How Quick Books Online Can Help You and Your Business

Many people dream of owning their own business. Chances are, if you are reading this, you are one of them. Maybe you’ve even already started. At some point however, the tasks involved in running a business become too large for one person to handle. Perhaps you are at that point with your business. One of those tasks is keeping the books.

Let’s face it. You probably hate numbers. Your passion is your business, taking your ideas and putting them in production. But you do need the numbers. How else would you know how your business is doing and where it stands in terms of moving forward? You must know the numbers, and what they mean.

Arguably the best numbers, er accounting, software in the market is Quick Books Online (QBO). Quick Books is an online accounting software program for small businesses powered by Intuit that stores data using cloud technology. Here are some ways it can help you and your business.

EASE OF USE

Most business owners are not accountants. Quick Books Online is perfect for these types of people. One of the main features is a Dashboard that easily directs the user to the information they need, even if they don’t know a lick about accounting. This is one of the main reasons QBO is so popular since it gives the user the power versus other platforms that are specifically designed for accounting professionals which puts you, the business owner, at a disadvantage.

Its cloud-based accounting system can be accessed anytime, anywhere, using any device. This means your accountant or bookkeeper doesn’t have to come to your place of work. All you must do is give them access to your account and they can do the work from there. Perfect if you hire a freelance accountant, bookkeeper, or CFO. It also offers a wide variety of features that can benefit your busines, like financial reporting, invoicing, payroll, and inventory tracking.

AFFORDABLE

QBO has different pricing tiers to meet most small business needs. The simplest plans start at $15 per month to $180 for more complex business. They also have other features such as payroll, invoicing, and inventory management. In many cases, if you work with an independent contractor who specializes in QBO, you can get some discounts.

TECHNOLOGY

QBO is fully integrable with many 3rd party apps, including most banks & credit cards, online payment companies like PayPal, and other major institutions in the payroll, invoicing, and bill pay areas. By using cloud storage, you aren’t just limited to the files on your computer. You can access from anywhere, plus they are more secure since Intuit provides the security and updates the software. You’ll no longer worry about updating your software, losing data, stopping what you are doing to restart your computer, or backing up files. Intuit does it for you on their servers.

One of the best features QBO is the ability to automatically download banking and credit card transactions through their bank feeds. This drastically cuts down on manually inputting information, saving you time and money. Either add the transactions directly from the feed or match it to one that already exists.

When you need to make payments, you can do so electronically instead of going through the manual process of writing checks. If you do prefer to write checks, there is the ability to scan your signature, so you don’t have to physically sign all of them. When it comes to receiving payments, they can be done automatically and instantaneously. No longer will you have to wait a few days for checks to clear the bank. Simply set up an ACH payment option with your customers, or attach payment buttons for credit cards, bank accounts, or online payment companies like PayPal.

REPORTING

Most business owners want to know two things when it comes to accounting: how much money did they make and what’s the business worth. QBO has a variety of reports to easily answer these two questions, as well as many others that can help you manage your business. The PNL report (Profit & Loss) shows how much money your business has made (or lost), over a given period-of-time. You can run it in several ways, such as a percentage of revenue or a comparison for the same period the previous year(s). The Balance Sheet shows what your business is worth. It displays, from top to bottom, the business’ Assets (what you own), Liabilities (what you owe), Equity (what you invested), Income (what you’ve earned), and Expenses (what you’ve spent). Your assets minus your liabilities are what your business is worth. Note the number can be positive or negative.

A couple of other reports that can come in handy are the Accounts Receivable Aging report and the Accounts Payable aging report. The Accounts Receivable Aging Report lists all your customers with outstanding invoices (who owe us money) as well as how long the invoices have been outstanding. You can then use this information to follow up on the payment status of these invoices. The Accounts Payable Aging Report does the same thing, except is lists bills outstanding for your business (who you owe money too!). You can then pay your creditors in a timely manner to keep a good relationship and avoid uncomfortable collections calls, or worse, ending up in a small claims court, which will cost you extra money.

These four reports are the main ones most small businesses will need and can be run in real time, thus giving you the most accurate snapshot of your business at any given point in time.

COMPATIBILITY

QBO is compatible with many different devices. For example, if you made a change using the mobile app, they automatically sync to all other devices, like a desk top computer for example. Your QBO account can also have multiple users, depending on the package you use. You can share access with several members of your team (just provide a username and password) as well as different levels of access for each user. For example, not every user on your team will need access to payroll and see how much everyone is getting paid. This can include providing access for your CPA. You no longer will have to send mountains of paperwork via UPS or Fed Ex (much to their chagrin). They can get everything they need directly from your account when preparing your taxes.

CONCLUSION

Whatever your business needs, Quick Books has a solution for you. It’s easy to use, relatively inexpensive, and provides all the financial reporting options necessary for all end users. That could be just you, any advisors you use on how to move the business forward, or your CPA doing your taxes. Quick Books can even help if you wanted to raise capital using a loan from a bank or seeking outside investors. You can rest assure that the technology is there to protect your business’ financial information, so you can do what you do best: build your business!

I hope you found this helpful. If you have any questions or would like a demonstration on how the software works, feel free to reach out to me!