With a new year come new challenges, but most importantly, the potential for new successes. Here are five ways you can improve your financial management in 2021.
An immensely challenging year has drawn to a close. While we still have COVID-19 and a struggling economy to face in the early part of 2021, hope is on the horizon. There's a lot you can’t control about the difficulties facing our country, but you can take control of your pocket of it, especially in terms of how you manage your finances.
If you’re already using QuickBooks Online, you know just how much it's done to minimize paperwork confusion of the past. But are you taking advantage of all of its capabilities? Now that you've turned your digital calendar to January, consider expanding your use of the QuickBooks Online platform to set yourself up for success in the new year. Here are five features to explore if you haven’t already.
Practice Proactive Reconciliation:
QuickBooks Online’s Banking screen displays registers for the bank and credit card transactions that have been posted by your banks. Do you review these frequently? Pre-closing your monthly reconciliation is easy, and moreover, saves valuable time when month-end comes. Hover over Transactions in the toolbar and select Banking. You can see some of your transaction management options in the image below:
Once QuickBooks Online has downloaded a transaction from your bank, you have multiple options for dealing with it and clearing it.
When your statement comes and you’re ready to reconcile, QuickBooks Online’s tools can take you step-by-step through the process. Hover over Accounting in the toolbar and select Reconcile.
Start Accepting Online Payments:
This is probably the #1 way to encourage customers to pay you faster. When you set up a merchant account through QuickBooks Payments, you’re able to accept payment from customers via credit card, debit card, and ACH bank transfer. Your invoices will include a Pay Now button that leads your customers to a payment portal with all the information they need to pay electronically. Their funds will go into your bank account. You can also set up automatic recurring payments; there are no base fees – you just pay per transaction. Contact us at (888)394-5110 to lock in the best rate available.
Your customers can pay you through other methods as well. Making in-person transactions? Request a free card reader from Intuit to process payments on your mobile device.
Set Weekly and Monthly Report Schedules:
You may just run reports in QuickBooks Online as you need them, but to increase efficiency, some reports should be automatically populated every week at a minimum--these include Accounts receivable aging (detail or summary), Accounts Payable Aging, Open invoices, and Unpaid Bills. You may find there are others you need in front of you on a weekly basis.
We can help you create and analyze the standard financial reports that should be produced regularly.
It’s important to run some other reports on a monthly (or, sometimes, quarterly) basis, including Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss, and Statement of Cash Flows. Rather than just providing snapshots of where you stand with money coming in and going out, they give you a more comprehensive view of your finances that can help you make better business decisions.
Expand QuickBooks Online’s Features by Using Apps:
QuickBooks Online is generic enough that it can be used by a wide variety of small businesses. But that flexibility may mean that it’s not quite robust enough in one area or another, like inventory management or time tracking. To fine-tune your cloud-based accounting platform, integrate the apps you need from the Apps option in the toolbar. There are hundreds of apps to choose from and some are even free.
Evaluate the Cost-Effectiveness of Your Vendors:
It’s easy to stick with the same old suppliers because changing vendors can be a hassle, but reviewing your list on an annual or semi-annual basis can help keep expenses lower. To see your entire vendor list, hover over Expenses in the toolbar, and click on Vendors. Click the down arrow at the end of each row and select Make inactive if you haven’t ordered from specific suppliers within the last year.