Business owners often ask us about the best and easiest system for managing their books as they plan for growth into the future. Hands down, it’s QuickBooks Online (QBO).
Let’s start with one word. Easy.
The first thing that will make your life easier is to link your bank account. By linking your bank account in the application, it’s as if QBO runs on its own.
Right off the bat, one advantage of doing this is that you eliminate the potential for missing important transactions. Rules can also be set to classify certain vendor transactions into specific expense categories- automatically.
Additionally, matching up invoices with deposits and payments is almost completely automated. QBO will find invoices and match them with payments presenting the transactions to you for a simple click of a button to confirm them.
Does your business write a lot of checks?
For businesses who write checks, not every check gets cashed. However, you need to record all checks that get sent out. If these checks are recorded in QBO and your bank is linked, QBO will attempt to match the checks with those that cleared the bank.
For example, if you own a restaurant or bar where there is often a high volume of low dollar checks that go a long time without getting cashed, you have visibility to know what your true cash balance is after the outstanding checks.
It can be tricky to reconcile actual bank balance with actual cash balance if you don’t have visibility into what is outstanding. QBO shows everything outstanding and how that affects your actual balance.
Making it easier for you to work side by side with your accountant
No more emailing spreadsheets or sending transfer files. When your bank is linked, the data is just, well…there. And the best part? More than one person can be in the application at the same time. So, if you are sending out invoices, your accountant can also be in QBO working and making changes right alongside you.
Easy to read financial statements
If you aren’t an accountant, you probably don’t read financial statements for fun. They can be tricky to read, let alone understand. We often hear that the financial statements in QBO are more visually appealing and easier to read than financial statements from other accounting software.
Simple to learn
Some business owners prefer to let us manage everything so they can go do what they do best- build their business! Others enjoy knowing how to navigate their accounting software. The good news is that QBO is very easy to teach (and to learn) without having to be an accountant.
Let’s talk about how much we do from our phones these days…
There really is an app for just about everything- QBO included. You can even let QBO track and record your business mileage for you from your phone. Want notifications or reminders? You can do that, too, for important reports like monthly or quarterly profit and loss statements. Let’s face it, being able to track the financial health of your business right from your phone is pretty powerful.
Questions about QuickBooks Online or how to manage the accounting for your business? We’d love to help. Call us today for a complimentary consultation at (614) 456-7222.
At Harper & Company CPAs Plus, we realize that most people don’t just want to do business. They want to build something. We help entrepreneurs make the transition from the hamster wheel to building a business.
