The Essential Small Business Accounting Services Guide to QuickBooks

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Working with a remote bookkeeping service will still provide you with all the value you could get from an in-office bookkeeper but at a fraction of the cost. Outsourcing how to calculate your pretax income your bookkeeping is more affordable than you would think. We save you money the moment you hire us by cutting out the expensive cost of hiring an in-house CFO.

  • And the professional services edition lets you analyze profitability by customer, geography and other factors, helping you make informed business decisions.
  • As you might expect, QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise has a very comprehensive set of accounting features.
  • It also includes perks like call-backs (to save you time) and screen sharing (to save you frustration), making it better than run-of-the-mill accounting support.
  • As a business owner, bookkeeping might not rank high on your list of priorities.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to keep track of your credit sales by creating and emailing invoices to your customers as well as recording cash sales where no invoice is needed. You will also learn how to apply payments received to outstanding invoices so that your accounts receivable (A/R) is up to date and income is not counted twice. Oracle NetSuite is our favorite enterprise accounting software, beating out QuickBooks Enterprise and other competitors. While QuickBooks Desktop offers a full suite of accounting tools, Oracle NetSuite includes far more features in its ERP.

Accounting software

While setting up QuickBooks, you can connect your bank as well as credit card accounts to the software. Once done, QuickBooks tracks your bills and expenses automatically. By the end of this lesson, you will be able to manage credit card sales with either a QuickBooks Payments account integrated with QuickBooks or a third-party credit card processor. You should consider accepting credit card payments as a convenience for your customers and to increase the speed that you collect outstanding invoices. The features and settings that you choose in this lesson will affect every area of QuickBooks.

If, on the other hand, you’re not sure you need all the tools QuickBooks Desktop includes, you may want to stick with a small-business accounting software like QuickBooks online. It tops our list of the best accounting apps thanks to its variety of plans, excellent invoicing tools and solid accounting tools. You don’t get all the power of QuickBooks Desktop, but QuickBooks Online costs much less ― and it includes features like cloud access at no extra cost.

Account Information

This premium customer support plan gives you 24/7 phone and chat help. It also includes perks like call-backs (to save you time) and screen sharing (to save you frustration), making it better than run-of-the-mill accounting support. It offers some accounting automation, for example, but other software like NetSuite has far more powerful automation. Even so, the sheer breadth of features QuickBooks offers makes it a competitive enterprise accounting software. This plan gives you extra automation features through assisted payroll.

Keep up-to-date records

Even on this lowest-tier plan, you can use QuickBooks Enterprise Desktop to manage multiple companies. Still, QuickBooks isn’t as powerful as other enterprise accounting tools, so large businesses may prefer a more scalable alternative instead. QuickBooks Online users can choose QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping to get year-round access to verified experts who are focused on their success. From the start, business owners can get personalized answers to questions and spend less time on their books.

Managing Sales and Income

It can also track the sales tax collected on transactions and the sales tax owed to the various tax authorities. Your chart of accounts in QuickBooks provides a complete listing of all the accounts you need to track your financial data. These accounts are useful for tracking income, expenses, assets, liabilities, and equity accounts that might be required on your tax return.

If QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise isn’t ideal for you, check out these alternatives

Solid inventory management solution for small businesses that prefer desktop products, though Advanced Inventory features do require an internet connection. These extra features elevate QuickBooks above one-size-fits-all accounting software. So if you happen to work in one of the supported industries, a specific edition of QuickBooks Desktop could save you time and fit seamlessly into your workflow. Along with everyday accounting tools, QuickBooks Enterprise Desktop offers industry-specific  editions with extra features. Accountants, contractors, manufacturers, non-profits, professional services and retail and wholesale businesses can all enjoy an industry-tailored QuickBooks experience.

Our review of QuickBooks Payroll provides pricing details and more insight into its features and use cases. The Statement of Cash Flows in QuickBooks will show you all of the activities that affect the operating, investing, and financing cash inflows and cash outflows for your business. Note that you must first enter your bills in QuickBooks Online and then pay them online by clicking the + New button and then selecting Pay bills online. You can also create an invoice from scratch or by converting an existing estimate into an invoice. Then, customize the invoice by changing the color and adding your company logo. Let me know if you have questions about importing inventory in QuickBooks Online.

The accrual accounting method records financial transactions when they occur rather than when cash exchanges hands. QuickBooks is one of the most popular accounting software for small businesses in 2024. You can rest assured that we will work closely with you to create actionable business plans and accurate financial reporting. We offer our toolkit of financial intelligence that will be your greatest asset for business growth.

You can also link Gmail to QuickBooks, as well as Yahoo and certain other email programs. A Live Bookkeeper cannot begin cleaning up your past books until they receive the required supporting documentation, which your bookkeeper will request from you after your first meeting. Once your bookkeeper receives all the necessary documentation, they’ll typically complete your cleanup within 30 days. In some cases, your cleanup may take longer depending on timeliness of documentation and the complexity of your books.

While QuickBooks Desktop is fairly user-friendly, it’s hard to beat the ease of using Sage Intacct. This enterprise accounting software features an AI-powered general ledger, which means you can get more work done with much less effort. Likewise, Sage Intacct has much more powerful automation tools than QuickBooks Desktop, so you can spend less time on repetitive tasks. For starters, all Enterprise plans come with QuickBooks Priority Circle.

The ability to pay bills and track unpaid bills is available in QuickBooks Essentials and higher plans. Cost can vary from free inventory management software to products that cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month. Accrual accounting provides a more accurate picture of a business’s financial health than cash accounting, as it considers all of the financial transactions for a given period.