QuickBooks can zip you
through the two basic ways of producing and distributing invoices and other
forms: on paper and electronically. Within those two camps, you can choose to
produce and send forms as soon as you complete them or place them in a queue to
process in batches. For sporadic forms, it’s easier to print or email them as
you go. But when you generate dozens or even hundreds of sales orders,
invoices, statements, or checks, printing and emailing batches is a much better
use of
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Producing Statements
Statements
are the perfect solution for businesses that charge individuals for time and
other
services in bits and pieces, such as law offices, cell phone service
providers, and astrology advisors. Statements can summarize the charges racked
up during the statement period (usually a month). They’re also great for
showing payments and outstanding balances, the way your cable bill shows the
charges for your monthly service, the pay-per-view movies you
Invoicing
Telling your customers how much they owe you and how soon they need to pay is an
important step in bookkeeping. After all, if money isn’t flowing into your
organization from outside sources, eventually you’ll close up shop and close
your QuickBooks company file for the last time.
Paying for Expenses
Although most small
business owners sift through the daily mail looking for envelopes containing
payments, they usually find more containing bills. One frustrating aspect of
running a business is that you often have to pay for the items you sell before
you can invoice your customers for the goods.
If you want your
financial records to be right, you have to tell QuickBooks about the expenses
you’ve
Tracking Time and Mileage
When customers pay for
your services, they’re really buying your knowledge of how to get the job done
the best and fastest possible way. That’s why an inexperienced carpenter
charges $15 an hour, whereas a master woodworker who hammers faster and
straighter than a nail gun charges $80 an hour. When it comes right down to it,
time is money, so you want to keep track of both with equal accuracy.
Product-based companies track time, too. For example, companies that want to
increase productivity often start by tracking the time that employees work and
what they work on.
Setting Up Other QuickBooks Lists
Open any QuickBooks
window, dialog box, or form, and you’re bound to bump into at least one
drop-down list. These lists make it easy to fill in transactions and forms.
Creating an invoice? If you pick the customer and job from the Customer:Job
drop-down list, QuickBooks fills in the customer’s address, payment terms, and
other fields for you. Selecting payment terms from the Terms List tells the
program how to calculate an invoice’s due date. If you choose an entry in the
Price Level List, QuickBooks calculates the discount or markup you extend to
your customers for the goods they buy. Even the products and services you sell
to customers come from the Item List.
Bank Accounts and Credit Cards
You’ve
opened your mail, plucked out the customer payments, and deposited them in your
bank account. In addition to that, you’ve paid your bills. Now you can sit back
and relax knowing that most of the transactions in your bank and credit card
accounts are accounted for. What’s left?
Some
stray transactions might pop up—an insurance-claim check to deposit or handling
the aftermath and bank fees for a customer’s bounced check, to name a couple.
Plus, running a business typically means that money moves between accounts—from
interest-bearing accounts to checking accounts,