pay your payroll tax for you. Common mistakes we find is that people forget to make a payment and forget to file. This means you’re now getting nasty letters from the IRS. Additionally, the IRS is not an agency that is current. So, if they are sending you a letter, it’s likely they are charging you interest for a year or three years or more. Yikes. Avoid this headache and opt in for QuickBooks full tax service.

Once you get these five tools up and running, you’ll have hours back to your work week and more time to do what you love. However, if all this still seems like more than you want to do, let us do the work for you. We have a team of accountants, tax and business strategy experts ready to help your business profit. Whether you just need tax services, bookkeeping or full financial management, we’ve got you covered. Give us a call and we’ll work together to find a solution custom-tailored to your company’s needs.