QuickBooks Compatible Time Clocks

Imagine reducing your payroll expense by 5% a year. Would you do it? Businesses with employees can expect to pay anywhere from 20 to 30% of their gross revenue to cover payroll expenses. It is easy to see how 5% would help reduce expenses.

How would you save 5%? Simply installing a time clock in your company. Want further savings? Make the clock a biometric time clock.  The reason is two fold. A time clock will ensure accurate time reporting. This means, if you have manual timesheets, that employees wont be able to "fudge" the hours. It is common to see employees add a few minutes to their timesheets or come back from lunch a little late but report that they arrived on time when they turn in their hours. 

Now that we see why a clock is very important controlling your payroll expenses, but how to choose a clock that is effective but affordable. 

Ideally the time clock would be able to export to your payroll processor of choice such as ADP, Paychex or QuickBooks. 

So which clocks would be ideal? 

I have used EC200 from Easy Clocking. It is an affordable biometric time clock. The system it comes with is basic software that allows you to export to excel files. The one clock we have has an additional fee you can export the punches directly into QuickBooks via IIF file. Basically for the price of the clock (found cheap in here) and the exporter which the vendors on amazon can sell to you. 

I will be producing YouTube videos about the clocks shortly, and if you have any questions, I can answer them for you.

QuickBooks for Real Estate Agents Part II

Real Estate agents have very unique financial needs than the more stable hourly, salary employees. Many agents are paid as 1099 independent contractors. This means keeping track of your finances is not only useful for your personal needs, but very important for tax purposes. 

Now, many individuals will jump into Quicken Home and Business, and that isn't really a bad choice. It is a good program. It can manage your business, track investments, handle portfolios  and report on your personal finances; however, every time I see Quicken Home and Business, I think: A jack of all trades, a master at none.

If you are using Quicken Home and Business and it's working for you, then continue. If you are still looking for a solution to track your finances, then continue reading.

People go with Quicken for business needs because of the idea that Quicken would be faster and easier to learn then QuickBooks. Let me say this. Both have moderate learning curves, and you will always learn of new things to do in each one. My suggestion is to go with QuickBooks first. Spend the time to learn how to use QuickBooks (or have me help you) and your accountant will thank you later. 

The reason to use QuickBooks Pro instead of Quicken is simple. QuickBooks is designed for a businesses. When you are a 1099 independent contractor you can write off expenses and other tax maneuvers that will help reduce your year end taxes. QuickBooks Pro can track fixed assets  vehicle mileage, even do cost accounting. 

Image being able to see which client generates the most income? Do sale of condos offer higher profits than single family homes? Is it worth the expenses and time to sell multi-family dwellings? QuickBooks Pro is designed to help answer theses questions using jobs, items, and billing features. Expenses can be assigned tax codes to make tax season a breeze. 

To further help you make your choice, think of this: Are you paid as an employee? Then use Quicken or YNAB. If you are paid as a 1099 contractor, then QuickBooks Pro  is the way to go and also think about starting a LLC. 

QuickBooks For Doctors

Doctors juggle multiple responsibilities, from being an advocate for their patients, a consoling family members,  to being a business owner. It is very easy to put off seemingly less important tasks like bookkeeping or use sub-par methods to track finances. 

This post will give an overview how a doctor or a small medical practice would use QuickBooks Pro 2013 to manage the finances and employees.

QuickBooks Premier professional services might sound like the right choice for your practice, and you may need it later down the road if you would like in-depth reports specifically geared toward businesses that offer professional services; however, many practices will do just fine using Pro for their financial software. 

Let me point out one many thing, do not use QuickBooks for insurance billing. Most doctors have specialized software that will handle the codes and the billing, it might sound odd having two programs that are able to track receivables, but QuickBooks just isn't the right solution for medical billing.

What you would use QuickBooks for is to record the deposit, checks that are written, manage payroll, and run financial reports at the end of the year for tax purposes. You could uses QuickBooks to track individuals who pay with cash for services (which might benefit the doctor office and the patient). 

If you have a small payroll, you could easily get started with Basic payroll for $20 per month and $2 per employee. The $2 fee cover direct deposit, so there is no need to write manual payroll checks. Basic payroll means you still have to pay and file your own taxes at the end of the year, but QuickBooks has plenty of reports that will help you.

If you decide to not go that route, I would suggest full service payroll. It cost $79 per month and $2 per employee. With his service you only need to enter the hours in QuickBooks. Intuit will handle calculating the taxes and paying the payroll taxes. All you need to do is make sure there is an account for them to withdraw the funds. If there are any problems with your filing, Intuit speaks on your behalf. If there are any penalties because of errors, Intuit pays them, not you.

There are numerous benefits using QuickBooks to manage your company's financial information and I hope this post shows some of the reasons why any medical office should use QuickBooks.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment!

Accounting for Real Estate Agents

As a Realtor  your paychecks completely depend on your abilities to sell a house. Unlike others types of employees who receive steady paychecks, Realtor paychecks fluctuate wildly from each sale. For this reason, managing your finances is a paramount importance. 

The major question you may ask is what financial software should you use? This should be your second question, your first question to ask is if you are a independent contractor or employee. 

If you are an employee for your brokerage, then you can use any time of personal finance software to manage your money. I would suggest YNAB for its budgeting capabilities read more here, however, if you need to track expenses for tax purposes then using Quicken Premier/Deluxe would be best. 

Independent contractors should aim use QuickBooks Pro or QuickBooks Online Essentials. These programs help make tax season a breeze and will reduce the number of times your accountant rolls their eyes when you come in to have your taxes done. While Quicken does handle businesses, QuickBooks will place your taxes in a format that your account would be familiar with, namely using P/L statements, Balance sheets, and other business reports that accountants use for tax filing. 

QuickBooks has a robust tax line mapping compared to Quicken, and it is solely a business accounting program unlike Quicken home and business. If cost is something you are worried about and you also need a mobile solution. QuickBooks Online Essentials will give your the tax reports, mobility, and excellent money management for less than $30 dollars per month.

If you have any questions about setting up your QuickBooks company file or deciding which program to use, leave a comment!

How To Fix an Unbalanced Balance Sheet in QuickBooks

This problem does happen every once in a while. You enter transactions, you go through the motions, and then you run a month end report just to see that your balance sheet is unbalanced.

What causes this issue? Majority of the time it is because you have a corrupted transaction.  While this might sound intimidating, the solutions are easy to follow.

The first thing you should do is rebuild the file. Open your QuickBooks program. Click on File>Utilities>Rebuild Data. This should fix the problem.

If it doesn't work the next solution is to try to search for the amount that you are off. This isn't the most likely solution, but it doesn't hurt to try.

If there are multiple issues causing the problem, you'll need to dig deeper into your accounts by following theses steps:

1. Pull your Balance Sheet report for All Dates then select month for Columns.
2. Find the first month that the report does not balance.
3. Change the dates to that month and select Day for Columns to find out what day does not balance.
4. Create a Custom Transaction Detail report for that day.
5. Total the report by Account.
6. Identify the issue.
7. Delete the transaction, then re-enter it.
8. You're done!

How to setup QuickBooks for a Car Dealership

Setting up QuickBooks to sync with your company function is an important step. Many times, people focus on their Chart of Accounts, however, the item list is the major part of proper accounting. A well thought out chart of accounts is useless if your item list is woefully lacking the same amount of thoughtfulness.

I am using for example how to set up an item list for a used car dealership.

1. Work with your accountant to set up a chart of accounts, or you can select Automotive Sales or Repairs as the industry when setting up a new company file.
2. Open your item list and create an inventory item for the cars you are selling.
4. Use the last four digits of the VIN.
5. Create a non-inventory or other charge item for your cost. Make sure these are mapped to the COGS accounts you’ve set up.
6. Create a Customer:Job. You can name it by car or make a general customer named _Auto Sales. Each car you buy would go under the customer as a job. You would use the name or VIN as the job name.
7. When you purchase a vehicle, use a PO. Enter the vendor then enter inventory item (make sure the VIN you created matches the car you are buying). Enter purchase price. Save and close. Then Receive the item into inventory.
   1. You can do the same process using the write a check feature in QuickBooks or entering a credit card charge. Make sure you place the VIN on the item tab.
8. When you sell a car. Go to the job under the customer you created and create the invoice. Make sure you use the same item!
9. Add your fees to the invoice. (DMV, Environmental Fees, etc...)
10. Your Finished!