Beth Bockenhauer, CPA

Refunds. You probably wince at the word. Some – like customer refunds for returns – are fairly uncomplicated, thanks to QuickBooks’ tools. Others, not so much. You may find yourself unable to balance your accounts receivable.

No matter which version of QuickBooks you’re using, there are always ways to make your workday easier. As with any software, we tend to learn the features we need and not much more. But small changes in the way you operate can add up to significant time savings and more accurate files. If you jumped into QuickBooks without a thorough introduction, consider these tips.

As it usually does this time of year, Intuit has introduced new versions of its Pro and Premier products. QuickBooks 2012 promises to help you get better organized, save steps, and acquire more in-depth financial insights. Find out what’s in the latest version of QuickBooks.

QuickBooks’ standard reports are critical to understanding your company’s past, present, and future. But the program also offers innovative tools that can make them significantly more insightful and comprehensive.

Next to payroll, paying bills is probably your least favorite task in QuickBooks. You don’t have to use this feature – you can keep stacking bills on your desk, scrawling the due dates on a paper calendar, and writing checks.

Data entry and modifications in QuickBooks can be tedious. Beginning with QuickBooks 2010 Pro Edition and above, that job got a lot easier. The Add/Edit Multiple List Entries tool does just what its name implies: It lets you add entries to your lists of customers, vendors, services, inventory parts, and non-inventory parts. It also makes changing one or several of them quick and easy.

Does your business have clients whose work sometimes requires multiple steps drawn out over weeks or months, like remodeling projects or court cases? If so, and you’re not using QuickBooks’ Jobs features, you’re missing out on the opportunity to track and evaluate the financial impact of these complex tasks.

Are you guarding all of that precious data? QuickBooks provides ways to help you. Some are automatic, but you have to initiate others. Here is how.

How do you let customers know they owe you money? Probably by sending invoices. And how’s that working for you? If your customers are all conscientious and pay on time, maybe that’s all you need to do. Still, you may want to send statements when you’re billing on a regular basis for services, or when a client has built up numerous charges, some of which are past due. Statements lay out the customer’s current financial obligation to you, including finance charges, should you choose to impose them.

This video shows you how to customize the icon bar in QuickBooks. This is a way to add shortcuts to your QuickBooks interface so that you can quickly access features that you often use. If you have further questions about customizing the icon bar please let me know. If you’d like me to make a [...]