When I talk to most small business owners, I find that there is at least one part of their accounting that they do either by hand, or on a spreadsheet, even if they are using QuickBooks, or similar software.  I usually ask them why they do this, and I have found that there are two answers: they are concerned about people in the company seeing this info, or they have had difficulty using QuickBooks/other software to handle the info.

I provide training services and QuickBooks setup to eliminate the first problem. It’s easy to limit what your employees can see in most accounting software. The second problem is a bit more difficult.

I provide a free hour of time to prospective clients to discuss their needs and how I can help them. One day, a client came to me because he was looking for a business loan and he needed his books in order to give to the bank. He said that he was creating invoices in QuickBooks, but he could never get QuickBooks to show the right total owed to him by each customer. He was tracking his accounts receivable in an excel spreadsheet and the file was very large and difficult to work with. As a result, he requested payment from a client that had already paid in full. He felt very embarrassed!

I investigated his QuickBooks file, I saw that his methods were creating additional issues. His books showed more income than he actually earned, and he was paying taxes on the extra income!

I came up with a plan of action to address his issues. First, we fixed his books so that he could send the info to the bank. Next, we coordinated with his tax preparer to amend his tax returns. Finally, we gave him training to use the Accounts Receivable in Quickbooks

I followed up with him some time later to see if he was satisfied with our service, and to see if he got the loan he was looking for. Much to my surprise, he said that he turned down the loan. He was able to collect money faster with the QuickBooks Accounts Receivable function because he spent less time working on the spreadsheet, and more time making calls for payment.