What is QuickBooks and How to Use it as a Small Company Owner?

If you own a small company and need a way to keep tabs on your money, your best bet is QuickBooks. Customers may be billed, expenses paid, reports generated, and taxes prepared. QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Payroll, and QuickBooks Time are just a few of the products in the QuickBooks product range that may be customized to meet the specific requirements of every organization.

Even though QuickBooks has several different accounting software solutions, we advise every startup to use QuickBooks Online.

Here's How You Can Use QuickBooks as a Small Company Owner

1. Invoicing: Drafting, Sending, and Monitoring

Invoices may be made quickly and sent through email or printed and delivered to clients. Using QuickBooks, you can automatically record revenue and keep tabs on how much debt each client has incurred. Accounts receivable (A/R) aging reports show both the total number of invoices that have not been paid and the average number of days that each one is past late.

Making an invoice is as simple as starting from scratch or using a current estimate as a basis for your new invoice. Then, you may make an invoice that's unique to your business by modifying the font, color, and logo.

2. Make a Payment Online

The online bill payment function in QuickBooks allows you to do just that. Online bill payment services like QuickBooks's Bill Pay may save small companies time and money in several ways. These include the flexibility to pay several invoices in one transaction, as well as the convenience of paying from any bank account or by check.

You may use your credit/debit card to pay for anything from any store to any merchant. Bill payment is a breeze using QuickBooks Online Bill Pay, which works with the basic, plus, and pro versions of QuickBooks.

Start by entering your bank account details, preferred payment method, and the preferred payment method of the merchant you're paying for the first time.

The next time you make a purchase, QuickBooks Online will utilize this information to process it without you having to manually enter it. Your paid invoices will be removed from the list of overdue bills in QuickBooks Online.

It's important to remember that you can't just click the Add New button and then pick Pay bills online to pay your invoices online; you must first input them into QuickBooks Online.

3. Monitor Worker Time and Expenses

Manual timesheets submitted by employees or subcontractors may either be entered by the employee or subcontractor themselves throughout the workday or by a bookkeeper at the end of the week. Time worked on a client's behalf and subsequently allocated will appear on the next invoice for that customer.

In addition, each cost recorded may be made chargeable by selecting the appropriate client from the drop-down menu. These costs may be included in the next invoice sent to the client. Timesheets may be used for invoicing reasons without the payroll add-on.

4. Track Project Profitability

With QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced, you can create and manage projects, allocate revenue and wages to a project, and monitor costs for both labor and materials. You may create project estimates in QuickBooks Online and include them in inventory, labor, and sales taxes.

Despite the absence of a feature to compare actual and expected expenditures, QuickBooks Online does provide a way to keep tabs on project profitability with a summary report.

5. Manage Payroll

You shouldn't attempt to save money by handling payroll on your own. Payroll errors may lead to fines and dissatisfied workers. Payroll may be automatically calculated and processed as frequently as you want using QuickBooks' built-in payroll feature.

Entering employee time in the manner described above results in the hours being sent not only to the invoicing section but also to the payroll section. With this system in place, you can be certain that every hour your employee is paid for is also being evaluated for billing to a client.

The nicest part about utilizing QuickBooks Payroll is that it syncs up with your QuickBooks data so that your financial statements are always accurate as of the most recent payroll cycle. The ability to process payroll requires a paid membership to QuickBooks Payroll, however, there are many plans available to meet varying demands.

6. Reduce Tax Complicacy

Simplifying tax preparation may be the single most significant thing QuickBooks can do for your small company. Collecting your earnings and expenditures is the most time-consuming and frustrating part of doing your taxes. If you've been keeping your books using QuickBooks all year, you may save the stress of gathering receipts and other paperwork come tax time.

Moreover, using QuickBooks Online, you can provide direct access to your tax preparer so they can analyze your financials and print any documents they need to complete your tax return.

7. Scan Receipts

Having your receipts neatly organized in QuickBooks is another important step toward a stress-free tax season. In just a few short minutes, any subscriber to QuickBooks Online may download the QuickBooks app to their mobile device, snap a photo of their receipt, and then submit it to QuickBooks Online.

In QuickBooks, you may link a paper receipt to its equivalent electronic bank transfer. Since all of your data and receipts are saved in the cloud, there is no limit to the number of receipts you may submit to QuickBooks Online.

8. Get Your Company's Financial Statements Printed

Using QuickBooks to track all of your company's cash transactions will allow you to easily generate meaningful financial statements regarding how well your firm is doing. When applying for a small company loan or line of credit, you may be asked to provide financial statements to the lender.

Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Statement are the three main financial statements that may be generated in QuickBooks.

9. Track Inventory

With QuickBooks, you can monitor stock levels and costs. Cost of goods sold (COGS) is an expenditure account that decreases revenue and is automatically created in QuickBooks when inventory is sold. This allocation is necessary for determining taxable income, but it is a tedious task to do manually. When stock becomes low, QuickBooks might send you a notification to place an order.

10. Keep Bills and Expenses Organized

QuickBooks automatically tracks your invoices and spending by linking your bank and credit card accounts to QuickBooks, which downloads and categorizes all of your expenses. If you need to manually track a check or cash transaction, you may do it in QuickBooks in a matter of minutes.

You may also enter bills into QuickBooks as they arrive so that QuickBooks can help you keep track of impending payments. Create an accounts payable (A/P) report to guarantee that you pay your invoices on time. This report will provide you with information about your current and past-due invoices. QuickBooks Basics and higher subscriptions provide the option to pay payments and track delinquent debts.

11. With a Chart of Accounts, Personalize Your Expense Classifications

With QuickBooks, the Chart of Accounts contains a comprehensive list of all the accounts you'll need to manage your financial data. These accounts can be used to monitor income, expenses, assets, obligations, and equity that may be required on your tax return.

If your Chart of Accounts includes all of the line items necessary on your tax return, it will make tax preparation easier. Provide enough data in your Chart of Accounts to supply whatever information may assist you in better managing your firm in addition to those line items.

12. Accept Payments Online

Offering consumers the opportunity to pay their bills online is one of the finest methods to boost your cash flow. QuickBooks Payments (previously known as Intuit Merchant Services) may be added so that consumers can pay online immediately from their emailed invoice. QuickBooks Payments works in the same way as other merchant services. As it's totally linked within QuickBooks, the sale, credit card fee, and a cash deposit are all immediately recorded as they occur.

13. Track Mileage

Many self-employed people and workers utilize their personal automobiles for work. This translates into a hefty tax break per mile. To obtain the deduction, however, you must keep track of the date, mileage, and purpose of your travel.

QuickBooks Online makes this extremely simple. Its mobile app will automatically detect whether you are in a moving car by using the GPS on your phone. Next, you may go over your excursions and categorize them as personal or business, as well as designate them as billable to a customer. Billable mileage expenditures will then be immediately included in the next invoice you produce for that client.

14. Connect Your Apps

It also works with thousands of business apps from the App Store of QuickBooks. These integrated applications are intended to assist you in simplifying many elements of your business, such as bill administration and acceptance of payment, as well as forecasting of cash flow.

On top of that, several native QuickBook Online integrations, such as QuickBooks Time, Payroll, and QuickBooks Online integrate with several popular apps.Stripe, PayPal, HubSpot, Melio, LeanLaw, Expensify, and Square Payroll are among them.

15. Do Accounting on the Go

You may use the QuickBooks Online mobile app to do numerous accounting operations from your mobile device. It is available for Android and iOS smartphones and allows you to create and send invoices, receive online payments, and allocate spending to projects or clients.

You may also use your smartphone to track company miles and receive financial statistics. The QuickBooks Online mobile app is available for download on Google Play and the App Store, but to enjoy its features, you must have an active subscription first.

Conclusion

When it comes to accounting software, QuickBooks is the clear winner among small businesses. It offers both web-based and downloadable desktop applications and several different versions. It's easy to organize your finances, make payroll, monitor stock levels, and streamline your tax preparation using QuickBooks' many useful features.

So, what are you waiting for?

Contact us right now, if you want us to help you regarding the accounting of your business so that you only focus on growing yours, by clicking here.