Keeping Track of Financial Tasks

Attention to detail. Follow-through. These are a couple of the things that keep customers coming back for more. Following through on promises and calling to check that an issue was resolved successfully is good business. But sending reorder brochures after customers have already

made purchases can just make them mad. In addition, paying a bill late can result in a whopping late fee. Conversely, you can leave money on the table if you don’t take advantage of early payment discounts.

If you use other programs for managing customer relationships and keeping track of what you need to do, you can record these types of details there. But if you tend to work in QuickBooks all day long, the program has several features that can help you stay in customers’ and vendors’ good graces by tracking what’s been going on and what still needs to be done.

QuickBooks’ to-dos are preferable to papering the edges of your computer monitor with sticky notes, although you might prefer to keep to-dos in a program that you keep running constantly, like your email or calendar program, so that you see reminders when you need them. This chapter kicks off by explaining how to create and manage to-dos in QuickBooks.

If you collect info about customers, vendors, and employees, QuickBooks’ notes feature can keep them close at hand. For instance, you could record one note to document a customer’s problem with an order, and then record another note to document how he wants you to apply his credit. And if a note spawns an action item or two, you can create to-dos as you write up your comments. In this chapter, you’ll learn how to create and manage notes, and how to create new to-dos at the same time.

Finally, reminders about when to perform bookkeeping tasks can help prevent late fees and keep income rolling in. QuickBooks’ reminders prod you into action when it’s time to send invoices, pay bills, reorder inventory, and so on. You can even create reminders for QuickBooks to-dos. This chapter shows you how to turn on reminders for the activities you don’t want to forget, and how to tell QuickBooks when to remind you. You’ll also learn how to use the Calendar window to see when transactions and to-dos are due.