Even if you’ve been using QuickBooks Online for a long time, it’s good to step back and evaluate your actions.
Reconcile accounts regularly.
It’s not a particularly pleasant process, but you should be reconciling your accounts regularly in QuickBooks Online.
Clean up your lists.
Some lists in QBO aren’t overly lengthy. You don’t have to worry about, for example, Payment Methods, Terms, or Classes. Your lists of customers and vendors, products and services, on the other hand, can grow unwieldy over the years. This means it can take more time than it should to scroll through lists when you’re using those entities in transactions. It also puts unnecessary stress on your company file. If you can’t delete any, at least make them inactive.
Never leave QBO open when you leave your work area.
This goes for everyone, even people who work alone and don’t access their company files away from their work areas. The obvious reason is to keep someone else from getting in and authorizing payments, for example, or otherwise compromising your financial information. It also protects the integrity of your data file in case your internet connection suffers some kind of outage.
Keep track of 1099 vendors.
Whether your company uses 10 vendors or a hundred or more, you may have to supply at least some of them with an IRS Form 1099 at about the same time you’re preparing W-2’s for employees. Your 1099-related tasks will be much easier if those individuals and/or companies are earmarked. If you think vendors might need 1099’s when you create their records in QuickBooks Online, click in the box to the left of Track payments for 1099 in the lower right corner. Not sure? C all us at 256-337-5200.
Classify everything with care.
Every time you have to create a record or transaction where categories are involved (i.e., Classes, Customers and Vendors, Territories), check and double-check that you’ve assigned them the correct classification. Errors here can result not only in problems with daily workflow, but your reports will not be accurate. A related best practice: Create a meaningful group of Classes, and use them faithfully. They’ll help you make better business decisions.
To create your list of Classes, click the gear icon in the upper right and select All Lists | Classes | New.
View reports on a regular basis.
There are some advanced financial reports in QBO that we should be creating for you on a regular basis, either monthly or quarterly. These include Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, and Statement of Cash Flows. The mechanics of creating them aren’t difficult, but analyzing them is. You should be running reports on your own at frequencies that you think would be helpful, like A/R Aging Detail, Unpaid Bills, and Sales by Class Detail.
Schedule a QBO health check.
Scheduling routine health checks with us will help you stay ahead of issues and save you time at year-end. Call us today at 256-337-5200 to schedule and ask about our support plans. When you are on support, we call and ensure your routine health checks are scheduled to keep you on track.
If you’ve been using QBO for a while, you probably have your own list of best practices. If you’re new to QBO, consider scheduling some time with us to go over more of them. Develop good habits from the start, and there won’t be nearly as much need for troubleshooting down the road.
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