QuickBooks Archives : Planergy Software

Purchase Order Creation in QuickBooks

Purchase order creation in QuickBooks Online is simple. Just go into the Vendor profile and click on the New Transaction tab which is on the right side of the screen.

Click on the Purchase Order option from the drop-down menu, and you’ll be able to add both category and item details to the purchase order.

The purchase order feature in QuickBooks Online is easily navigated.

Once the purchase order has been entered, you can send the purchase order electronically to your vendor or supplier for processing.

In QuickBooks Online, you can also update the purchase order status once an invoice has been received by copying the information to a bill for AP processing.

There is also an option to view all open purchase orders by running the Open Purchase Order List report, which can be run by product/service or by vendor.

One thing to note is that the purchase order feature in QuickBooks Online will need to be turned on.

This can be done in the Settings area of the application.

For a small business this can work well. But as a company grows this will create a bottleneck with your accounting team because you won’t want all your staff to have access to QuickBooks and see your accounting data.

QuickBooks does not have granular access controls.

Also, there are no purchase order approval workflows and other important functions for properly managing purchasing within a company.

Budgeting

Both QuickBooks Online Plus and QuickBooks Online Advanced offer basic budgeting options that can be useful for your finance team.

You have the option to use previous year totals or current year totals to prepare your budget.

Because QuickBooks Online uses accounts that are in your current chart of accounts, if you wish to add a particular account to your budget, you’ll first have to add the account to your chart of accounts.

The Budget feature lets you create a new budget for multiple fiscal years.

A Pre-fill data option lets you prefill a newly created budget using previous year or current year totals, and you have the option to subdivide the budget by customer if you desire.

You can create a budget for up to seven fiscal years, and have the choice to create a monthly, quarterly, or yearly budget.

If you subscribe to the Advanced plan, you can also import budgets as a .CSV file.

There’s also an option to copy an existing budget, which allows you to use last year’s financial data in your new budget.

Once a budget has been created, you can run either the Budget Overview report or a Budget vs. Actuals report so you can see how close your current totals are to your budgeted amounts.

The budgeting in QuickBooks Online can be beneficial from a reporting perspective but it will not restrict and control expenditure during the purchasing process and give you real-time budget vs expenditure data at the point of approving a purchase like Planergy, a dedicated spend management software that integrates with QuickBooks Online.

Invoice Processing

Invoice processing is simple in QuickBooks Online, but there is no real automation involved in the process.

For example, once you receive an invoice for a purchase, if the invoice matches the purchase order, you can change the status of the purchase order by converting it to a bill.

However, there is currently no option for an invoice to automatically connect with a purchase order.

Create a bill from scratch or upload an electronic invoice directly in QuickBooks Online.

If you have already created a purchase order for an expense, you can create a bill for that purchase order by choosing the Copy to Bill function, which will automatically close the purchase order.

A dedicated AP automation software that integrates with QuickBooks Online, like Planergy, can greatly improve invoice processing in QuickBooks.

This is achieved by automatically importing invoices, digitally archive them, scanning them using OCR and AI, automatically two- or three-way match the invoice against PO and GRN, flagging duplicate invoices, highlighting any differences between PO and invoice, and automatically routing invoices for approval.

Reducing manual steps and managing by exception greatly improves invoice processing time and reduces the cost of processing invoices.

Supplier and Vendor Management

Vendor management capability is decent in QuickBooks Online.

You can add the usual contact information, including a billing address, by clicking on the Vendor Details tab.

To view all current supplier and vendor activity, click on the Transaction List option, which lists all current transactions related to a particular vendor including bills, purchase orders, and payments.

The Expenses option lets you manage all vendor activity from one screen.

One of the most useful features in QuickBooks Online is the ability to complete all related vendor activity from within the Vendors screen.

For example, if a vendor has an open bill, you can schedule it for payment directly from the Vendors screen.

You can also update the status of a purchase order from the Vendors screen, copying information over to a bill.

While this is extremely useful, unfortunately, it doesn’t lend itself to automating the AP/procurement process, since all of these updates will need to be entered manually.

A dedicated spend management platform, like Planergy, will add additional vendor management features. These include supplier approval, vendor performance management, vendor management KPI tracking, PunchOut catalog integrations, and reporting easily on vendor spend.

User Access Controls

QuickBooks Online allows you to add a new user to the system at any time. Unfortunately, there are only two levels of users available:

Standard Users

Standard users can be given full or limited system access.

Standard users with full access can view, add, and change information in both Customers and Sales and Vendors and Purchases.

This includes writing checks, making bank transfers, making deposits, and changing system preferences.

Those with limited access can perform most job functions, but cannot print checks, view bank registers, adjust inventory totals, view income and expense totals, or set up multicurrency options.

There is no option to customize which features and functions the system users can have access to.
Company Admin

Company Admins have complete access to all system features including sending money, changing passwords, and adding users.

New users can be given All, Limited, or No access in QuickBooks Online.

Two other types of access can be used that don’t count toward the number of current system users:

Reports Only

This designation allows employees to access standard financial reports while restricting payroll reports and those that contact personal information.
Time Tracking Only

If you use time-tracking, this designation allows employees to add their time sheets to the system.

While these options may be suitable for smaller businesses, larger businesses will likely need a more sophisticated way to assign access controls for their employees.

A separate spend management platform allows you to leave access to QuickBooks to the finance team while giving more granular controls around purchasing. For example, restricting access to view POs from just one department.

Reporting

For general financial reporting, QuickBooks Online offers solid reporting options.

For expense management purposes, those reports are limited to the following:

Open purchase order list
Open purchase order detail
Purchases by product or service detail
Purchases by vendor detail

Expense management reporting in QuickBooks Online is limited.

While there are several accounts payable and vendor reports available, the reports provide minimal information that can be useful for proper spend management.

A dedicated spend management software, like Planergy, can include deep reporting functionality for accounts payable and procurement with automated spend analysis.

Spend Management Best Practices

Spend management best practices are important for small and mid-size businesses.

These best practices include:

Automating workflows and removing manual tasks
Vetting and selecting vendors carefully
Procurement of goods and supplies at the best price for the best terms
Maintaining a good business relationship with vendors which should include regular communication
Taking advantage of early payment discounts when offered
Setting departmental and individual spending limits to stay within budget
Making sure that vendors and suppliers are always paid on time and accurately
Using analytics to make the best possible business decisions

Automation plays a key role in spend management best practices. For example, it’s difficult to pay vendors on time when invoices aren’t approved regularly.

It’s also difficult to have a complete picture of your finances when invoices are sitting on someone’s desk waiting to be approved.

When using manual AP systems, it can also be difficult to take advantage of early payment discounts.

That’s why it can be beneficial to your business to use a procure-to-pay application that integrates with accounting software applications like QuickBooks Online.

Use a Dedicated Spend Application with QuickBooks Online for Improved Spend Management

Using a dedicated spend application like Planergy can increase the effectiveness of your accounting software application while also automating much of the purchase order and accounts payable process.

For example, Planergy offers the following features that can significantly reduce or even eliminate data entry, provide real-time budget vs. actual reports, and true AP automation.

Two- and Three-Way Matching

While you can match a purchase order to an invoice in QuickBooks Online, the process has to be completed manually.

Using an application like Planergy, incoming invoices are automatically matched to shipping receipts and purchase orders using artificial intelligence and OCR technology.
Automated PO Processes

Instead of using a manual purchase order system, mapping Planergy to QuickBooks Online allows you to automate the entire purchase order process from the initial purchase request to automating the entire purchase order workflow process.

Using a procure-to-pay software application also allows you to better monitor spending while reducing time-consuming manual processes.

In addition, you can manage your purchases from initial request to approval, to payment, from any device or mobile app.
Purchase and Invoice Approval Workflows

One of the biggest issues that impact accounts payable is delayed approvals. Using a manual approval process, paper invoices are routed to approvers, where they can remain on a desk for days or weeks at a time.

Even if you receive invoices electronically through QuickBooks, those invoices will still need to be routed to approvers before they can be paid.

Using procure-to-pay software streamlines the approval process by using an automated approval workflow that eliminates the manual approval process.
Budgeting Controls

Planergy gives you real-time visibility of spend versus budget.

It can also restrict purchasing when you reach your budget requiring approval on a budget increase before further spend can be committed against the budget.

This gives you better information when approving POs while also having the ability to ensure you are staying within budget.
Supplier Relationship Management and Approvals

QuickBooks Online allows you to enter basic vendor details, but it’s impossible to adequately manage large numbers of purchases using QuickBooks applications alone.

But adding a procure-to-pay application like Planergy offers easy vendor onboarding with centralized data management capability that can support vendor systems and supply catalogs.

In turn, a better supplier relationship can also lead to better pricing and more flexible payment terms.
Spend Analytics

If you’ve ever wondered exactly what your business is spending its money on, having access to true spending analytics is vital.

While QuickBooks Online offers good standard reporting options, there’s little available that can help with true spend management.

On the other hand, procure-to-pay applications like Planergy offer real-time business intelligence reports and user dashboards that can be fully customized to suit the needs of your business and help turn data into actionable insights.

Unlike QuickBooks reports, procure-to-pay applications offer insight into spending levels and where you’re spending. You’ll also be able to track every purchase you make.
Accounts Payable Automation

While you can manage invoices in QuickBooks online everything is quite manual.

Planergy introduces AP automation to automatically scan and match invoices, automatically forward invoices for approval to the correct person, all while ensuring invoices are backed up digitally.
Accurate AP Reporting

Instead of waiting until a bill has been received or paid, using a procure-to-pay application allows you to view budget vs. actuals in real-time.

You’ll also have access to business intelligence reports while ensuring a quicker, more accurate month-end closing process which includes committed spend totals.
Granular User Access Controls

User access is an important part of any application. QuickBooks Online offers multi-level user access but fails to provide granular access control that keeps access to accounting data strictly to accountants.

A better solution is to use an application that offers granular user access controls, allowing authorized users to access procure-to-pay features without having complete access to accounting software applications.

As a result, AP and purchasing staff have easy access to the functions they need without access to confidential data such as payroll and bank account information.

For added security, things like two-factor authentication and the ability to set multi-level permissions based on roles help keep confidential information secure.

Have the Best of Both Worlds

QuickBooks Online is a great application for general accounting, but it offers little in the way of spend management capability.

But when coupled with an easily integrated, procure-to-pay application, like Planergy, you can continue to use the accounting software you’re comfortable with while bringing AP automation to your business.

With a procure-to-pay application, you can manage all of your purchase orders, from initial request to approval directly in the application, without the need to access QuickBooks Online.

In addition, procure-to-pay applications like Planergy offer AP automation such as three-way matching automation, with the ability to automatically import and generate bills in QuickBooks Online for all approved expenses.

Using an automated procure-to-pay application will allow you to reduce or even eliminate paper invoices, create an automated workflow approval system that ensures that invoices are promptly approved for timely payment, and eliminate the need for duplicate or repetitive data entry.

Using QuickBooks Online combined with a procure-to-pay application like Planergy can eliminate Excel spreadsheets, save time, and still provide the accounting capability your small business needs.

What’s your goal today?

1. Use Planergy to manage purchasing and accounts payable

We’ve helped save billions of dollars for our clients through better spend management, process automation in purchasing and finance, and reducing financial risks. To discover how we can help grow your business:

Read our case studies, client success stories, and testimonials.
Visit our Accounts Payable Automation Software page to see how Planergy can automate your AP process reducing you the hours of manual processing, stoping erroneous payments, and driving value across your organization.
Learn about us, and our long history of helping companies just like yours.

2. Download our guide “Preparing Your AP Department For The Future”

Download a free copy of our guide to future proofing your accounts payable department. You’ll also be subscribed to our and notified about new articles or if have something interesting to share.

3. Learn best practices for purchasing, finance, and more

Browse hundreds of articles, containing an amazing number of useful tools, techniques, and best practices. Many readers tell us they would have paid consultants for the advice in these articles.

The post Spend Management for QuickBooks Online appeared first on Planergy Software.

QuickBooks For Manufacturing

Mary Girsch-Bock — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 17:10:15 +0000

Download a free copy of "Preparing Your AP Department For The Future", to learn:

How to transition from paper and excel to eInvoicing.
How AP can improve relationships with your key suppliers.
How to capture early payment discounts and avoid late payment penalties.
How better management in AP can give you better flexibility for cash flow management.

Download Free Copy

QuickBooks For Manufacturing

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Written by Mary Girsch-Bock
20 min read

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Last edited

June 24, 2024

Accounting for manufacturing can present a unique set of challenges.

Not only do you need an accounting software application designed to manage standard income and expenses, but you also need a software application that can track raw materials, calculate costs, process automatic builds, and handle both assemblies and subassemblies.

You’ll also want an application that can manage the entire production process, from initial product creation to subsequent sales.

That’s a lot to ask of any software, particularly one that was originally designed for small businesses.

But Intuit has risen to the occasion with QuickBooks Manufacturing, offering all of the above and more.

While all of the general features of QuickBooks are available in the manufacturing version, the application was created with the manufacturing process in mind, providing users with the functionality needed to manage a manufacturing business from start to finish.

Is QuickBooks Good for Manufacturing Businesses?

While the desktop version of QuickBooks is better suited for service businesses, there is an option available designed for manufacturing businesses:

QuickBooks Enterprise Manufacturing & Wholesale edition

QuickBooks Enterprise Manufacturing is part of QuickBooks Desktop’s line of industry-specific applications created for targeted niche markets.

And if you’re not in the market for an enterprise-level application, a less powerful version of the application is also available from QuickBooks Premier.

Both are designed to fit the needs of small to mid-size manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors that have special pricing rules or more complex assembly requirements.

Here are just a few of the industry-specific features you’ll find in QuickBooks Enterprise Manufacturing.

A manufacturing chart of accounts

The chart of accounts is the backbone of your entire accounting structure, which is why you wouldn’t use a retail-based chart of accounts for your manufacturing company.

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise for Manufacturing offers a manufacturing-specific chart of accounts.

During the setup process, you can choose the appropriate industry for your business, and QuickBooks will install an industry-specific chart of accounts that can be edited as needed.

If you’re in the manufacturing business, you know how important it is to manage builds, track inventory, process purchase orders, and manage sales orders.

Better order management

The available-to-promise feature allows you to provide your customers with greater detail on out-of-stock orders.

Provide customers with a fulfillment date using the Available to Promise feature.

Using this feature, you can provide customers with a promised fulfillment date, making it easy to handle large orders or incomplete shipments, while providing better tracking of the number of items on hand, pending, or currently on order.

Bill of materials cost tracking

The ability to track the bill of materials costs can simplify your life.

This feature allows you to track the bill of materials for all of your products, including related costs such as subassemblies, labor, and overhead.

The Bill of Materials cost tracking allows you to track assembly and sub-assembly costs, along with labor and overhead.

QuickBooks Enterprise Manufacturing will also automatically update all associated costs when component costs change, eliminating the need to update information manually.

Lot and serial number tracking

Depending on your business, you may want to track products by serial number.

This is particularly important if you need to track warranty coverage or repair or maintenance schedules for your inventory.

QuickBooks for Manufacturing offers both lot and serial number tracking.

Lot number tracking can also be important for tracking finished products that were manufactured in the same batch, and can come in handy should there be a product recall in the future.

Assemblies management

Managing all of the parts that go into a finished product can be overwhelming. Using the assemblies management feature in QuickBooks Enterprise Manufacturing, you can see immediately how many finished products you can build with the materials you have on hand.

Even better, if you need to build more items than you have materials for, the application can easily identify where the shortage is and will create a purchase order so you can get the missing materials in stock quickly.

The build assembly feature provides details on each part currently in stock.

Assemblies management also allows you to set inventory levels, with a purchase order automatically generated when the stock falls below the preset number.

But one of the most time-saving features is the automatic pricing update should a component price change.

There are also options to set pricing based on raw materials, create a set price for the item, or markup the cost to achieve your desired profit margin.

And to save time, you can choose to automatically build required subassemblies instead of having to set each build up individually.

Advanced pricing capability

The Advanced Pricing option (QuickBooks Platinum) allows you to set up specific pricing rules that suit your business, including special pricing start and stop dates.

You can also create quantity discounts for bulk purchasers, and set up customer-specific discounts for your best customers.

Advanced pricing lets you choose a pricing strategy that fits your business.

Additional options include the ability to create a sales price rule by item or by item type, with assigned conditions that need to be met.

You can also adjust pricing by a fixed percent, for a sale, or by a fixed amount if you wish to temporarily lower prices.

Advanced inventory management

If you have more than one warehouse, you’ll need a way to manage all of those locations.

With the ability to manage multiple warehouses, you can easily track inventory by bin, by pallet, and even fulfill a single order from multiple warehouses.

You can also track and transfer inventory between multiple locations, track products by serial number, and even run essential reports such as an inventory valuation report.

Inventory can be tracked and managed between multiple locations.

Mobile Barcode Scanning

The wireless barcode scanning feature available in QuickBooks Enterprise Manufacturing (Platinum version only), allows you to quickly scan in received items, take orders remotely, by using a scanner or your Android phone with Bluetooth, and handle pick tickets from any location.

The mobile barcode scanning app lets you send messages or add notes to any item.

Along with scanning inventory, you can also send notes back to the office. Any changes you make in the field with barcode scanning will also automatically update your inventory totals in real-time, so no manual data entry is required.

Purchase Order Management

Properly managing your purchase orders is a must. With the purchase order management feature in QuickBooks Enterprise Manufacturing, you can manage purchase orders for multiple sites and statuses.

The Purchase Order Management features let you manage all of your P.O.s proactively.

You can view all P.O.s by number, vendor, and site, as well as view their current status.

The amount of the P.O., as well as the date, are also visible, with a place to view any notes or memos made on the P.O.

Manufacturing-specific reporting

Good reporting is a must, and QuickBooks Enterprise Manufacturing offers flexible reporting options, with more than 200 standard reports available including the following:

Inventory valuation summary report
Inventory stock status by item
Inventory stock status by vendor
Assembly shortage by item

Complete financial statement reporting is included in the application, and QuickBooks Enterprise Manufacturing offers a series of bundled reports to make running reports even easier.

Advanced reporting allows you to create custom reports using raw data.

In addition, all reports are fully customizable, with users able to create a custom report and save the report for future use.

Along with the stand-out features above, QuickBooks Enterprise Manufacturing offers the following features:

Centralized vendor information: Having all of the necessary vendor information in one area makes it easy to manage vendor data, update pricing, and even create alternate vendors that can be used if items become out of stock.
Customize user permissions: If you have multiple levels of employees, you can easily manage their user permissions, providing easy system access where needed while restricting access to confidential matters such as financials and payroll data.
Cycle counts: Using the cycle counts feature, you can easily count inventory in real-time. Use the barcode scanner for quick counting, or manually count and enter totals directly into the application from any location using the central inventory dashboard
Backorder tracking: Using the backorder tracking feature, you can track all back ordered items on your purchase orders, while viewing items that are waiting to be shipped.
Increased capacity: If your business is growing, you’ll want an application that can continue to fit your business needs. QuickBooks Enterprise Manufacturing can support up to 1 million customers, vendors, and inventory items, 100,000 classes, 45 custom fields, and its most powerful edition can support up to 40 users.
E-commerce integration: Now available as an add-on feature, E-commerce integration allows you to easily partner with online stores and marketplaces while tracking inventory counts from each platform. Online integration also makes it easy to link to a preferred shipping partner, as well as manage product listings on multiple platforms and channels.

How to set up your manufacturing company in QuickBooks

Aside from your company setup, you’ll have to spend a significant amount of time setting up QuickBooks Enterprise Manufacturing.

These are a few of the areas that you’ll need to concentrate on.

Choose your inventory accounting method: QuickBooks Enterprise Manufacturing allows you to track inventory using FIFO (first in, first out), average costing, or landed cost. Be sure to choose your accounting method before setting up your inventory.
Setting up inventory: To manage your inventory items properly, you’ll need to take some time to set them up. This includes assigning proper pricing for each item, establishing reorder points, and identifying whether a product is part of an assembly or sold individually. When setting up inventory, keep in mind that the inventory feature also allows you to track inventory to a specific bin or from pallets across multiple warehouses.
Design your inventory assembly: This should include your bill of materials, which, when complete, will provide details on the total amount of labor and materials required to assemble and ready a product for sale.
Build assembly:If you’re using multiple components to create a finished product, you’ll need to create your build assembly. This includes all components used in any assemblies or subassemblies you may create.
Set up your vendors and customers:The Vendor Center in QuickBooks Enterprise for Manufacturing lets you easily manage all of your vendors, including alternate vendors. This allows you to keep vendor list prices in a central location for easy comparison. There’s also a Customer Center available that allows you to easily manage all of your customers in a single location.
Set up payroll (if applicable):If you’re using QuickBooks Payroll, you’ll need to set up payroll information. This can be completed while the system is operational, but it’s much easier to complete the process before going live.
Create user permissions: If you have multiple system users, you’ll need to establish employee access levels to ensure that confidential data is only accessible to authorized employees.

Once this is complete, you’re ready to start using QuickBooks Enterprise for Manufacturing. If you get stuck, keep in mind that Intuit offers numerous training and support options that you can utilize to help you get started.

How much does QuickBooks Enterprise Manufacturing Cost?

QuickBooks Enterprise Manufacturing is available as an annual desktop subscription, or it can be hosted in the cloud.

The current desktop subscription is available in three levels: Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. An annual Gold subscription starts at $1,489.50, with Platinum $1,831.50, and Diamond $3,618, with pricing good for the first year only.

For those interested in cloud access, pricing is per month, with Gold level starting at $178.16 for a single user, Platinum running $206.06, and Diamond starting at $355.10, with pricing good for the first year only.

Prices include access to the QuickBooks Priority Circle level of support, Advanced Reporting, and automatic product upgrades.

Is QuickBooks Enterprise Manufacturing right for my business?

The bottom line is if you’re in the manufacturing business, you know how important it is to manage builds, track inventory, process purchase orders, and manage sales orders.

But you’re also tasked with managing your business overall, including banking, accounts payable and accounts receivable, and paying your employees.

With QuickBooks Enterprise Manufacturing & Wholesale Edition, you can do all of that and more.

What’s your goal today?

1. Use Planergy to manage purchasing and accounts payable

Read our case studies, client success stories, and testimonials.
Visit our “Solutions” page to see the areas of your business we can help improve to see if we’re a good fit for each other.
Learn about us, and our long history of helping companies just like yours.

2. Download our guide “Preparing Your AP Department For The Future”

Download a free copy of our guide to future proofing your accounts payable department. You’ll also be subscribed to our and notified about new articles or if have something interesting to share.

3. Learn best practices for purchasing, finance, and more

Browse hundreds of articles, containing an amazing number of useful tools, techniques, and best practices. Many readers tell us they would have paid consultants for the advice in these articles.

The post QuickBooks For Manufacturing appeared first on Planergy Software.

Quickbooks For Retail

Mary Girsch-Bock — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 16:36:06 +0000

Download a free copy of "Preparing Your AP Department For The Future", to learn:

How to transition from paper and excel to eInvoicing.
How AP can improve relationships with your key suppliers.
How to capture early payment discounts and avoid late payment penalties.
How better management in AP can give you better flexibility for cash flow management.

Download Free Copy

Quickbooks For Retail

Category

Accounting QuickBooks Retail

Written by Mary Girsch-Bock
21 min read

Tags

Last edited

June 24, 2024

One of the best things about using QuickBooks Desktop applications is its ability to suit almost every type of business.

But did you know that QuickBooks Desktop also offers industry-specific applications for contractors, retailers, wholesalers, nonprofit organizations, and service businesses?

Not available in QuickBooks Pro, these niche editions are offered in QuickBooks Premier and QuickBooks Enterprise applications.

Today, we’ll take a look at Intuit’s QuickBooks Desktop Retail Edition. Designed for both brick and mortar retailers as well as online sellers, QuickBooks Retail Edition can be easily paired with QuickBooks Point of Sale for a complete front/back office solution for retail businesses.

QuickBooks for Retail includes a default chart of accounts designed for a retail business, with the option to customize the chart of accounts to best suit your business.

The application easily handles both vendor and customer product returns, allows you to automatically receive inventory shipments, and can even build assemblies, a must for those that build products for sale.

A great fit for small businesses as well as online sellers, QuickBooks for Retail offers a variety of features designed for a retail business, including complete inventory management, pricing management, sales order fulfillment, as well as complete tracking of customer sales from initial purchase to product shipment.

QuickBooks for retail also tracks sales tax, creates and emails customer invoices, and provides excellent retail-specific reporting options.

Easy System Navigation

One of the benefits of using QuickBooks applications is consistency across all editions.

Because QuickBooks Desktop editions all utilize the same user-friendly navigation screen, it’s easy to make the jump to industry-specific applications such as QuickBooks Retail Edition.

QuickBooks Retail Edition offers easy system navigation.

At the top of the screen, you have a drop-down menu bar that provides easy access to the specific area that you wish to access within the application.

You can also access specific functions from the workflow area on the center of the user screen, including the option to create an estimate, sales order, or purchase order.

You can create a purchase order, receive inventory, enter bills, process sales orders, and even manage sales tax all from the navigational screen.

And when used with QuickBooks Point of Sale system, the Retail edition can serve as a back-office application to manage your business.

In addition to standard features designed specifically for retailers, the 2022 version of QuickBooks Retail Edition includes several features designed to make your life easier including the following.

E-commerce Integration

If you’re an online seller, being able to integrate with your selling platform is a must. The latest edition of QuickBooks Retail Edition offers integration with top online stores and marketplaces.

QuickBooks Retail Edition offers integration with multiple e-commerce business platforms.

Available as an add-on feature, e-commerce integration ensures that all sales data is automatically updated in your QuickBooks Retail application, regardless of what sales platform or POS system you’re using.

This helps to ensure that information such as inventory counts and sales data are automatically updated when a sale occurs.

This also allows you to easily integrate the application with the shipping vendor of your choice.

Though the e-commerce feature is an add-on option, if you’re running a robust online store, it’s worth the investment.

Enhanced Computing Power

With the latest edition of QuickBooks Desktop, you’ll find improved performance and better integration capability, making the system faster as well as more responsive.

Having a responsive system at your fingertips is important during the sales process. This feature is available in all 2022 QuickBooks Desktop applications, including all industry-specific versions.

Sales Order Fulfillment Worksheet

For larger retailers, managing multiple sales orders can be challenging.

The new sales order fulfillment worksheet makes the process a lot easier, allowing you to view the sales order date, ship date, if any, open amount, amount to fulfill, and whether the customer has been invoiced for the order.

The new sales order fulfillment worksheet manages sales orders from one location.

In addition, once you’re ready to invoice, you can create multiple invoices simultaneously using the included batch system. You’ll also get a prompt to generate an invoice once an order has shipped.

Desktop Mobile App

Part of being in business means paying bills. With the addition of the QuickBooks Desktop mobile app, paying bills just got a lot easier.

The desktop mobile app lets you upload bills directly to QuickBooks.

The mobile app lets you snap a photo of a bill, import the image, and review it before payment. Or you can have your vendors simply email their invoices, automatically drafting a bill transaction for you to review.

Multiple E-mail Contacts

Managing your customers while keeping them informed about discounts, sales, and special promotions is vital for retail businesses.

Using the included CRM and the multiple email contacts feature in QuickBooks Desktop, you can do all that and more.

The multiple email contacts feature makes it easier to send out sales and promotional information to your customers.

You can also create custom groups, customize any email message, and even design and save various email templates for future communication.

Bill Payment Scheduling

When concentrating on processing sales orders and getting those orders out to your customers, the last thing on your mind may be paying your bills.

The payment scheduler lets you pay bills when you desire.

With the new payment scheduler, you don’t have to worry about missing payments.

Just choose the date that you wish the payment to be made, choose the funding source, and QuickBooks will handle the rest.

You can even choose to pay your vendors electronically, by bank transfer, or by sending a check.

Advanced Pricing

One of most useful features in QuickBooks Retail Edition is the availability of the Advanced Pricing feature, which offers easy price customization.

The Advanced Pricing option offers easy price customization.

The Advanced Pricing feature allows you to create and automate price rules specific to your business.

You can offer special pricing for discounts, bulk orders, seasonal promotions, or specific customers, eliminating the need to override standing pricing during the sales process. Rules can be set up by item or by customer.

You can also add start and stop dates for sales events, and even set up quantity discounts for bulk orders.

Advanced reporting

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise includes more than two hundred standard reports, all of which can be customized using the Advanced Reporting feature.

QuickBooks Desktop Retail Edition offers excellent industry-specific reporting.

Apply filters, add or remove specific data points and add custom fields to any report, with the ability to save any custom report as a template for easier future use.

As a bonus, you’ll also have access to more than a dozen industry-specific reports that provide the details you need to successfully manage your retail business, including the following reports:

Gross margin by inventory: This report provides profitability levels for each item you sell, allowing you to make adjustments proactively.
Monthly sales by customer: The monthly sales by customer lets you see your customer buying habits and view who your best customers are.
Vendor return detail: The vendor return detail report allows you to view a list of products commonly returned to each vendor you do business with.
Alternate vendor reports: What do you do if your regular supplier is out of the items that you regularly order? Ideally, you would have a list of alternate vendors set up that you could order from. The alternate vendor report lets you access and review vendor detail, compare pricing between vendors and even view if a vendor has any outstanding sales orders.

Also available is a sales graph that displays monthly sales totals by product and by vendor, while an accounts payable graph displays amounts owed to various vendors.

Inventory tracking

If you own a retail business, you know how important it is to manage your inventory levels. QuickBooks Retail Edition provides you with all the necessary functions you need to ensure that inventory is managed properly, including the ability to track inventory by item.

You can also set up a standard cost and a sales price for each inventory item you have in stock. In addition, with the reorder feature, you can enter a reorder total, with the system prompting you when inventory reaches that level, so you can easily reorder the item.

If you’re tired of managing your retail business with multiple accounting applications or Excel spreadsheets, you may want to consider switching to QuickBooks Retail.

Start using QuickBooks Retail Edition

To begin using any accounting software, you first have to create a chart of accounts designed for your business.

For those using QuickBooks Retail Edition, that job is completed for you, since the application includes a fully customizable chart of accounts designed specifically for a retail business.

Once your chart of accounts is ready, you can begin to add your products and customer information.

If you use the advanced pricing feature, (only available in Enterprise) you’ll be able to set up product-driven promotions, add manufacturer/vendor discounts, offer quantity discounts, and apply the appropriate sales tax total to any order.

Next, you’ll want to establish inventory management rules for your products. QuickBooks Premier Retail offers solid inventory management capability, but for those looking for more advanced inventory features, you’ll want to use QuickBooks Enterprise Platinum or Diamond, which includes advanced inventory features level subscription which tracks inventory across multiple warehouses, tracks products by lot number or serial number, and offers automated product receiving using a mobile barcode scanning.

If you’re integrating QuickBooks Retail Edition with QuickBooks Point of Sale, you’ll be able to accept payment from your point of sale application.

But for those that are using Retail on its own, you’ll want to set up the QuickBooks Payments option, which includes the ability to accept credit card payments, debit cards, and ACH bank transfers.

You’ll also be able to enter your daily sales receipts directly into QuickBooks Retail using the Daily Sales/Payments Summary, which includes a template for easier data entry.

If you have employees to pay, you may want to add QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll or Assisted Payroll, making it easier to track employee time and process payroll accurately.

And finally, you’ll want to establish data level permissions for your staff, providing with the appropriate system access while ensuring the confidential data such as payroll is not accessible to unauthorized individuals.

QuickBooks Desktop Premier Retail vs. QuickBooks Enterprise Retail

Not sure which version of QuickBooks Desktop is right for your retail business? Here’s a quick rundown on each.

QuickBooks Desktop Premier Retail Edition

The Premier version of QuickBooks Desktop Retail Edition is a good fit for smaller retail businesses with less than five system users.

Premier offers the same industry-specific capabilities that the Enterprise version does, but does not include advanced inventory or advanced pricing capabilities.

However, if your inventory is fairly simple and your pricing straightforward, QuickBooks Premier Retail Edition will likely be sufficient for your business needs.

Just be prepared to upgrade to the more powerful Enterprise Edition should you add additional locations or users.

QuickBooks Premier’s yearly subscription starts at $549.99 a year, with add-ons such a payroll extra.

QuickBooks Enterprise Retail Edition

For retail businesses with multiple locations or a large number of users, the Enterprise version is a much better fit.

Enterprise is also a must for those with more complicated pricing levels or those that need to have access to more comprehensive inventory management features.

Even if you own a smaller retail business, if you want to offer multiple pricing levels, have frequent sales or promotions, or want to offer your customers bulk discounts or different pricing levels, Enterprise is the way to go.

QuickBooks Enterprise is the most expensive of all of the QuickBooks Desktop applications, starting at $1,275 a year, with pricing depending on the number of system users as well as which level of Enterprise you’re subscribing to.

You’ll also pay extra for payroll, should you need it.

QuickBooks Desktop Retail Edition can help your business grow

If you’re tired of managing your retail business with multiple accounting applications or Excel spreadsheets, you may want to consider switching to QuickBooks Retail.

Designed to provide front/back office bookkeeping and accounting for your store in real time, the Enterprise version easily integrates with multiple e-commerce platforms, offers multiple pricing levels, and has solid inventory management capability, all from a single platform.

What’s your goal today?

1. Use Planergy to manage purchasing and accounts payable

Read our case studies, client success stories, and testimonials.
Visit our “Solutions” page to see the areas of your business we can help improve to see if we’re a good fit for each other.
Learn about us, and our long history of helping companies just like yours.

2. Download our guide “Preparing Your AP Department For The Future”

Download a free copy of our guide to future proofing your accounts payable department. You’ll also be subscribed to our and notified about new articles or if have something interesting to share.

3. Learn best practices for purchasing, finance, and more

Browse hundreds of articles, containing an amazing number of useful tools, techniques, and best practices. Many readers tell us they would have paid consultants for the advice in these articles.

The post Quickbooks For Retail appeared first on Planergy Software.

QuickBooks For Professional Services

Mary Girsch-Bock — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 15:08:33 +0000

Download a free copy of "Preparing Your AP Department For The Future", to learn:

How to transition from paper and excel to eInvoicing.
How AP can improve relationships with your key suppliers.
How to capture early payment discounts and avoid late payment penalties.
How better management in AP can give you better flexibility for cash flow management.

Download Free Copy

QuickBooks For Professional Services

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Written by Mary Girsch-Bock
19 min read

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Last edited

June 5, 2024

QuickBooks Desktop is a flexible accounting software application designed for small to mid-sized businesses.

While the desktop application cannot complete with custom-designed ERP applications, many larger businesses have continued to use QuickBooks Desktop applications for their bookkeeping and accounting needs.

QuickBooks Desktop for small and mid-sized businesses

QuickBooks Desktop was first introduced in 1998 and modeled after Intuit’s first financial application, Quicken, which provided personal accounting capability, but no double-entry accounting.

When QuickBooks Pro was initially introduced it was aimed at the non-accountant small business owner looking for a way to do accounting other than an Excel spreadsheet.

In 2000, additional features were added to the application, but it still lacked the specificity that many small business owners were looking for.

That all changed in 2003 when Intuit introduced the first industry-specific editions of QuickBooks, which have grown in popularity and are now available in several editions, including the professional services version, which we’ll talk about in this article.

What is QuickBooks Desktop Professional Services?

While all niche industries can make an argument for an application designed specifically for their business needs, the professional services industry offers several challenges that need to be appropriately addressed including solid time tracking capability, flexible billing rates, and the option to better track project data.

QuickBooks Desktop Professional Services does that and more. Designed for those providing services rather than selling products, the Professional Services edition is available in both the Premier and Enterprise versions of QuickBooks Desktop.

In this article, we’ll take a look at QuickBooks Enterprise for Professional Services, which is designed for mid-sized businesses and can support up to forty system users.

However, if your business has less than five QuickBooks users, you may want to consider using QuickBooks Premier Professional Services, a better option for smaller businesses.

Today, QuickBooks Enterprise Professional Services is loaded with features, including all those found in regular QuickBooks Desktop applications, such as double-entry accounting, online banking, bill payment, and invoicing.

But it also includes features and functionality designed specifically for service professionals. Here’s a breakdown of some of the latest features.

* Bill Workflow Approvals – (Platinum version) Bill workflow approvals is a brand new feature that allows you to better manage your cash flow by creating customizable workflow approvals. This new feature also includes reminders when approval deadlines approach.

You can set up custom workflows with the new Bill Workflow Approvals feature.

You can choose the custom workflow to suit your business, and can even customize the email message that the assigned recipient will receive. You can also choose whether you wish to copy anyone on the email. Once a workflow process has been set up for a particular vendor, whenever you enter a bill for that vendor, you will receive a message that the bill needs approval.

The Bill Approval option appears when a custom workflow has been set up for that vendor.

This message serves as a reminder that the bill has to be submitted for approval before processing.

* Scheduling and Paying Bills – Another new feature in QuickBooks Enterprise Professional Services is the option to schedule bills for payment. A particularly useful feature for
smaller businesses with limited cash flow, using the billing scheduling and payment feature allows you to review any open balances, track sales orders, and plan in advance when to pay a bill.

The Scheduling and Bill Payment feature allows you to schedule bill payments.

When scheduling a payment, you have the option to choose the form of payment you wish to use including bank transfers or a physical check.

* Upload Bills to QuickBooks – Using the QuickBooks Desktop mobile app, you can now upload your bills directly into the application.

Using the QuickBooks Desktop Mobile App, you can easily upload bills.

All you have to do is snap a photo of the bill and click on the import feature. You’ll be able to review the bill for accuracy before it posts into your account.

Another benefit to using this feature is that you can have your vendors email their invoices directly to QuickBooks, where they will be available for you to review.

* Attach Documents to Transactions – Along with uploading invoices, you can also attach documents to any transaction using the mobile app.

Use the QuickBooks Desktop Mobile App to attach documents to any transaction.

Doing so eliminates the need to store multiple documents on your system. You can also upload and attach multiple documents simultaneously if desired.

* Customize Bill Payment Stubs – Your vendors no longer have to wait for a paper check to receive a bill payment voucher. Using this feature, you can add your business logo and format the payment stub to suit your business.

You can now customize bill payment stubs for all of your vendors.

You can choose the vendors you wish from the dropdown list and create a custom email to send along with the bill payment stub.

* Multiple Email Contacts – Do you have a newsletter, targeted sale, or other information you wish to send to a select group of contacts? Using the multiple email contact feature, you can do just that.

The Email Contact List allows you to choose the recipients for a group email.

This is a great way to get custom messaging out to the appropriate recipients without having to manually enter each email address.

The professional services industry offers several challenges that need to be appropriately addressed including solid time tracking capability, flexible billing rates, and the option to better track project data.

Other features

Along with these new features, QuickBooks Enterprise Professional Services also offers numerous features designed for professional services businesses. These include:

Time Tracking with QuickBooks Time Elite (formerly TSheets Elite)

Time tracking is important for any business, but particularly so for service businesses who have to manage timesheets and bill their time accordingly.

Using QuickBooks Time Elite, professional services users can track time spent on any project.

But even more important, the time can then be automatically rolled up into any subsequent project reports as well as into QuickBooks Payroll, eliminating the need to enter data twice.

This allows users to track their time from any location, whether it’s from their home, the office, or the client’s office.

Project Costing

It can be difficult to know if a client project is profitable if all of the project management components are not tracked properly.

Not only can you easily track project cost projections in real-time using the job costing dashboard, but you can also track the actual expenses to see if you’re on track for profitability or if cost adjustments are needed.

Best of all, QuickBooks Enterprise will automatically create client invoices based on data entered in the system, eliminating the need to bill clients separately.

Flexible Billing Rates

As a professional services firm, your billing rates likely change frequently, depending on the job completed, who completed it, and the level of difficulty in completing the job.

That’s why being able to assign different billing rates to your employees based on a variety of criteria is so important.

By setting custom billing rate levels, you can assign a rate for a particular level rather than by an employee. For example, at a CPA firm, partner billing rates would be assigned at a different level than entry-level employees.

Reporting

Good reporting options are available in all QuickBooks Desktop applications with the Enterprise edition of QuickBooks Desktop offering more than 200 reports that can be customized to suit your needs.

Any customized report can be saved in the application as a template, so you can use the same reporting criteria in the future without having to set it up again.

Advanced Reporting

Advanced reporting allows Enterprise users to access raw data to create reports and graphs from scratch.

In addition, the Professional Services edition of QuickBooks (and all niche editions) also offers bundled reports designed specifically for professional services businesses. These reports include:

Billed and Unbilled Hours – This report can be run by person or by project, and provides management with a good view of all billable hours as well as how long an employee has spent on a particular project.
Costs by Project – Costs need to be looked at throughout the life of a project. Running the Costs by Project report allows you to see exactly how much you’ve spent to date, allowing you to make adjustments to your forecast mid-project when needed.
Project Costs Detail – Still wondering exactly why your project has gone over budget? Run the Project Costs Detail report to see exactly how funds were spent.
Cost to Complete – Not sure if you have enough in the budget to complete a project? Just run the Cost to Complete report, which displays both percentage complete and cost to complete, allowing you to make any adjustments before the job runs over budget.
Project Status – One of the most important reports for management, the Project Status report provides a summary view of all projects in progress along with a guide that shows you whether the project is on track for on-time completion.

Payroll Processing

All QuickBooks Enterprise editions come with QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll, which allows you to pay both employees and contractors.

Enhanced Payroll also includes both printed check capability as well as free direct deposit.

For those that want additional help with payroll, a subscription to Assisted Payroll will take care of all payroll taxes including filing and payment.

QuickBooks Enterprise Professional Services also includes a custom chart of accounts, can monitor project progress, track unbilled time, and electronically invoice clients.

Multi-level data permissions are available, so management can establish permission levels for multiple groups of employees, ensuring confidentiality throughout the life of the project.

In addition, you can prepare custom proposals for potential business, accept mobile and credit card payments from your clients, and even integrate with Salesforce CRM for better client and sales management.

For those that require integration with outside e-commerce channels, an optional e-commerce integration add-on is available that offers seamless integration with online stores and marketplaces.

Like all QuickBooks products, QuickBooks Enterprise Professional Services is designed to work on a Windows platform and is not currently available for Mac systems.

Available as an annual subscription, Intuit offers three versions of Enterprise:

Gold – The Gold version of QuickBooks Enterprise includes Advanced Reporting, access to QuickBooks Priority Circle, and QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll. The Gold version supports up to 30 system users and starts at $1,489.50 for the first year.
Platinum – The Platinum version includes all Gold level features as well as Advanced Inventory for tracking inventory items, Advanced Pricing, and Bill Workflow Approvals. The Platinum version supports up to 30 system users with a subscription starting at $1,831.50 for the first year.
Diamond – The most advanced version of QuickBooks Enterprise, the Diamond version can support up to 40 users and includes advanced features such as QuickBooks Time Elite, and the Salesforce CRM Connector. Diamond subscribers also have access to QuickBooks Desktop Assisted Payroll. The Diamond version of QuickBooks Enterprise starts at $3,618 the first year.

All subscription levels include customer support, online data backup storage for all QuickBooks data, product upgrades, and training tools.

Is QuickBooks Enterprise Right for Your Business?

A great option for mid-sized and growing professional services businesses that are looking for a better way to manage project costs and billing, QuickBooks Enterprise Professional Services is an all-in-one application that you will not soon outgrow.

What’s your goal today?

1. Use Planergy to manage purchasing and accounts payable

Read our case studies, client success stories, and testimonials.
Visit our “Solutions” page to see the areas of your business we can help improve to see if we’re a good fit for each other.
Learn about us, and our long history of helping companies just like yours.

2. Download our guide “Preparing Your AP Department For The Future”

Download a free copy of our guide to future proofing your accounts payable department. You’ll also be subscribed to our and notified about new articles or if have something interesting to share.

3. Learn best practices for purchasing, finance, and more

Browse hundreds of articles, containing an amazing number of useful tools, techniques, and best practices. Many readers tell us they would have paid consultants for the advice in these articles.

The post QuickBooks For Professional Services appeared first on Planergy Software.

Best Practices For Budgeting In QuickBooks

Mary Girsch-Bock — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 16:12:21 +0000

Download a free copy of "Preparing Your AP Department For The Future", to learn:

How to transition from paper and excel to eInvoicing.
How AP can improve relationships with your key suppliers.
How to capture early payment discounts and avoid late payment penalties.
How better management in AP can give you better flexibility for cash flow management.

Download Free Copy

Best Practices For Budgeting In QuickBooks

Category

Accounting Budget Management QuickBooks

Written by Mary Girsch-Bock
20 min read

Tags

Last edited

June 5, 2024

Why are budgets important?

Creating a budget is an important part of managing your business properly. Creating a budget is a necessity for properly planning finances while helping to ensure your business can meet existing financial commitments.

Creating a budget also helps businesses plan for additional future expenses.

There are numerous budgets that business owners can create, depending on the needs of the business. But whether you’re a small business or a Fortune 500 company, you’ll need to create a yearly budget for your company.

Of course, a single budget may be sufficient for smaller companies, but larger businesses will need to create additional budgets such as departmental, project, or even location.

You’ll also want to consider creating monthly and quarterly budgets, so you’ll need software that can do that as well.

Budgets must include fixed costs such as facility rent and insurance, variable costs including labor and materials, and any one-time costs that are expected such as funding for a special project.

When preparing a budget be sure to include cash flow estimates as well as any expected profits for the upcoming fiscal year.

The easiest way to create a budget for your business is to use software that can assist in the budget creation process.

Using software will also allow you to properly track income and expenses against the created budget, making it easy for business owners, managers, and CFOs to review budget totals versus actuals.

In addition, using accounting or budgeting software will provide you with a warning when an expenditure puts you in danger of exceeding your budget.

For example, when you create your budget in November, the monthly rent for your office space was $850 per month, so you budgeted $10,200 for rent expenses for the coming year.

However, on December 31, your landlord increased your rent to $1,200 per month, meaning that you’ll quickly approach your budgeted amount much earlier than you expected. If you have good budgeting software, you’ll be given a warning when you approach the $10,200 total that you included in your budget.

Using budgeting or accounting software can also help to minimize errors that can commonly occur when using spreadsheets instead of budgeting software to create a budget.

What is the difference between budgeting and forecasting?

In many cases, budgeting and forecasting terms are used interchangeably, since both look at past company performance and estimate performance for an upcoming period.

However, even with all the similarities, there are some subtle differences. Budgets are usually created using historic financial data, while forecasts typically look forward to predicting future performance.

For example, while budgets are primarily used as a summary outline for future business performance, forecasts are used to indicate how your business is performing, and whether it’s reaching its budgeting goals.

Though the differences are small, if you’re torn between the two, you may find that creating a financial forecast for your business is more useful for longer projections, while a budget can be the more useful tool for businesses that need to adhere to a strict financial plan. However, when used together, they can bring the most benefit.

What are the different types of budgets?

There are many different types of budgets that you can create. The most common budgets used by companies include an operating budget, a financial budget, and a master budget.

A financial budget predicts income and expenses for a specific period. Financial budgets are typically prepared monthly, quarterly, or yearly, depending on the needs of the business. For organizations that struggle to manage cash flow properly, preparing a financial budget can be helpful.

An operating budget offers a detailed projection of company revenue and expenses for the coming year.

Typically created at year-end using data from the year, an operating budget is typically static and used to compare the budget to actual totals throughout the year. Operating budgets can also be adjusted mid-year if any unexpected revenue or expenses occur.

A master budget includes all lower-level budgets that have been prepared for your business including both operating and financial budgets.

Typically used by larger companies with multiple departments or locations, a master budget is used as a planning tool for the company as a whole. Along with operating and financial budgets, labor and materials budgets and manufacturing overhead budgets are also included in a master budget.

If you’re already using QuickBooks you can easily create some basic budgets. For deeper budgeting options an integrated tool like Planergy can help.

Tips for preparing a budget

When preparing a budget there are numerous things you can do to simplify the process while helping to ensure that the budget is as accurate as it can be.

Use historical data when available: If you’re a brand-new business, this is not an option, but for those preparing next years’ budget, the best way to estimate budget totals is not to guess but to use the previous year’s actual data.
Budget according to your business cycle: If you own a seasonal budget, be sure that your budget totals reflect that. For example, if you earn the majority of your revenue during the spring, be sure that your budget reflects higher revenue during that period.
Get your employees involved in the budgeting process: If you’re preparing a departmental budget, be sure to get your employees involved in the budget preparation process. No one knows departmental costs better than the person running that department.
Overestimate expenses and underestimate revenue: It’s always a pleasant surprise when revenue is higher than budgeted – not so much when expenses come in higher than expected. Always be a little conservative when it comes to estimating revenue while tacking on an additional 10% to 15% to your expenses. This can help you manage any unexpected costs and help keep you on budget.
Make adjustments as needed: Static budgets can provide good information for your business, but if they’re not adjusted, when necessary, they can quickly become obsolete. Be sure to revisit your budget regularly and make any adjustments as needed.

What program should I use to prepare my budget?

If you’re already using QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online, you can easily create some basic budgets. Both applications can create monthly, quarterly, or yearly budgets, with the option to prefill budget totals with previous years’ totals.

QuickBooks Budgets can be created by class, customer, or location, as a profit & loss budget, or as a balance sheet budget.

Businesses are limited to creating one organizational budget per year, though multiple smaller budgets can be created. In addition, you can access two budget reports; the Budget Overview report and the Budget vs. Actuals report.

To create a budget in QuickBooks Desktop, just follow these simple steps:

Under Company, choose the Planning and Budgeting option. You can choose between Set Up Budgets and Cash Flow Projector.
After choosing Set Up Budgets, click on the Create New Budget tab at the top right-hand side of the screen.
Under the Create New Budget option, you can choose between a Profit and Loss budget, which reflects all activity for the current year, or a Balance Sheet, which only includes ending balances.

The Create a New Budget option in QuickBooks Desktop

Highlight the Profit and Loss
Add any additional criteria such as customer job or class.
Choose whether you wish to create a budget from scratch or want to use last year’s data to create your budget.

Choose whether to use previous data or create your budget from scratch.

If you choose to create a budget from scratch, you’ll have access to the budget template within QuickBooks Desktop.

The QuickBooks Desktop budget template lets you enter data from a single screen.

You can enter all of your budgeted totals from this screen. However, if you choose to use prior years’ totals, you can do that from the screen below.

Last year’s data is available for those that wish to utilize it.

Those using Premier, Enterprise of Accountant versions of QuickBooks Desktop can also create a forecast in the application as well.

To create a forecast, follow these steps:

Under the Company menu, choose the Planning & Budgeting option, and then select Set Up Forecast.
Select Create New Forecast.
Choose the fiscal year that you would like to create a forecast for. Like the budgeting option, you can also choose to add additional criteria such as Jobs or Class.
Choose Create Forecast from Scratch if you wish to create a new forecast. If you wish to create a new forecast based on previous data, choose Create Forecast from Previous Year’s Data.

Once budgets have been created, you can opt to run several budget-related reports. These reports include:

Budget Overview
Budget vs. Actual
Profit & Loss Budget Performance
Budget vs. Actual Graph

If you’re using QuickBooks Desktop to create a budget, you may also want to set up the cash flow projector option in the application as well.

The cash flow projector looks at business finances based on a variety of scenarios. Though this feature has been discontinued in QuickBooks Desktop 2022, you can continue to use it in older versions of the application.

Creating a budget in QuickBooks Online

Setting up a budget in QuickBooks Online is relatively simple, though it’s not obvious from the main screen.

Instead, you’ll have to access the budgeting feature under Tools, which is found under Accountant view. To get started, follow these steps.

Click on the gear icon at the top of the screen.
Under Tools, click on Budgeting.

The Accountant View of QuickBooks Online lists all management features.

Click on the Add Budget tab on the screen.
Here, you can name your budget, choose the fiscal year you wish to create a budget for, and whether you wish to pre-fill data from previous budgets. There is also an option to subdivide the budget by customer if you wish. You can also subdivide your budget by location or class if you use them in your business.

In addition, QuickBooks Online also includes a budget wizard that will take you through a complete budget interview process when creating a budget for the first time.

The budget entry screen in QuickBooks Online is easy to use.

If you’ve used both QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online, you’ll know that creating a budget in QuickBooks Online is much easier than doing so in QuickBooks Desktop.

Other budgeting options

While there are several budget applications on the market, having your budgets integrated with your accounting and financial applications can save you a tremendous amount of time.

While both QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online applications can easily prepare basic budgets, the ability to customize a budget is limited in both applications.

If you’re looking for more custom budgeting or require multi-year budgets, you may want to consider using a software that integrates with QuickBooks and provides more in-depth budgeting and reporting capabilities.

For example, companies that use Planergy to manage spend and accounts payable can benefit from its extensive budget creation and management capabilities.

Designed for flexibility, Planergy is suitable for use in any industry and can be used in companies of any size. Planergy offers a variety of budgeting tools and includes the following features:

The ability to set budgets by job, department, project, cost center, or person
The ability to create multiple budgets per company
The option to create monthly, annual, or custom date range budgets
Real-time budget reporting with the budget updated each time a purchase order is created or an invoice processed.
All budgets offer drill-down capability, so users can view detailed information on all orders including who is requesting the order when the order was placed, who the supplier on the order is, and if the expenditure has been approved.

Planergy offers budget details for better real-time expense management.

Particularly useful for any company that need to better manage expenses in real-time, applications like Planergy can provide extensive budget customization capability that other applications such as QuickBooks cannot.

Planergy has integration options for QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop.

Whether you’re using QuickBooks, Planergy, an Excel spreadsheet, or another budgeting tool, creating a budget is an important part of running a business.

Be sure you have the tools in place to create a budget that can be a helpful resource for your business going forward.

What’s your goal today?

1. Use Planergy to manage purchasing and accounts payable

Read our case studies, client success stories, and testimonials.
Visit our “Solutions” page to see the areas of your business we can help improve to see if we’re a good fit for each other.
Learn about us, and our long history of helping companies just like yours.

2. Download our guide “Preparing Your AP Department For The Future”

Download a free copy of our guide to future proofing your accounts payable department. You’ll also be subscribed to our and notified about new articles or if have something interesting to share.

3. Learn best practices for purchasing, finance, and more

Browse hundreds of articles, containing an amazing number of useful tools, techniques, and best practices. Many readers tell us they would have paid consultants for the advice in these articles.

The post Best Practices For Budgeting In QuickBooks appeared first on Planergy Software.

QuickBooks Versions Comparison

Mary Girsch-Bock — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 15:04:00 +0000

Download a free copy of "Preparing Your AP Department For The Future", to learn:

How to transition from paper and excel to eInvoicing.
How AP can improve relationships with your key suppliers.
How to capture early payment discounts and avoid late payment penalties.
How better management in AP can give you better flexibility for cash flow management.

Download Free Copy

QuickBooks Versions Comparison

Category

Written by Mary Girsch-Bock
21 min read

Tags

Last edited

April 18, 2024

Deciding to use QuickBooks from Intuit is a good decision. However, once you make that decision, you’ll need to make another; which edition of QuickBooks is right for your business.

Intuit doesn’t make the process easy, providing only basic details about many of their applications, and their push to move everyone to the cloud with QuickBooks Online also reduces the level of information available about their desktop applications.

Hoping to fill in some of those blanks, in this product comparison, we’ll provide you with some details about each of the QuickBooks products such as what bookkeeping and accounting features are available in each of these versions, and what type of business each is optimally designed for.

QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online Applications
Product	Maximum # of Users	Cost
Simple Start	1	$12.50/mo.
Essentials	3	$25/mo.
Plus	5	$40/mo.
Advanced	25	$90/mo.

If you prefer to have all of your data at your fingertips, no matter where you are, QuickBooks Online applications are designed for you.

Originally designed for very small businesses that needed to manage their financial data, QuickBooks Online has expanded past its original simplistic format to a solid small business accounting software application.

Starting with a quick system setup, QuickBooks Online applications require little work upfront, so users can access the application and start working in minutes.

You have the option to enter as much (or as little) information as you desire, with the option to go back and enter more when necessary.

The easy setup screen in QuickBooks Online lets you choose the features you need.

QuickBooks Online reporting options remain strong, and its intuitive design will appeal to new and inexperienced users.

Designed for up to 25 users, each QuickBooks Online application offers various features and functions.

If you prefer to have all of your data at your fingertips, no matter where you are, QuickBooks Online applications are designed for you. However, if you’re an enterprise-level business that needs advanced features and functionality, you’ll want to skip to the QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise plan.

Simple Start

The Simple Start plan from QuickBooks Online offers all of the necessary features to run your business including the following:

Track income and expenses
Capture and organize receipts
Maximize tax deductions
Mileage tracking
Manage cash flow
Invoice and payment acceptance
General reporting
Create and send estimates
Track sales and sales tax
Manage 1099 contractors

In most cases, if you’re operating as a sole proprietor or freelancer, this covers all of the features that you may need.

Unfortunately, the Simple Start plan does not offer the option to manage or pay bills, which is rather odd, since even sole proprietors have bills that need to be paid.

You may also run into issues if you’re planning to grow your business since you’re restricted to a single user, and if you sell products, you’ll want to skip the Simple Start Plan and use the Pro plan instead.

But if you’re a service business, consultant, or freelancer that plans on remaining solo, Simple Start may be a good fit for you.

To pare down even more, you may want to consider QuickBooks Self-Employed, which does not offer any real accounting features but is designed to help freelancers and contractors manage expenses for tax purposes.

Essentials

Most small businesses, even solo operations may want to skip Simple Start for Essentials.

Essentials adds the ability to both track time and manage and pay bills, both important for businesses of any size.

The Essentials plan can also support up to three simultaneous system users.

Plus

The Plus plan from QuickBooks Online offers all of the features found in the Essentials, along with the ability to track inventory, a must if you’re selling products.

The Plus plan also allows you to manage project profitability.

A good fit for both service and a must for retail businesses, or anyone that needs to manage inventory, the Plus plan offers the most flexibility and is ideal for both small and growing businesses.

Advanced

The Advanced plan offers all of the features found in other QuickBooks Online plans, and throws in a few of their own, including the following:

Customizable system access by role
Batch invoices and expenses
Enhanced custom fields
Premium apps
Workflow automation
A dedicated account team
On-demand online training

As you can see, other than the batch invoicing feature, the majority of features offered by QuickBooks Advanced have more to do with back-end expansion and customization rather than specific features designed to enhance the accounting and finance process.

While these features can be useful, particularly for businesses with a high number of system users, those with five or fewer users would be better served to stick with the Essentials or Plus plans.

QuickBooks Online pricing starts at $12.50/mo. for the first three months.

QuickBooks Desktop

QuickBooks Desktop has been offering solid accounting software since 2001. New in 2021, QuickBooks has made the switch to a subscription basis when purchasing QuickBooks Desktop applications.

While you can still purchase a software license from Intuit, they’ve made it increasingly difficult to do so.

However, if you’re not interested in a subscription plan, you can still purchase the regular Pro and Premier versions off the shelf at office supply stores.

QuickBooks Desktop Applications
Product	Maximum # of Users	Cost
QuickBooks Desktop Pro	3	$299.99/Year
QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus	3	Starts at $199/yr. for a single license
QuickBooks Desktop Premier	5	$499.99/year
QuickBooks Desktop Premier Plus	5	Starts at $299/yr. for a single license
QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise	40	Starts at $1,275/yr. for a single license
QuickBooks Mac	3	$399/year

All QuickBooks Desktop applications use a series of centers for easy system navigation.

QuickBooks Desktop gets a bad rap when it comes to system navigation. Though it has a higher learning curve than its online counterpart, most users become comfortable using the application after a few uses.

Though system setup does require more input than QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop also allows you to complete only the necessary items and come back at a later date to complete the rest.

For small business owners, the Pro plan may be the best place to start.

However, if you’re an enterprise-level business that needs advanced features and functionality, you’ll want to skip to the Enterprise plan, which also offers six industry-specific applications, which we’ll cover shortly.

Pro & Pro Plus

For sole proprietors, freelancers, or consultants who prefer a desktop application, QuickBooks Pro may be a good fit.

The biggest difference between QuickBooks Pro and QuickBooks Premier is the availability of industry-specific versions of the application.

These are the features that are included in QuickBooks Pro.

Up to three concurrent users
Track income and expenses
Invoicing
Reporting (100+)
Estimates
Track sales tax
Manage bills and accounts payable
Track time
Track inventory
Pay 1099 contractors
Unlimited customer support
Data backups and upgrades

One of the main reasons why people choose QuickBooks Desktop over QuickBooks Online is the availability of features such as bill payment and inventory in the entry-level application since neither is available in QuickBooks Online.

For small business owners, as well as those just starting out, the Pro Plus version of QuickBooks Desktop will likely be suitable for all of your needs for years to come.

Premier Plus

The Premier Plus plan includes all of the features found in the Pro Plus plan as well as forecasting. In all honesty, unless you’re looking for more advanced reporting options (150+ reports vs. 100+ reports), or are adding two additional users, there’s probably no need to upgrade to Premier Plus from Pro Plus.

For those in a niche industry such as contracting or construction, you may benefit from some of the industry-specific features found in the Premier Plus plan, but if you’re looking for an industry-specific application, you’ll need to upgrade to Enterprise.

Enterprise

Perhaps the biggest difference between QuickBooks Pro, Premier, and Enterprise is the availability of the industry-specific versions found in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise.

The most robust, and the most expensive version of QuickBooks, the Enterprise plan is designed to support up to forty users.

Larger businesses will find this application offers all of the features they’re looking for, though smaller businesses will likely be more suited to one of the less powerful desktop plans already discussed.

Offering advanced inventory management features such as barcode scanning and end-to-end sales order fulfillment, the Enterprise plan also offers something the other plans don’t; the aforementioned industry-specific editions.

While all QuickBooks applications allow you to choose your business type during the setup process, these industry-specific editions include additional features designed for each particular industry.

Six editions are available and include the following:

Contractor Edition

Ideal for construction and contracting firms, the contractor edition includes project management and advanced job costing capability, both a must in the construction industry.

Professional Services Edition

Designed for those that offer services rather than products for sale, medical offices, legal firms, architects, and marketing firms will find the QuickBooks edition for professional services helpful, particularly its ability to prepare proposals and set custom billing rates, as well as good time-tracking capability.

Manufacturing and Wholesale Edition

Designed for wholesalers and manufacturers, the manufacturing edition of QuickBooks includes specialized features such as sales order fulfillment, backorder tracking, and manufacturing reports.

Nonprofit Edition

A good solution for nonprofit organizations that need to manage donor data, keep track of grants, and manage donations, the nonprofit edition of QuickBooks also includes industry-specific reports and a nonprofit chart of accounts.

Retail Edition

The retail edition of QuickBooks includes advanced pricing capability, eCommerce and point of sale integration, and the ability to manage inventory.

Some of the newer features include barcode label pricing, custom payment receipts, and the ability to create customer groups.

Accountant Edition

Designed for CPAs and other accounting professionals, the QuickBooks Accountant version allows users to easily reclassify hundreds of transactions in minutes.

The accountant edition also allows you to organize data files by client, send correcting journal entries to clients, and access the company file for your clients remotely.

QuickBooks Desktop for Mac

QuickBooks also makes a desktop application just for Mac users. Similar in scope to the Windows version, QuickBooks Desktop for Mac.

Like the regular desktop version, QuickBooks Mac offers sales tax tracking, inventory tracking, invoicing, the ability to manage bills and accounts payable, purchase order creation, and the option to track income and expenses.

QuickBooks for Mac offers automatic payment reminders.

QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop?

During the decision-making process, perhaps the most difficult decision you’ll need to make is whether to purchase QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online.

Those unfamiliar with QuickBooks products may assume that QuickBooks Online is simply the online version of the desktop application, but the two are very different.

While both QuickBooks versions offer solid financial management capability with some similarities, they are two very different applications. Here are some instances where one may be a better fit than the other.

If you want anytime access: If having access to your financial data 24/7 is important to you, you may want to opt for QuickBooks Online, which is designed for just that. Of course, you can opt to have QuickBooks Desktop applications hosted by a third-party hosting service, but it likely won’t give you the flexibility that using QuickBooks Online will.
If you have a slow internet connection: We automatically think that everyone has reliable, high-speed internet accessibility. But depending on where you’re located, reliable internet access can be an issue. If this is the case, you’re better off opting for the desktop application, which will cause a lot less frustration.
You need to manage inventory: QuickBooks Online integrates with numerous inventory management apps. But for complex, multi-location inventory management capability, your best bet is to stick with QuickBooks Desktop.
If you want access to hundreds of apps: If you want easy access to the latest apps, you’ll want to use QuickBooks Online, which currently integrates with more than 650 business apps.
If you’re in a niche industry: If you’re in a niche industry such as nonprofits, manufacturing, or an accountant, you’ll want to opt for QuickBooks Enterprise, a desktop application designed to address the needs of specific industries. QuickBooks Online doesn’t offer anything close to it.
If your company is in flux: Perhaps your company is in an expansion phase, or you’re looking to add more employees. Though both applications address this issue with increasingly powerful editions, QuickBooks Desktop may be the slight frontrunner here, since it can handle up to 40 users, while QuickBooks Online’s top capacity is 25 users.

Though Intuit doesn’t do the best job advertising its desktop applications, they are accessible from the QuickBooks website, where you can sign up for a trial run of the application you’re interested in.

QuickBooks Online also offers a 30-day trial period that allows you to try out the application before purchasing.

When looking to sign up for a trial, be sure to check out any new features included in the latest version of the application.

With so many different versions of QuickBooks; each with its own options and plans offered, there’s sure to be a QuickBooks application that is suitable for your business needs.

What’s your goal today?

1. Use Planergy to manage purchasing and accounts payable

Read our case studies, client success stories, and testimonials.
Visit our “Solutions” page to see the areas of your business we can help improve to see if we’re a good fit for each other.
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The post QuickBooks Versions Comparison appeared first on Planergy Software.

QuickBooks Desktop for Non-Profits

Mary Girsch-Bock — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 15:05:54 +0000

Download a free copy of "Preparing Your AP Department For The Future", to learn:

How to transition from paper and excel to eInvoicing.
How AP can improve relationships with your key suppliers.
How to capture early payment discounts and avoid late payment penalties.
How better management in AP can give you better flexibility for cash flow management.

Download Free Copy

QuickBooks Desktop for Non-Profits

Category

Accounting Not For Profit QuickBooks

Written by Mary Girsch-Bock
20 min read

Tags

Last edited

June 4, 2024

It’s no secret that millions of small business owners across the globe use Intuit applications such as QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online to manage their finances.

With its minimal learning curve, good reporting options, and the choice of either a desktop or online application, QuickBooks can be a real asset for just about any type of business.

But what about nonprofit organizations? Are QuickBooks applications a good choice for them as well?

That’s a difficult question to answer. For smaller nonprofits, both QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online can provide good financial management options.

However, for larger nonprofits that manage multiple funds, programs, or projects, or receive grant funding, there are nonprofit accounting software options available that offer true fund accounting, which may be a better fit.

Why nonprofit software is different

Like any business, a nonprofit needs to perform standard bookkeeping tasks such as handling multiple bank accounts and bank reconciliations, tracking organizational expenses, and paying vendors on a timely basis.

But nonprofits also need to deposit donations and grant funds, track both monetary and in-kind donations, provide donors with tax receipts and thank you letters, and in many cases manage volunteers.

Here are just a few of the ways that for-profit and nonprofit organizations differ.

Taxes – While for-profit businesses are required to pay taxes on their income, a nonprofit organization is exempt from paying taxes on donations or grants. However, like a for-profit business, a nonprofit is still responsible for all federal, state, and local taxes, as well as Social Security and Medicare taxes.
Profit management – A for-profit business can put profits earned into retained earnings for future use, distribute earnings to shareholders, or a combination of the two. Any profit earned by a non-profit must be reinvested back into the organization’s work.
Accountability – While a for-profit business is typically accountable to the owners or shareholders, a nonprofit is accountable to its board members as well as anyone that provides funding to the organization, whether it’s a $5 million grant or a $50 donation.

In addition, nonprofits often hold fundraisers or run campaigns in order to fund their programs.

All of the funds raised from that fundraiser or campaign, as well as any related expenses, need to be handled separately, using separate funds.

Like for-profit businesses, nonprofits vary in both size and scope.

For example, an organization that typically is funded exclusively through grants will have much different accounting needs than that of an organization that is funded through public donations.

The following are just a few of the areas that nonprofit organizations need to manage.

Chart of accounts: One of the most important components in nonprofit software is the ability to create a custom chart of accounts. If you only manage a few programs or projects, this is a simple thing to do in any accounting software application. However, if you’re not using an application with a flexible chart of accounts, you’ll need to create numerous sub-accounts, making the entire process even more confusing.
Donations: If your nonprofit is funded primarily through individual donations, you will need a way to manage both the donation as well as each donor. You’ll also need to provide donors with thank you letters and receipts.
Grants: Many nonprofit organizations are funded by grants from various state and local government entities, or through private foundations. If you receive grants from more than two entities, it’s wise to have a way to manage each grant separately.
Funds: Fund management is a catchall category for foundations that receive funding from multiple sources. If you receive funding from multiple sources, you’ll need to have a way to individually track activity for each of those sources.
Campaigns: If you typically have numerous campaigns throughout the year, you’ll need a way to track both income and expenses for each campaign.

Choose nonprofit software that suits your organization

For smaller nonprofits, using QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online is adequate. For larger nonprofits that would like to continue using QuickBooks applications, your best bet is to use the nonprofit edition of QuickBooks, which is available in both QuickBooks Premier and QuickBooks Enterprise editions.

These are a few of the nonprofit features found in the QuickBooks Nonprofit edition.

Nonprofits need accounting software to deposit donations and grant funds, track both monetary and in-kind donations, provide donors with tax receipts and thank you letters, and in many cases manage volunteers.

Create a nonprofit chart of accounts

To properly manage multiple funds, you’ll need to have access to a nonprofit chart of accounts.

Unlike the standard version of QuickBooks, QuickBooks Enterprise for Nonprofit Organizations includes a default nonprofit-specific chart of accounts that can be easily customized to suit your needs.

QuickBooks Enterprise chart of accounts offers flexibility for nonprofit organizations.

The default chart of accounts also incorporates the unified chart of accounts, making it easy to transfer financial data directly into IRS forms for easy processing and filing.

Entering transactions

Once your chart of accounts has been set up properly, you can begin to enter accounting transactions.

QuickBooks Enterprise for Nonprofits allows you to take advantage of handy features such as electronic invoicing, which allows your donors or customers to pay online using a link that is included in the invoice.

Automatic reminders can be set up to remind donors and customers about upcoming payment due dates.

You can also create email receipts for donors and customers immediately upon receiving their payment, which can also be emailed to them for added convenience.

Along with processing payments and invoicing, you can track mileage and schedule tasks and appointments. In addition, QuickBooks Enterprise easily integrates with Microsoft Office and includes several documents built using Word templates, making it easy to provide donors and supporters with everything from a receipt for a donation, to an annual appeal letter.

QuickBooks Enterprise offers letter templates to simplify the letter preparation process.

In addition, Enterprise also offers integration with Salesforce CRM, enabling you to manage your donor database without the need for duplicate data entry.

An easy-to-use interface

If you’re already familiar with QuickBooks Desktop applications, the nonprofit edition offers the same user interface, that offers easy access to all tasks from the workflow area.

QuickBooks Desktop includes an easily navigated user interface.

If you prefer, you can access all system tasks from the vertical menu on the left side of the screen.

Also included are a series of task icons on the menu bar at the top of the screen.

In addition, you can create a ‘Favorites’ list on the vertical menu bar that allows you to quickly access frequently used tasks.

Reporting

Both for-profit and nonprofit businesses need access to financial statements along with other business and financial reports.

However, a nonprofit organization also has to present board members with a variety of nonprofit-specific reports which include the following:

Statement of financial position: Similar to a standard balance sheet, the statement of financial position displays assets, liabilities, and net assets while providing detailed information on restricted, temporarily restricted, and unrestricted assets. On the statement of financial position, net assets take the place of owner’s equity, since a nonprofit does not have owners or investors.
Statement of activities: The statement of activities is a valuable report for any nonprofit, showing any changes in net assets over a specific period of time. The statement of activities is similar to an income statement, but also includes both current and prior-year totals, budgeted totals, and budget variances for a particular period of time. In addition, when preparing a statement of activities, a detailed explanation of any changes that have occurred during that period of time should always accompany the statement.
Statement of functional expenses: The statement of functional expenses provides details on administrative and overhead expenses, as well as fundraising expenses for each program administered by the nonprofit. This report is also used when preparing Form 990 for the IRS.
Cash flow statement: The cash flow statement is the only report that is used in both for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations. The cash flow statement identifies and reports on cash received from operating and investment activities as well as cash from financing activities.

All of these reports are offered in QuickBooks Enterprise for Nonprofits, along with other nonprofit reports which include:

Donor Report
Grant Report
Donor Contribution Summary
Budget vs. Actual by Donor
Budget vs. Actual by Grants
Biggest Donors
Biggest Grants

Like all QuickBooks Desktop reports, the nonprofit reports can be viewed on-screen, printed, or emailed directly to recipients.

This option can come in handy when preparing board reports for upcoming meetings or to just keep members in the loop.

Form 990

Even though nonprofit organizations are exempt from taxes, they are still required to file a tax return at year-end.

That tax return, Form 990 is also made available for public inspection and will need to be filed annually to retain nonprofit status.

Though many nonprofits have their accountant or CPA prepare Form 990, having good accounting software in place that can adequately manage nonprofit finances is a must.

The Statement of Functional Expenses is used when preparing Form 990 for the IRS.

Budgets

Accurate budgeting is important for any business, but perhaps even more important for nonprofits.

In QuickBooks Enterprise for Nonprofits, you can create an annual budget from scratch, or use prior year numbers as a good reference point.

You can also import a budget from another source if desired.

Once a budget has been created you can easily use included reports such as the Budget vs. Actual to track actual expenses against those budgeted.

To create a new budget, just click on the Set Up Budgets option which is located under Nonprofit on the main menu.

You can create a budget for your entire organization or individual accounts or classes.

The Create a New Budget feature lets you choose your preferred budget type.

You can choose from either a Profit and Loss Budget format or a Balance Sheet format for your nonprofit.

Once you choose a format, you’ll also be able to choose any additional criteria you wish to include in the budget, including Customer Job or Class.

Donations

If your nonprofit is funded primarily by donations, you’ll need to be able to manage those donations properly.

The Enter Donations feature does just that. This feature is basically the same as the Enter Sales Receipts feature in regular QuickBooks editions but has been revised to include nonprofit-specific language.

The Donation screen allows you to enter all the information you need for any donation.

The donation screen is where you can enter the donation amount, description, and how the donation was paid.

If you’re signed up for QuickBooks Payments, you can also process donor payments made by credit card directly from this screen as well.

For tracking purposes, you’re also able to attach any related files to the donation. You’ll also be able to email a receipt directly to your donor, with an option to add a personal message directly from the donation screen as well.

Enter Pledges

If your nonprofit normally accepts pledges from donors or constituents, you can easily invoice the pledge amount from the Pledges/Invoice screen.

This is the same screen used to create invoices in the desktop version of QuickBooks, with wording updated to better suit the needs of a nonprofit organization.

The Pledge screen is where you can process pledges (invoices) for any pledges made.

To enter a pledge, just enter the item number assigned to the pledge along with a description. Again, you can add a custom message to the pledge invoice if desired.

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise for Nonprofits vs. QuickBooks Online

If you’re in the process of choosing between QuickBooks Nonprofit or QuickBooks Online, there are some advantages to going with the desktop version.

While QuickBooks Online offers the benefit of any time/anywhere access as long as you have an internet connection, it will require more customization to be of benefit to nonprofits.

If you do opt for the online version of QuickBooks, using add-ons can give you a more complete accounting solution.

Though some additional customization is available in QuickBooks Online Advanced, the online version is still better suited for for-profit businesses.

On the other hand, QuickBooks Desktop’s non-profit version offers numerous nonprofit-specific features.

If pricing is not a concern, forego QuickBooks Pro and opt for the more expensive QuickBooks Premier or QuickBooks Enterprise.

What’s your goal today?

1. Use Planergy to manage purchasing and accounts payable

Read our case studies, client success stories, and testimonials.
Visit our “Solutions” page to see the areas of your business we can help improve to see if we’re a good fit for each other.
Learn about us, and our long history of helping companies just like yours.

2. Download our guide “Preparing Your AP Department For The Future”

Download a free copy of our guide to future proofing your accounts payable department. You’ll also be subscribed to our and notified about new articles or if have something interesting to share.

3. Learn best practices for purchasing, finance, and more

Browse hundreds of articles, containing an amazing number of useful tools, techniques, and best practices. Many readers tell us they would have paid consultants for the advice in these articles.

The post QuickBooks Desktop for Non-Profits appeared first on Planergy Software.

How To Create Custom Reports In QuickBooks Desktop

Mary Girsch-Bock — Mon, 05 Jul 2021 15:17:10 +0000

Download a free copy of "Preparing Your AP Department For The Future", to learn:

How to transition from paper and excel to eInvoicing.
How AP can improve relationships with your key suppliers.
How to capture early payment discounts and avoid late payment penalties.
How better management in AP can give you better flexibility for cash flow management.

Download Free Copy

How To Create Custom Reports In QuickBooks Desktop

Category

Accounting Financial Reporting QuickBooks

Written by Mary Girsch-Bock
18 min read

Tags

Last edited

June 4, 2024

Whether you’re using QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online for your accounting software, experienced users already know that it’s not possible to create a fully custom report in the Intuit application.

However, there are various ways that you can use existing report templates to create a more custom QuickBooks bookkeeping or accounting report. The good news is that if you know how to create reports in QuickBooks, creating a customized report will be easy.

Though you cannot create a report from scratch, using these templates will allow you to build a custom report that will suit your needs.

For example, if you wish to look at data for the previous year, you can replace the default data with a custom data filter that will create a report based on last years’ activities rather than the default report that covers a single month.

In addition to changing data filters, you can also choose to add additional data to any report, as well as add or delete columns and rows, change the format from portrait to landscape, add custom headers or footers, and even include notes on any report that you distribute.

Because of this range of options, you can come as close as possible to create a QuickBooks custom report that is not built from scratch. In addition, any report that you customize can be saved in QuickBooks Desktop for future use or added as a favorite for easy access.

Report customization options are included in all versions of QuickBooks, including QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, and QuickBooks Enterprise, QuickBooks Proadvisor, as well as both QuickBooks Online Accountant and QuickBooks Proadvisor.

To start creating custom reports in QuickBooks Desktop, it’ll be helpful to first spend a little time familiarizing yourself with the custom reporting options available in the application. It’s also important to know that QuickBooks is designed to display all of its reports using report sets, which are sets of general instructions specific to each available report.

In addition, keep in mind that all QuickBooks Desktop report sets use Source (which is summary information for each transaction) or Targets (which provides detailed information for each transaction) in every default report included in the application, providing you with the structure to build upon when you begin to create a custom report.

Once you’re familiar with the reporting structure, you can begin to explore ways to create more custom reports.

But first, you’ll need to access the Report Preferences option in QuickBooks Desktop, where you can set both personal and company preferences for any reports that you’ll be running for any of your companies.

Because QuickBooks Desktop reports use report templates, it’s important to set all of your preferences before creating a custom report.

If you’re not sure how to create a custom report in QuickBooks Desktop, we’ll take you through the steps of creating a custom profit & loss report.

It’s also important to know that QuickBooks is designed to display all of its reports using report sets, which are sets of general instructions specific to each available report.

Profit & Loss

QuickBooks Desktop offers a variety of profit & loss reporting options, including a custom summary report, a transaction detail report, a YTD report, and a comparison report.

For this example, we’ll say that you’ve been concerned with profit levels for your business. To stay on top of company performance, you decide you’re going to create a detailed profit & loss report for the last two weeks.

But if you’re looking to create a more custom profit & loss report, you can follow these steps:

Choose the profit & loss report you wish to customize. We’re running a detailed profit & loss report in our example, but QuickBooks Desktop offers you several other options to choose from. If you’re unsure which one to choose, click the info button in the report window directly below the report image to find out a bit more about each available report.

The Company & Financial reports page where you can choose the profit & loss report.

Click on the Customize Report tab at the top of the report. Whatever report you decide to customize in the future, you will need to click on this tab, which is located at the top of any report. Doing so will take you directly to the various available customization options.

Customize your profit & loss detail report by clicking on the Customize Report option at the top of the screen.

Clicking on the Customize Report tab will bring up the Modify Report option. This feature offers several different options including the following.
Display: The Display option lets you choose the date range you wish to include for the report. While the report will always default to the current fiscal year, clicking on the drop-down arrow will display a long list of date range options including a custom option if you don’t see the date range you’re looking for. The Display option also lets you choose both your report basis and the data sort option as well as the number of columns you wish to include in your report.

The Modify screen is available in all QuickBooks Desktop reports.

For example, by choosing the Custom option in the Dates field, you can base your activity report only on the last two weeks.

Filters: The Filters option is where you can really begin to customize your report. Your choice of filters will depend on the report that you wish to customize. The Filters option also lets you choose the account(s) you wish to include in your report. You can choose from blocks of accounts such as all income/expense accounts, or you can drill further down the list and choose specific accounts from your chart of accounts that you wish to include in your report. The filter list is displayed on the right side of the screen and will update as your filter options change.

The Filters feature lets you choose the filters to include in your report.

Next, you’ll need to choose the accounts you wish to include. In this example, we’ve chosen all income/expense accounts.

But if we decided we only wanted to see only banking information, we could choose those specific accounts.

Header/Footer: The Header/Footer option is pretty straightforward. This feature lets you choose to include things like your company name, a report title if you wish to include one, the report date, and even a subtitle for your new report. By clicking on the footer tab, you can also include footer detail, such as a page number, or add an extra footer line if you desire. Once you choose your options, the report image on the page will update to display your choices.

The Header/Footer feature offers a variety of cosmetic options for you to use.

Fonts & Numbers: You can really make your reports stand out by using the Fonts & Numbers feature in QuickBooks Desktop. This option lets you change the font throughout the report, or only in select areas. For example, you can choose to use one font for your column or row labels and another font for your report data. You can also choose how you wish numbers to appear.

The Fonts & Numbers option lets you easily change the appearance of any report.

For example, the customized profit & loss report displayed below shows data for the first two weeks in January, as we stated above. The report also reflects the custom fonts we chose for this report.

A fully customized profit & loss report.

If you wish to save the custom report for future use, just click on the Memorize Report tab at the top of the screen, and assign the name of the report. You can also add any memorized report to a specific report group if you desire.

QuickBooks Desktop also lets you place a note or comment on any report.

For example, if you wish to share your custom profit & loss report with your staff, you can easily share the report via email and add a comment at the bottom of the report.

Five reports you may want to customize

Even though report customization is completed using a standard report template, the customization options are endless. Here are some examples of custom reports you can create for your business.

Sales by State

If you sell products in more than one state, Sales by State is a must. This report allows you to track sales performance in multiple locations, so you’ll always know how a specific state is performing.

To run this report, follow these steps.

Select the Sales category, and then the Sales by Customer Detail report.
Click on the Customize Report tab at the top of the screen.
From the Columns list found under the Display tab, select Name State.
Select the Total Only option found under the Total By drop-down.
Under the Sort By option, choose Name State.
Click on OK, or click on Cancel if you wish to make any changes.

Multiple Year Profit & Loss Comparison

A profit & loss, or income statement is one of the most important reports a business can run. But it can be even more useful when it’s used to compare company performance from one year to the next.

The good news is that you can easily print a multiple-year profit & loss statement in QuickBooks Desktop by following these simple steps.

Select the Company & Financial reports category.
Select Profit & Loss Standard.
Click on the Customize tab at the top of the screen.
On the Display tab, select the years to include in the report.
Select Year from the Display Column area.
Click on OK.

Open Purchase Order Report Totaled by Vendor

QuickBooks Desktop’s default Open Purchase Order report does not provide totals by vendor. However, there is a way to obtain these totals by customizing the Transactions Detail report in QuickBooks Desktop.

Remember, if you’re using a software application such as Planergy, you can also create custom reports directly in the application that may provide a better level of detail for your vendor and accounts payable reports.

To create the Open Purchase Order by Vendor report, follow these steps.

Select Custom Reports, then Transaction Detail.
Click on the Customize tab at the top of the screen.
From the Filters tab, choose the following:

Account = Purchase Order
Posting Status = Either
Received = No

Select Total by drop-down.
Select Vendor.
Click on OK.

This report will provide you with the total amount of purchase orders open by vendor.

Purchase Orders and Sales Orders by Item

If you’re interested in what items are included in your most recent purchase orders and sales orders, you can create a custom report that will provide that detail.

To get started, follow these steps.

Select the Custom Report option, then Transaction Detail.
Under the Display option, choose the following custom fields:
- Amount
- Balance
- Date
- Name
- Num
- Item
- Qty
- Type
Under the Total by option, select Item detail.
Under Filters, select the following filters:
- Detail Level: All except summary
- Item: All Sales Item
- Posting Status: Non-posting
- Transaction Type: Multiple Transaction Types: Sales Orders and Purchase Order.

When ready to run the report, click on OK.

Outstanding Estimates

If you commonly provide your customers with estimates, a good report to run is the amount of all outstanding estimates. To customize this report to suit your needs, follow these steps.

From the Reports menu, select Jobs, Time & Mileage.
Next, select Estimates by Job.
Click on the Customize Report option at the top of the page.
Under Display, add the Open Balance
Uncheck any columns that are not necessary.
Select the date range of the report.
Click on OK to process the report.

Once you become familiar with the report customization process, you can easily create custom reports for your business, saving your changes for future access.

In addition to creating custom reports in QuickBooks Desktop, you can also export any report to Microsoft Excel for even further customization if desired.

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The post How To Create Custom Reports In QuickBooks Desktop appeared first on Planergy Software.

QuickBooks Desktop Reports: How To Find and Create Common Reports

Mary Girsch-Bock — Tue, 18 May 2021 16:00:29 +0000

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QuickBooks Desktop Reports: How To Find and Create Common Reports

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Written by Mary Girsch-Bock
19 min read

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Last edited

June 4, 2024

One of the biggest benefits to using QuickBooks Desktop applications is its robust reporting capability.

This is an area where QuickBooks Desktop applications shine, with numerous reporting options available in all three product editions; QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, and QuickBooks Enterprise.

Though reporting options increase with the more powerful editions, even QuickBooks Desktop Pro users should be pleased with the selection of reports available to them and the greater flexibility when compared to QuickBooks Online.

In addition, all reports offer complete customization, along with the option to export any report to Microsoft Excel for further customization if desired.

QuickBooks Desktop Pro reports are categorized into the following groups, with additional reporting options available in QuickBooks Desktop Premier and Enterprise editions.

Report Group	Reports Available
Company & Financial Reports	Profit and Loss (standard), Profit & Loss (detail), Profit & Loss (YTD comparison), Income by Customer, Expense by Customer, Balance Sheet (standard), Balance Sheet (detail), Cash Flow, Cash Flow Forecast + 10 additional reports
Customers & Receivables Reports	A/R Aging Summary, A/R Aging (detail), Accounts Receivable Graph, Collections Report, Average Days to Pay Customer Summary, Customer Balance Summary, Customer Balance (detail), Unbilled Costs by Job, Customer Contact List + 5 additional reports
Sales Reports	Sales Orders by Customer, Pending Sales, Sales Graph, Sales by Item Summary, Sales by Item (detail), Sales by Rep + 3 additional reports
Jobs, Time, & Mileage Reports	Job Profitability Summary, Profit & Loss by Job, Item Profitability, Job Estimates vs. Actuals, Job Progress Invoices vs. Estimates, Open Purchase Orders by Job, Time by Job Summary, Time by Item, Mileage by Vehicle Summary + 10 additional reports
Vendors & Payables Reports	A/P Aging Summary, Accounts Payable Graph, Vendor Balance Detail, Vendor Balance Summary, Transaction List by Vendor, 1099 Summary, Sales Tax Liability, Vendor Contact List + 5 additional reports
Purchases Reports	Purchases by Vendor, Purchases by Item (detail), Open Purchase Orders by Job + 4 additional reports
Inventory Reports	Inventory Valuation Summary, Inventory Stock Status by Item, Physical Inventory Worksheet + 3 additional reports
Employees & Payroll Reports (for payroll subscribers)	Payroll Summary, Payroll Detail Review, Payroll Liability Balances, Employee Earnings Summary, Employee Contact List, Employee Withholding + 13 additional reports
Banking Reports	Deposit Detail, Missing Checks, Previous Reconciliations + 2 additional reports
Accountant & Taxes Reports	Trial Balance, General Ledger, Audit Trail, Voided/Deleted Transactions, Transactions List by Date, Fixed Asset Listing, Income Tax Summary + 6 additional reports
Budgets Reports	Budget Overview, Profit & Loss Budget Performance + 2 additional reports
List Reports	Customer Phone List, Vendor Contact List, Account Listing, Item Price List, Terms Listing, Memorized Transaction Listing + 10 additional reports

Depending on your type of business, there are some reports that may be more essential than others.

For example, if you sell products, you’ll want good inventory reporting. If you use contractors, you’ll also need to print and file 1099s at year end.

And if you use QuickBooks Payroll to pay your employees, you’ll need to print common tax forms such as Federal Form 941.

We’ll give you some pointers for running these and other reports, including explaining customization options available in each report.

We’ll also provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to print payroll reports (if you’re a payroll subscriber) and how to set a report schedule for reports that need to be printed regularly.

Report customization options

All QuickBooks reports offer the following reporting options, which can be found at the top of the report screen.

Report options found at the top of each report

Customize Report: This option allows you to choose various report filters, add or change a header or footer, and change fonts. You can also choose report date ranges, select the report basis (cash or accrual), and choose which columns or rows you wish to display. There is also an option to add sub-columns if you desire.
Comment on Report: This is a great feature that allows you to put a personal note on any report, great when distributing select reports to others.
Memorize: You can memorize any report using the Memorize option, which also allows you to share the template with others. Once a report is memorized, it can be scheduled to run at a future date, which we’ll discuss later in this article.
Print, E-Mail, and Excel: You have the option to print any report, email the report to recipients, or export the report to Excel for further customization if desired.

Basic report parameters can usually be set directly from this page without the need to access the Customize tab.

Common QuickBooks Desktop Reports

Though reporting requirements vary, most businesses will find the following reports useful.

Financial Statements

Financial statements are vital for any business. They provide owners and managers with detailed information on the financial health of their business, from managing expenses to monitoring cash flow.

The most common financial statements, such as Profit & Loss, Income & Expense Statements, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statements are all found under the Company & Financial option on the standard report menu.

You can use the Customize option explained above to create a custom report or by using the standard filters available with any report.

Additional financial statements and other accounting reports can be found under the Accountant & Taxes option on the reports menu, including a Trial Balance, Journal Entry report, a Transactions report, and an Audit Trail report, which lets you know exactly who has accessed the application, and if they’ve made any changes.

Journal Entry reports

Though the need to make journal entries is infrequent in QuickBooks Desktop, there are still some occasions when making a journal entry is a necessity.

The Make General Journal Entries option is available under the Company option located at the top of the screen.

The Company option is found on the drop-down menu at the top of the main screen.

Once you choose the Make General Journal Entries option, the screen below will appear.

The General Journal Entry screen.

Bank charges, depreciation, and manual checks are items that usually require a journal entry. Once a journal entry has been made, you can choose to print a journal report for the entries for backup.

To run a report for the journal entry entered above, click on Reports, and then Entries Entered.

The reports options in the General Journal Entry feature.

The report will display any journal entries made on that particular day.

Journal entry report.

Reconciliation report

The reconciliation report is the final step in the bank reconciliation process and can be printed in either a summary or detail version.

The Reconciliation Report which is printed after reconciling your bank account.

The reconciliation report provides a detail of your account beginning balance, cleared transactions, new transactions, and outstanding items such as checks that haven’t cleared.

If necessary, you can also print a previous reconciliation report, which is found under the Banking option on the Reports screen, by simply choosing the accounting period you wish to print a reconciliation report for.

The Previous Reconciliation Report screen.

From this screen, you’ll be able to choose the account you wish to run the reconciliation report for, as well as the type of report and what transactions you wish to include.

Every QuickBooks Desktop report offers customize, comment, memorize, print, email, and export options. These options can be found at the top of the report screen.

Transaction reports by account

One of the best ways to review your account balances is to run a transaction report by account. This report is particularly helpful if you spot any ending balances that seem to be too high or too low.

For example, if I thought my job materials expense account balance was too high, I can navigate to the Accountant & Taxes option in the reports screen to run a Transaction Detail by Account report that will allow me to review all expenses for the period.

The transaction Detail by Account report displays all account activity for a defined period.

Using this report is the easiest way to spot errors or mis-postings in the account, and can be run for any period that you desire.

Scheduled reports

One of the most convenient features found in QuickBooks Desktop applications is the ability to schedule reports to run at custom chosen intervals.

To get started creating a schedule for your reports, access the Report Schedule Setup option found under the Reports option on the drop-down menu.

The Schedule Setup lets you choose the reports and set the schedule you wish.

Once you choose which reports you wish to schedule, you’ll need to name the schedule and choose the frequency, with Daily, Weekly, Every Two Weeks, Monthly, and Quarterly options available.

Choose the start date and time, and then enter the emails of all report recipients. If you run and distribute reports on a regular basis, this feature will save you a lot of time.

Multi-company reporting

If you manage multiple companies, you can combine reports from multiple company files for an overall view of company operations.

This feature is only available in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise, and will only combine the following financial statements:

Balance Sheet Standard
Balance Sheet Summary
Profit & Loss Standard
Profit & Loss Report by Class
Statement of Cash Flows
Trial Balance

To combine these reports, select the Combine Reports from Multiple Companies option on the Reports menu in QuickBooks Enterprise.

For QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Premier users, the only option to create reports across multiple companies is to export data to Excel, where you can manually create a multi-company report.

1099 Reports

If you routinely pay contractors, you’ll need to run a 1099 report. QuickBooks Desktop includes a 1099 Summary report and a 1099 Detail report.

Both reports provide you with a list of vendors, Social Security or Tax ID numbers, and the total amount paid.

The 1099 Detail report should be run before processing 1099 forms.

In order for your report to be accurate, you must first set up any new vendor in the Vendor Center.

Remember, any U.S. contractor that you pay more than $600 to throughout the year will need to receive a 1099, with the information also transmitted to the IRS in a timely manner.

The IRS imposes significant penalties for companies that do not follow the proper procedure for filing 1099 information timely.

The Tax Settings screen is where you’ll enter information for each 1099 eligible vendor.

To get started, just check the Vendor eligible for 1099 box and enter the corresponding vendor Tax ID. If this information is not entered during the vendor setup process, their information will not appear on the 1099 report.

IRS Form 941

If you have employees, you will need to file IRS Form 941, Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return.

Form 941 is used to report employee withholding taxes, and must be filed each quarter, whether you have tax liability for the quarter or not.

First page of Form 941 that needs to be completed for businesses with employees.

In order to process Form 941, you will need to have a QuickBooks Payroll Standard or Enhanced payroll subscription. If you subscribe to QuickBooks Desktop Payroll Assisted subscription, Form 941 is created by Intuit.

If you need to create Form 941, choose the Employees option from the drop-down menu or the vertical menu bar. In the File Forms section, select Quarterly Form 941/Schedule B – Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return, select the filing period, and then click on OK.

Reports that your business needs

With a good selection of reports, easy report creation, and the ability to schedule reports to print on demand, QuickBooks Desktop applications offer the reports that small and mid-sized businesses rely on.

Frequently asked questions

Are reporting options the same in all QuickBooks Desktop editions?

No, the reporting options change with the editions:

QuickBooks Desktop Pro: 100+ reports
QuickBooks Desktop Premier: 150+ reports including industry-specific reports
QuickBooks Enterprise: 200+ reports including advanced reporting options

Can you customize QuickBooks Desktop reports?

Yes, customized reports for any QuickBooks Desktop report can be easily created, with options available for custom date ranges, accrual or cash basis reports, and the option to choose from a variety of filters such as individual accounts.

You can also add headers or footers for any report, add or hide columns, and choose from standard or detail reports. There is also an option to export any report to Microsoft Excel if further customization is needed.

Can I easily share reports with others?

Yes, you can share individual reports by clicking on the Email option at the top of the report screen.

You can also share scheduled reports with select recipients by entering the recipient’s email address when setting up the report schedule.