Top 5 Time Savers Using Quickbooks

If you use Quickbooks (QB) to keep track of your income and expenses then chances are you are making the most common mistakes when it comes to data entry. A considerable amount of time can be saved by leveraging features already in QB to save time, reduce redundancies and keep more accurate and up-to-date books and records. The following are the top 5 common mistakes when using QB and the top 5 ways to save time.

1) Are You Still Writing Checks By Hand?

If you are still writing checks by hand then chances are you are wasting a considerable amount of time. Does this sound familiar? When checks need to be written you pull out your checkbook and write out the vendor, check date and amount by hand. At the end of the month you go through all the checks and manually enter them into QB. Essentially you are performing the same process twice (once when you write the check and again when you enter the checks into QB). Why not half the time it takes for this process and print checks directly from QB? QB offers a feature to enter, categorize and print multiple checks at a time. No more manually entering checks or overpaying for bookkeeping and accounting services.

2) Are You Manually Entering Bank Statements Into QB?

One of the biggest and most common time wasters is manually entering bank statements into QB. If you are printing your bank statements and entering them into your QB file one by one then you are making this common mistake. QB offers several features that allows you to cut the time it takes to enter and reconcile monthly bank statements; bank feeds is the best example.This feature allows you to sync your online banking to your QB file to automatically update and post transactions into QB. If your bank does not support this feature then you can export banking activity to a CSV format and import the transactions into QB. The import automatically recognizes vendors and post them to the appropriate account.

3) Do You Enter The Same Journal Entries Every Month?

If you are entering the same adjusting journal entries at the end of each month then chances are you can save time. By setting up reoccurring transactions you can post depreciation, amortization and other reoccurring transactions automatically.

4) Are You Not Using QB To Invoice Customers?

Unless you have an industry specific software that makes it easy to invoice and record complex sales then you should be invoicing customers through QB. QB has a feature that allows you to record the sale, invoice the customer and print them a copy all at the same time. You can set up templates for each sales type which shows an itemized breakdown of their bill. Even more so, you can set up sales transactions that are subject to sales tax to automatically track and pay monthly, quarterly or annual sales tax liabilities.

5) Are You Filing Payroll Reports But Not Using QB Payroll Features?

If you file your own payroll reports but aren’t tracking payroll in QB then chances are you are making this common mistake. QB allows you to keep track of employee information, set up hourly rates and generate weekly payroll with ease. If done properly, the payroll reports will be automatically generated and can be submitted through QB. This saves time recording payroll to the appropriate accounts and filing accurate payroll reports.