QuickBooks Self-Quiz - Better Bottom Line

PUT SCOTT’S 30 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE TO WORK FOR YOU!

QuickBooks Self-Quiz How Are You Doing? Presented by Scott Gregory

Certified QuickBooks Enterprise Advisor, Intuit Premier Reseller, CPA

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www.BetterBottomLine.com

QuickBooks Self-Quiz - How are you doing?

“What makes Scott Gregory unique amongst the QuickBooks Experts we have hired is his very practical approach to tailoring QuickBooks to our needs. His very in-depth knowledge of the “inner workings” of QuickBooks has transformed our operation in a very short time. He may appear a bit more expensive than other QuickBooks experts until you realize that he covers in an hour what takes others many, and has made our operation smooth and stress-free through clever short-cuts so few know of. I highly recommend him for setting up QuickBooks right. My employees know much more about QuickBooks now, as he has made it simple to use, and has showed us how to avoid issues in the future. In just a short time with Scott, he has made something which appeared daunting and difficult to use, simple and effective.

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Presented by Scott Gregory

Contents: A Note From Scott...................................1 QuickBooks Users Like You.................2 Self-Quiz............................................3 How Did You Do?....................................4 Need to Know..........................................4 Background Info on the Questions....5 QuickBooks Services............................8 Software that works with QuickBooks............................................9 Contact Scott........................................10 Contact Scott Today About QuickBooks For the fastest response, email Scott at: [email protected]

 CONTACT SCOTT

I now can sleep at night knowing that my business is under control, and I can accurately view the state of my business at any moment by simply opening QuickBooks. Scott has not only made this possible, but did so in a very cost-effective manner. “ - David Marcarian, President Precision Biometrics, Inc. / MyoVision

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A Note From Scott Don’t let QuickBooks be a pain in the asset! • Find QuickBooks confusing? • Not sure if you are using QuickBooks correctly? • Wish you had a professional QuickBooks resource that speaks in your language and NOT accountant-speak?

Help is here! This guide makes it easy for you to find the QuickBooks, accounting, and technology solutions that are so elusive and confusing to many businesses. Delivered on-site or via the Internet, count on me to provide the advice and insight you’ve been looking for. My clients benefit from having a trusted, professional advisor on their team at a fraction of the cost of full-time staff. They enjoy our working relationship for the main reason that I don’t talk “accounting or technology speak” – I can discuss your problems and offer solutions in plain English. See what my clients are saying about the help and insight I have provided for them. What QuickBooks, accounting or technology problems are on your mind? Let’s talk about them today. Please e-mail me at [email protected], or visit my web site at: www.BetterBottomLine.com to put a problem-solving plan in motion for your business.

 ABOUT SCOTT

Contact Scott Today About QuickBooks For the fastest response, email Scott at: [email protected]

 CONTACT SCOTT

“Your training has literally revolutionized the way we run things here. Everyone in our entire company- from Customer Service, Purchasing, Marketing, Shipping to Management has benefitted greatly from what you have taught us! I couldn’t recommend your expertise more- I would tell any Quickbooks user that a session with you is mandatory. The ROI is literally 50 fold for our company.” - Victoria Marquard-Schultz, Esq., General Counsel & Regulatory Director Applied Home Healthcare Equipment, LLC

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QuickBook Users Like You

FRUSTRATED? I’m often asked by frustrated QuickBooks users like you – “how do I know if I’m using it correctly? A good question indeed! This self-quiz will help you determine how well you are taking advantage of the power of QuickBooks accounting software to help run your business. It will provide some critical insight and may also lead you to understand areas of QuickBooks that haven’t been clear in the past. This is NOT an all-inclusive quiz by any means. Rather, it is a compilation of field visits and observations with QuickBooks users in various types of businesses and with various skill levels. It also includes some “best practices” from the world of accounting.

Dig in to the quiz and see just how well YOU are doing with QuickBooks Detailed insight on each question follows the scoring section below… no fair looking that far ahead!

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QuickBooks Self-Quiz Yes = 1 pt

1. I run a Profit and Loss report for the business every month. Bonus Question – I know how to include a column on my Profit and Loss report that shows “% of Income.”

ADD 1 pt if your answer is Yes!

Yes = 1 pt

2. I backup my QuickBooks data file every day that I use it. Bonus Question – I use an online backup service like Carbonite to keep my data safe. 3. I run an Accounts Receivable Aging Summary at least once per month (if your business sells on credit terms to customers). Penalty – If your Accounts Receivable Aging Summary report contains any $0.00 values in it.

Penalty – I have no idea what a Balance Sheet report is or why it is important to my business.

No = 0 pts

ADD 1 pt if your answer is Yes!

Yes = 1 pt

No = 0 pts

SUBTRACT 1 pt if your answer is Yes! Yes = 1 pt

4. I run a Balance Sheet report at least once per quarter.

No = 0 pts

No = 0 pts

SUBTRACT 1 pt if your answer is Yes!

5. I know how to export a QuickBooks report to Excel for further analysis.

Yes = 1 pt

No = 0 pts

6. I know how to customize the icon bar to make one-click easy access to common QuickBooks tasks.

Yes = 1 pt

No = 0 pts

7. I reconcile my bank and credit card accounts on a monthly basis.

Yes = 1 pt

No = 0 pts

Penalty – You haven’t reconciled your bank account in QuickBooks for over three (3) months.

SUBTRACT 1 pt if your answer is Yes!

8. I know how to make customers and vendors inactive if I am not doing business with them any longer.

Yes = 1 pt

No = 0 pts

9. I use the Closing Date feature in QuickBooks to prevent posting data to closed accounting periods.

Yes = 1 pt

No = 0 pts

Penalty – You don’t have any idea what the Closing Date is. 10. I use the “Notes” section in either customer and/or vendor accounts to keep track of important details about transactions or conversations with them.

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SUBTRACT 1 pt if your answer is Yes! Yes = 1 pt


No = 0 pts


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How Did You Do?

 Scoring Less than 0 to 2 points. Um….we need to talk. There is lots of room for improvement in your use of QuickBooks 3 points – 6 points. OK, you’re getting there. You have some of the QuickBooks basics down, and are ready to kick it to the next level. How about an hour or two of oneto- one QuickBooks conversation about your business to help you get there quickly and easily? Contact me to get a session on the calendar. More than 6 points.You are doing well so far with QuickBooks. At this level, you are ahead of many of the 4 million QuickBooks users out there. There is still some room for optimizing QuickBooks even more. If you like a challenge, the investment to continue optimizing will pay for itself in no time. Contact me today for some personalized training on QuickBooks.

 Need to Know! Scott Gregory is a QuickBooks Specialist that provides the personalized attention and insight into QuickBooks you’ve been looking for. He won’t talk down to you in “accountant-speak” – just friendly, patient instruction. His goal for you is simply this: Less QuickBooks clicks = More vacation time!

“ I really appreciate your attention to detail, your detailed explanations for customers and their options, and keeping me in the loop. I have confidence when I recommend you to folks that you will provide a quality level of service and competency worthy of my referral. Thanks Scott. I appreciate having you as a resource for my QuickBooks customers.” - Geoff Dolan, MCSE, A+ Technician, MCP Malachi Computer Consultants

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Background Information on the Self-Quiz Questions 1. I run a Profit and Loss report for the business every month – The Profit and Loss report is one of the critical scorecards that will explain how the business is doing. Did you have a good month? Bad month? You’ll never know until you run this report. It summarizes your income and expenses – and the difference between the two is either your net profit or net loss. If you modify your Profit and Loss report to include the % of income column (use the “Customize Report” button in the upper left hand corner of the report to get there), your report will be even more meaningful. At a glance, you will see that your advertising expense is x% of your income, your rent expense is y% of your income, etc. These are critical benchmarks businesses track to ensure their expenses are in line with their income. 2. I backup my QuickBooks data file every day that I use it – It is very easy to get another copy of the QuickBooks software. However, we can’t simply place a call and order a copy your QuickBooks data – it has to be backed up and protected on a regular basis. You can back up your QuickBooks data to a flash drive, external drive or other device. But do you? Probably not, since it is something else you “have” to do (trip to the dentist anyone?). Why not take advantage of Carbonite automated backup to automate, simplify and get a copy of your critical QuickBooks data off-site every business day? Carbonite can also back up your other important files (word processing documents, spreadsheets, pictures, music and more). It is a tremendous insurance policy for your business (and inexpensive too). 3. I run an Accounts Receivable Aging Summary at least once per month (if your business sells on credit terms to customers) – Every dollar you have tied up in customer accounts receivables is a dollar that is not available for other expenses of the business. For optimum financial management, you want to have a laser-like focus on this report, and have a system in place for dealing with customers that are late. In addition, you should investigate the “Collections Report” found under the Customers and Receivables section of the Report Center – it is an excellent report for customer tracking purposes. If your Accounts Receivable Aging Summary report has $0.00 entries, it means two things: • •

Your customer account is paid in full (a good thing) Your posting of invoices and credits has resulted in this “ghost” entry appearing in your report (a bad thing). If the customer account is paid in full, you should not see their name at all in this report. Double click the $0.00 in the total column of the report, and you will see entries that net out to $0.00. You can receive a $0 payment for this customer in the “Receive Payment” screen to clear out the positive and negative amounts that are displayed.

4. I run a Balance Sheet report at least once per quarter – The Balance Sheet is another critical scorecard, just like the Profit and Loss report. The Balance Sheet keeps track of what you own (assets), what you owe (liabilities) and what you have left over in the business (equity). [email protected]

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These benchmarks are important to the financial management of your business. Ask your CPA to review this information with you to help you gain a better understanding of what the information is telling you. Find that your accountant can’t relate to you in anything other than “accountant-speak”? Contact me – I can. 5. I know how to export a QuickBooks report to Excel for further analysis – At the top of each and every report in QuickBooks, there is an Excel button. Even though QuickBooks provides the ability to customize reports, there are some limits to those capabilities. By exporting your report to Excel, you don’t have to re-type any of the data again plus you get all of the tools within Excel to customize and work with the report data to meet your needs! 6. I know how to customize the icon bar to make one-click easy access to common QuickBooks tasks – The icon bar allows you to customize your workspace in QuickBooks and set up icons for quick one-click access to common tasks, reports, and windows. To customize the icon bar, simply click “View” in the menu bar, then “Customize Icon Bar” and either add, delete or move icons that YOU want to see. SPECIAL BONUS – simply click “Add [window name] to icon bar” when you have a window or report open that you use frequently. Doesn’t get any faster than that! 7. I reconcile my bank account on a monthly basis – Accountants can evoke images of horror and pain when reconciling your bank account. It doesn’t have to be that way. Reconciling is simply the process of comparing the transactions that have been posted to your bank account to those that have been posted into QuickBooks. Ideally, the bank knows about everything you have posted in QuickBooks, and QuickBooks knows about everything that has cleared the bank. Under the Banking menu, you will find the option to Reconcile. Simply choose the account to reconcile, fill in the blanks and check the transactions that have cleared the bank. The ultimate goal of this process is to get to a $0 difference between your bank balance and your QuickBooks balance for the bank account in the lower right hand corner of the reconcile screen.** Reconciling is a very important process within any business to ensure that the books are up to date and that they agree with the bank. You’ll want to make sure you get in the habit of reconciling soon.

Sounds easy doesn’t it? Many businesses fail miserably at this.

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8. I know how to make customers and vendors inactive if I am not doing business with them any longer - There is no need to plow through a list of customer or vendor names you no longer use each time you create an invoice or write a check. Go to either the Customer Center or the Vendor Center and RIGHT click on the name and select “Make Inactive”. Don’t worry – any history with that customer or vendor will remain in QuickBooks as it should. The name just goes to the back of the list and out of your way to make it even faster to create invoices or write checks in the future. BONUS TIP: By design, QuickBooks will not let you delete any customer or vendor account that has any type of transaction history related to it. This is exactly how it should be – if you could randomly delete this information, your accountant would literally go into cardiac arrest – we don’t want that! 9. I use the Closing Date feature in QuickBooks to prevent posting data to closed accounting periods. QuickBooks is extremely user-friendly. There is not a lot of time wasted “closing out the month” like there is in other accounting software packages. In fact, since all the QuickBooks reports are date driven, there aren’t any special steps to take to close the month. Except for… Click on Company in the menu bar, then Set Closing Date. This feature allows you to enter a date in the “Closing Date” box. By doing that, you can prevent yourself from accidentally posting transactions into a month that is already closed. For example, if you finished the accounting for February 2017 on March 15, 2017, you would go in at that time and enter a closing date of 2/28/2017. This one small step at the end of each month can save you hours of aggravation! 10.I use the “Notes” section in customer and/or vendor accounts to keep track of important details about transactions or conversations with them – Why keep post it notes jammed all around your computer monitor reminding you of things to do? Centralize all of that knowledge within QuickBooks so you can keep track of who said what to the customers or vendors as part of their history. No more guesswork about what was said three months down the road. Bonus – While creating a note, take advantage of the “To Do” button within the note for even greater power and functionality! QuickBooks can be set to remind you of all your “To Do” items with ease. Never miss an important call back to a customer to follow-up on an overdue payment again! I hope you have found this QuickBooks self-quiz to be informative and insightful! For ongoing QuickBooks insight, visit Scott’s QuickBooks blog at: www.blog.betterbottomline.com

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“I would definitely recommend Scott Gregory to anyone.” - Margo Strunk, Office Manager, AllCraft Wellman, Inc.

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Let me help resolve areas of confusion and ensure you are using QuickBooks the right waydon’t waste time sitting in a “QuickBooks class” and then discover the class doesn’t answer your specific questions! We can nmeet on-site or over the Internet for as little as an hour, or as long as it takes to get things right!

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Working together, we can determine the extent of your QuickBooks problems and put a solution in place to prevent them from happening again. Let’s talk before you toss your computer out the window!

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Tap into my expertise to help minimize the pains of converting to QuickBooks and ensure success for you and your team! Moving from your existing accounting software to QuickBooks doesn’t have to be a scary or budget-busting event.

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Trying to extend the functionality of QuickBooks? Avoid the classic mistakes many businesses do when looking for new software, especially packages that integrate with QuickBooks. Work with a QuickBooks expert to ensure your success.

Contact Scott Today About QuickBooks

For the fastest response, email Scott at: [email protected]

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 CONTACT SCOTT



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“Scott Gregory continues to amaze me. Every single client out of the dozens who have purchased Enterprise Solutions from Scott and worked with him have given him a 100% Net Promoter Score. This is very unusual in our industry. It is considered World Class.” – MARIE ARCHULETA, Channel Sales Manager for Intuit

About Scott Gregory

Certified QuickBooks Enterprise Advisor and Intuit Premier Reseller

Scott has been helping businesses “get it right” with their QuickBooks and business finances for over thirty years. During that time, he has assisted well over 1,000 businesses, with services such as QuickBooks software installation, training and coaching sessions, and his “Better Profits Now” program. Prior to starting his own practice, Scott served as the CFO for a $15 million manufacturing firm for more than ten years. During his tenure as CFO, Scott was responsible for: $4 million in inventory, $4 million in accounts receivable, inventory control, purchasing, information technology and banking relationships. He is a member of the Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor program, a CPA, and certified in integrated resource management (CIRM) by APICS. Scott has taught hundreds of business owners, bookkeepers, and CPAs how to use QuickBooks effectively and efficiently through local community colleges and via webinars. Thousands of QuickBooks users rely on Scott’s QuickBooks Blog for insight, tips and tricks each and every month.

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