QuickBooks is essential for any small business owner, freelancer, or accountant. But if we’re beyond honest, without any background knowledge in bookkeeping, it can be rather difficult to set up your books on your own. This is where Quickbooks comes in to help. The software is set up to help your business “save 37 hours per month” thanks to its one-click synchronization with all your accounting data. And, you don’t even need to know a thing about accounting to be able to learn to navigate Quickbooks.
Setting up Quickbooks may seem daunting at first, but you will quickly realize it’s a rather simple process. And once you’ve got it figured out, you’ll realize how simple this one-click synchronization makes your bookkeeping.
It’s best to start off slowly and get to know the platform, so we suggest taking about an hour a day for your first week to play around with it, and before you know it, you’ll be a pro.
The Quickbooks setup process begins by signing up for the platform and choosing the right package to suit your needs. Once this is done, you’ll be able to access QuickBooks online wherever you have WiFi.
After you’ve signed up for Quickbooks Online, you should begin by updating your business settings, which can be done under the “Company” tab. Once you’ve filled in all the necessary information into your company file, you can then link all your bank and credit card accounts to your file.
Once this is completed, you will be able to import all your data, which will then let you customize invoices, receive payments, and start incorporating sales tax.
Your last step should be adding all your employees information into the platform and turning on Payroll.
Quickbooks provides four different monthly plan options. Currently, Quickbooks is offering 50% off for the first three months. And, a 30-day free trial is always offered.
For freelancers, the normal monthly rate is $10 per month, meaning the first three months will only cost the individual $5 each month. The freelancer package includes the ability to track one’s income, expenses, sales, and sales tax. The freelancer will also be able to round up and organize receipts, while automatically tracking their own mileage. This Quickbooks package also includes the functions that permit running reports, invoicing and accepting payments, and sorting through personal and business transactions.
Small business owners have three packages to choose from.
The EasyStart package lets one “track income and expenses, track sales and sales tax, capture and organize receipts, track mileage automatically, run reports, invoice and accept payments, progress invoicing, maximize tax deductions, send estimates.” It also includes the add-ons of both standard and advanced payroll. This option is priced at $20 per month, meaning the first three months will be $10 per month.
Quickbooks Essentials package, the most popular of the three options for small businesses, costs $35 per month. This package provides all the same functions as the EasyStart one, plus more. With the Essentials package, small business owners can also have multiple users in their Quickbooks account. They’ll be able to track time using the platform, as well as manage bills and payments. This package also provides multi-currency support. For the first three months, it would only cost $17.50 per month.
The Quickbooks package that comes with the most functions is the Plus package. It includes everything that the Essentials package does, while also letting business owners track their inventory and project profitability. This package is offered at $50 a month, meaning it would only be $25 per month for the first three months.
Also, it’s important to note that you have the option to cancel at any time, so it comes risk-free.
To start off, it’s important to remember that everything that happens within this account software, although online, should reflect what your business is doing in real-life. By this, we’re referring to that fact that the majority of things you’ll be recording in Quickbooks are things occurring externally from the platform, such as bank deposits.
This means that Quickbooks’ use is to keep an account of all your business activities, but it does not mean that it’s necessarily where all your accounting operations will begin. Thus, whenever you record any form of transaction that did not begin within Quickbooks, you need to ensure that your accounting mirrors every step that was taken as carefully as possible. For example, when imputing a credit card payment into Quickbooks’ POS function, you must ensure that the date, name on card, payment method, and final total are all the same as what is on your actual credit card statement.
To set up manual invoice reminders, you go into the “Settings” tab, where you then choose the “Account and Settings” option, and then click the “Sales” tab. Once here, you go into “Reminders” and press Edit, where you’ll then turn on the Auto invoice reminder option. Then, you can set a reminder and choose which dates you would like such reminders to be sent. At this point in time, you’ll need to write the message that you want to appear in the reminder. Afterwards, you can continue to make new reminders in the “Create Reminder” category.
Integrating Quickbooks and InvoiceSherpa will allow you to send invoice reminders to allow your users and then make it easy to accept payments through those email reminders, meaning you can get paid quickly. The two platforms together will also help you categorize your transactions and maintain transparency in your profile reports. This means you’ll be able to keep up with all your spending, and ensure a constant cash flow.
InvoiceSherpa prices vary for business owners and accounting professionals, and there are three prices for each, which depend on the size of your business or your level of accounting.
And, InvoiceSherpa always provides a 14-day free trial — so you have time to get to know the platform fully before your payments begin.
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Posted on September 28, 2020
