Rebecca

I absolutely love online business! But, I also love all the benefits I enjoy from my job as a Business Manager of a University Foundation. Over the past 6 months, I’ve realized I can’t give 100% to my job, my family, my health, and my business. Something had to be changed. I’m not closing the door forever, but for now I need to focus and remain healthy.

Thanks so much for reading my blogs, commenting on my posts, asking questions, and helping me build my online community. I really learned a lot from everyone who has participated here. I hope I’ve helped all of you with your businesses. And, I think my decision may inspire someone else to make those tough decisions that need to be made.

There are many other great QuickBooks Proadvisors and CPA’s available who can help you with your QuickBooks and business questions. Here is a link to the Find a Proadvisor site:

Hope your business remains strong and healthy in 2012!

This seems like a morbid topic, but it’s important. Businesses and children are at the top of my list of things that need information passed along so things get taken care of according to my wishes.

If you are a solopreneur like I am, here is a list of important information to put together for someone just in case you suddenly were unable to run your business anymore:

1. A list of payments that come automatically out of your checking account or credit card account.
2. The name, website, email, and address of vendors who need to be contacted.
3. The name, website, email, and address of customers that you are currently working with.
4. The nature of any important business contracts
5. A list of all bank names, account numbers and addresses. (don’t forget your paypal accounts and other merchant accounts)
6. If you have a PO Box, where is the key, and what is the number?
7. If your business has a safety deposit box or lockbox, give pertinent information.
8. A list of loans/credit cards that are still due and outstanding. Terms and payment information.
9. A list of important people who are working with you in your business. (business coach, webmaster, virtual assistant, etc.)
10. A list of websites and passwords that are important to your business.
Examples: email accounts, website access, twitter, facebook, fan pages, linked in, youtube, etc.
11. Instructions on where to start. Maybe a checklist for what to do first, second, etc. to tie up all the loose ends.
12. A list of important professionals you use. Accountant, attorney, insurance agent, etc. These people will be very invaluable to get all the proper tax returns taken care of and other loose ends tied up.

I have started doing this for my business. In the long run, I will get it all down in a manual.

If you’ve done this for your business, please share how you’ve organized the information. Did you find a useful website, app, or template?

Once I had at least a part of this list done, I felt much better leaving on vacation. Bon Voyage!

If you use the email functionality within QuickBooks to email invoices to your customers, this video will help explain how to find out when the invoice was actually emailed.

For an accounting geek like me, finding out what’s new in the latest version of QuickBooks is really fun!

Today  want to give you a peek inside QuickBooks 2012.   Here I’ll show you the top 3 changes I think are exciting for the average QuickBooks user. (I may touch on the accounting professional changes in a separate post)

Here are the 3 changes I’ll talk about today:

1. Calendar
2. Free document attachment
3. Leads Center

QuickBooks Calendar

Now you can see in one place your to-do’s, bills to pay, invoices to mail, etc. all in one place.

On the coolness scale, I put this at a 9 for sure!

QuickBooks Document Attachment

In the last version of QuickBooks, you could sign up for the document attachment service.  Starting in 2012, it’s free to attach documents to your lists inside QuickBooks.  What would you need this for?

You could attach client contracts to their QuickBooks client file.  Here are some other ideas:

1.  Attach a memo or email you sent to a client file

2.  Attach a W-9 to a vendor file

3.  Attach employee documents to the employee file

QuickBooks Lead Center

Now you don’t need to keep a separate leads sheet or customer contact management system to track your leads!

QuickBooks 2012 has a new center that is formatted similarly to the customer center that allows you to track leads and turn them into customers within QuickBooks with just one click.

You can enjoy their QuickBooks Radio Program every Wednesday night from 7:30-9:00 pm EST. Checkout their website here: http://www.radiofreequickbooks.com.

Today I want to remind you of the best reasons to consider QuickBooks for your bookkeeping needs:

1.  I’ve heard anywhere between 85%  and 95% of small businesses use QuickBooks. It’s hard to argue the effectiveness of Quickbooks with such a large population using it.
2. There are about 15,000 QuickBooks Proadvisors all around the United States (and in some other countries too) who are available to help you setup your QuickBooks file properly and train you how to use it.
3. Intuit has been supporting QuickBooks since the early 1990′s.  This company is a stable company and will be around for a long time in the future. Not so with those computer software packages that are “developed by Joe”. Hmmmm….wonder how long that product will be supported?
4. QuickBooks is a great “non-accountant” software. Intuit uses words that anyone can understand, and you don’t have to understand a high level of accounting to use it.
5. Since QuickBooks is so popular, developers have created many add-on products to address specific needs of different businesses. You can see these at http://marketplace.intuit.com/find-software.aspx.

Fellow QuickBooks users and Proadvisors, if you can think of anything to add to this list, please comment below! 

What’s your favorite reason you use QuickBooks?

To fix the sales tax amount due, there are 3 steps:

1. Sales tax adjustment screen
2. Pay sales tax item
3. Apply a discount to the customer using the receive payments screen

Watch the 6 minute video below to get the total details:

Year End Issues

There.  I’ve said it.  I’m dealing with some frustrating year end issues myself in my new position.  (year end is June 30 for this organization)  The previous business manager left all of the trust and investment reconciliations to be done at the end of the year.  These trusts are worth multi-millions of dollars.  That means that these ARE NOT simple reconciliations!  I’ve spent at least 20 hours already, and hope I don’t have to spend another 20….

In that light, here are a few areas you need to checkout in your QuickBooks file during the middle of the year.  It’s the time when you’re halfway to tax time.  Let’s save a few headaches and lots of time and money by resolving any problems you have right now when there’s not a lot of pressure.

Review these areas:

1. Reconcile all of the bank accounts up to date.
2. Review your undeposited funds account.  The balance of that account should equal the cash and checks that are sitting in your drawer waiting to go to the bank.

More on undeposited funds.

3. What do your customers owe?  Print out an Accounts Receivable listing to make sure that all payments have been applied to invoices.  The actual total of your Accounts Receivable account should equal what you still expect to be paid.
4. Print out an inventory listing.  Does it look reasonable?  Inventory messes at the end of the year are NO fun! (yes, I’ve been there, done that, for clients….)  Make sure that inventory is being purchased properly into your inventory account.  Sometimes your inventory items on your items list are setup incorrectly.
5. What do you owe your vendors?  Print out an Accounts Payable listing.  The total in the accounts payable account should equal what you actually owe on bills to vendors.  Sometimes checks get written without using the “pay bills” function.
6. Credit Cards.  Is the amount showing in the credit card LIABILITY account, what you actually owe right now?  This account needs to be reconciled just like a bank account on a monthly basis.
7. Are you using QuickBooks for payroll?  Checkout the payroll liabilities section.  If it’s negative, there’s an issue.  You should be able to tell if it’s reasonable by looking at which taxes are coming up soon.

Problems with waiting…

Here’s a few things you’ll experience at year end:

1. Pressure.  There’s a lot of things that have to happen to get your financial statements right for your tax return.  Year end is really busy already.
2. Memory loss.  Who remembers what happened in January or February when you’re closing your books at year end?  Look at the first half of the year now so you can fix and adjust things while you still remember what happened.
3. Time and Budget issues.  If you have to pay an accountant or bookkeeper to figure out how to fix the errors, pay for them mid year instead of at the end of the year.  They are busier at year end, and your time and dollar cost will likely be higher.

Take some action…

Here’s an action step to take right now.  Schedule time in one hour sessions (unless you’re like me and can handle getting into numbers for more than an hour at a time) within the next two weeks.  This process may take you one hour or it may take you 6 hours or more…it depends on your company file.  Make sure the time you scheduled is uninterrupted time.  I find that early in the morning is best for problem solving.

You may be surprised at what you find during this review.  Use your findings to make your processes in your business better.  You’ll be thankful you did this when January rolls around!

Today, it’s official! Below is a press release announcing my involvement with the Intuit Writers and Trainers Network.

INUIT PRESS RELEASE

Social Media Services for Accountants

Part of my “new” path with the Intuit Trainers and Writers Network is to write courses and speak on the topic of social media.  I will also offer training and maintenance services for a limited number of clients.  I have already had 3 phone conversations with potential clients this week!

Social Media is such a huge part of business in today’s world.  I have found that the accounting profession is late in jumping on this bandwagon.  My goal is to help the accounting industry learn about the need for social media and the basic tools to get started.

Your Social Media Plan

In my experience, a solid social media plan will include:

1. a blog
2. website
3. twitter account
4. facebook fan page
5. linkedin profile
6. youtube channel

If you aren’t on any of these yet, you need to start with baby steps.  It can be overwhelming learning a bunch of new things all at once!

If you’re in the accounting industry, I’m offering a service to help you get set up on two social media networks.  From there, I’ll train you how to use your social media to achieve a specific desired outcome.  And, if you’re not interested in doing it yourself, my team and I are here to help!

Watch for my announcement when my new site goes live!

I’m looking for feedback here.  What have you found to be the best outcome from your social media use?