Are you looking forward to growing your business to greater heights? Then, what if you need a proper tracking of your finances, better strategic planning of your reports, assessing daily transactions and organizing administrative services, which tools do you use?
In this case, business accounting software can be very beneficial for your firm. QuickBooks might be the most ideal financial tool you may be lacking, to align all your organizational needs. Among other things, it will help you;
- Track income and expenses
- Generate reports for planning
- Keep track of daily transactions
- Prepare billing and payroll
So What is QuickBooks?
QuickBooks is accounting software that takes care of the needs of small to mid-sized businesses. It allows you to manage sales and expenses, generate reports, fill in tax, and much more. It is developed by Intuit, a leading financial software developer.
This accounting software offers a cluster of in-built reports that are easy to customize and helps you take control of your finances easily.
When you purchase QuickBooks, there are a couple of things you will be able to achieve, based on its features. A couple of things that stand include;
Data migration, that gives you a smooth transition from spreadsheets to QuickBooks and vice versa. This feature is very important when planning to move data from one platform to the next.
The software is user–friendly and makes every task pretty easy for the user. The rich features that come with it create a very good and sustainable environment for small and mid-sized businesses. You will experience a smooth sailing process. It will be easy for you to learn how the software works as there is a very short learning curve.
Every transaction of your business is kept transparent and the software will keep on recording all transactions linked to what you have set to track. The generation of invoices is easy and can be done via your smartphone, tablet, or computer.
You can also use QuickBooks for business projections, as it is easy to generate forthcoming projections. If you want to generate reports on sales, profits, and expenses, it becomes simple to achieve this process.Â
What Small Businesses use QuickBooks for?
Small business owners typically use QuickBooks to manage their invoices, track cash flows, pay bills among others. They also use the software to generate monthly and end year financial reports as well as preparing quarterly and annual business taxes.Â
Top uses for QuickBooks include;
Managing sales and income
You can manage sales and income easily with the use of QuickBooks. You can use the software to create invoices and track sales by customer. This will help you stay on top of what customers owe you – what is commonly known as accounts receivable, in accounting circles.Â
Keeping track of bills and expenses
QuickBooks will automatically keep track of your bills and expenses, as it connects your bank and credit card accounts to the software, so as to enable all your expenses to be downloaded and categorized. If you need to track a check or cash transaction, you can record it in a few minutes using the software.Â
The software will help you pay your bills when they are due. You will be able to pay your bills always on time by creating an Accounts Payable Report in under two minutes. The report will provide you with details of your current and past due bills.
Gain reporting insights for your business
By managing all your cash flow and outflow activities using the software, you will be able to access several reports that provide valuable insights into your business. All the reports are pre-built and can be run in just a matter of a few clicks. Reports are updated in real-time as you enter and save transactions.
This can be very important especially if you want to provide financials to a potential investor or to your lender for a small business loan or line of credit. You will also be able to provide other reports which include; Profit and Loss Report, Balance Sheet Report, and Statement of Cash Flows, and if you're a landlord, you can check the best accounting software for landlords.
Running Payroll
Payroll is an area you should never try to run manually. Mistakes you make in calculating paychecks can have devastating consequences. QuickBooks has its own payroll function that can automatically calculate and run payroll as often as you need it.
The best part of using the software is integrating it to keep your financial statements up to date. You will be able to pay employees with a check or direct deposit, fill in payroll tax forms, and perform direct e-payments.
Tracking inventory
If you need to keep track of the inventory, the software will automatically help you keep that track and update you as you enter transactions. Though keeping track of inventory can be done over Excel, note that it can be very time-consuming.
Simplifying taxes
With the use of QuickBooks online, you will be able to manage all your business accounting taxes. Additionally, you will be able to accept payments online, and this helps to improve your cash flow. You can add an intuit payments feature with the use of just a simple click.Â
QuickBooks Options for Small Businesses
The QuickBooks product line includes different versions such as QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Self Employed, and QuickBooks Mac. Each of these versions offers a variety of features that start on a monthly plan. To help you make a decision on which is the most ideal one for you, check out the following;
QuickBooks Online
It is a cloud-based product that does not require software installation. It is available in three subscriptions – Simple Start, Essentials and Plus. It is most ideal for any service-based business that does not have complicated invoicing requirements. It allows you to access your data from any computer with an internet connection using a secure login.Â
QuickBooks Desktop
QuickBooks Desktop comes in three versions; Pro, Premier, and Enterprise. All three versions of the software product require you to install the software on your computer. QuickBooks Pro is most ideal for small businesses that do not have to manufacture products.
QuickBooks Premier is ideal is you have a business involved in manufacturing, retail, contracting or non-profit. The last one is QuickBooks Enterprise that is most suited for large enterprises. These versions of QuickBooks include a custom chart of accounts and reports.
QuickBooks Self Employed
QuickBooks Self Employed is the most ideal product for freelancers, drivers, real estate agents and those people who run self-consultancy businesses. It is a cloud-based product that can be accessed from any computer that has an internet connection and a secure login.
It comes with features that are not available in QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop. It gives you the ability to separate business from personal expenses, track miles and help with a seamless transfer of data to TurboTax.
QuickBooks Mac
QuickBooks Mac is the only desktop product that is available for Mac users. If you don’t want to go with QuickBooks Online and you have a Mac computer, then the other best option is to go with QuickBooks Mac. The product is very similar to QuickBooks Pro and is ideal for small businesses that do not manufacture products.
Key Items to note
QuickBooks can offer you an ideal solution if you are looking forward to running anything related to finance, from running payroll, tracking income and expenses, and putting financial reporting packages together. It is ideal for automating time-consuming processes such as preparing reconciliations, especially if you don’t have an account or bookkeeper to make use of the software.
It is also good to understand that there is a difference between Quicken and QuickBooks. Quicken is designed to keep track of your personal budget and spending. A few people make use of Quicken to keep track of business income and expenses. However, it doesn’t have the capability to manage sales to your customers or keep track of inventory as QuickBooks does.Â
You don’t need to be an accountant to learn how to use QuickBooks. Though it comes with many features, there are easy tutorials and guides that can help you get started quickly. Additionally, the learning curve is very short. Though you do not need to be an accountant or bookkeeper, it will never hurt should you decide to take a quick crash course to understand some bookkeeping basics.
QuickBooks is a business accounting software that streamlines all the tasks associated with keeping financial accounts in order, especially for business owners who have little or no financial knowledge. It offers an online version as well as an on-premise version of its software, to help businesses make a choice on the version that works best for them.Â
Because of the amount of many features it has, users who lack accounting knowledge can find QuickBooks to be confusing to navigate. Additionally, its online and desktop versions can’t be synced, so you must be prepared to work with one or acquire both. All in all, QuickBooks is a fantastic business software that will simplify all tasks associated with financial bookkeeping, taxes, and much more.Â