5 Common Quickbooks Mistakes To Avoid
Quickbooks is the world’s most popular type of business accounting software. It offers a wide range of features designed to handle the accounting needs of both small and large-size businesses. Combined with its user-friendly interface, it’s no wonder why thousands of professional accountants and business owners choose Quickbooks. If you intend on using Quickbooks for your business accounting needs, you’ll want to avoid the 5 following mistakes.
Mistake #1 – Not Using Shortcuts
If you aren’t using the shortcut keys in Quickbooks, you are missing out on a simple way to save both time and energy. There’s certainly nothing wrong with manually typing and clicking your way to each and every command, but it’s ten times easier to use the shortcut keys. You can read more about the various shortcut keys in your Quickbooks help menu, but most of them contain the “Ctrl” button followed by a specific letter. For instance, Ctrl+I opens up the menu to create a new invoice.
Mistake #2 – Not Reconciling Bank Accounts
Another all-too-common Quickbooks mistake is users not reconciling their bank accounts. If a bank account is attached to your Quickbooks, you must get into the habit of reconciling it on a regular basis. Overlooking this key step could result in erroneous transactions or data being left in your account. Quickbooks is designed to make reconciliations a breeze. Just select the bank account you wish to reconcile from the main menu and follow the given instructions.
Mistake #3 – Not Setting Bill Dates
I think we’ve all been guilty of letting a bill date slide by unnoticed at one point or another. Depending on the particular bill, this may leave you vulnerable to late fees and other associated costs. You can reduce the chance of this happening, however, by setting dates for each of the bills added to your Quickbooks account. Some users simply input the client and total for each bill, leaving the date blank. If you accidentally forget about the bill, you could be subject to additional charges.
Mistake #4 – Not Backing Up Your Account
There’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t back up your Quickbooks account. Even if your computer is new and runs fine, there’s always a chance of a hardware malfunction. And if all of your Quickbooks data is stored only on that computer, it will place you in a world of trouble. There are two different ways to back up a Quickbooks account: you can either move the data to a disk or another computer, or you can upload your data to the cloud. Opting to use the cloud will allow you to access your Quickbooks data from practically any device.
Mistake #5 – Not Using Online Bill Pay
One of the many great features of Quickbooks is the built-in online bill pay. Rather than physically writing a check to each and every client, you can use this feature to automatically pay them. As a result, this will save you a huge amount of time, allowing you to get back to other work-related tasks.