QuickBooks for Small Business in 2022

By now, QuickBooks has quickly become the ‘must-have’ accounting software for most small business owners. It’s not only highly-rated but highly efficient. Small business owners can count on it for managing invoices, tracking cash flows, paying bills, and more. 

In fact, Investopedia ranks QuickBooks as the ‘Best Overall’ accounting software for small businesses, citing that it makes bookkeeping more fluid and efficient. They also list that most business owners use QuickBooks because it has a mobile app, is scalable, cloud-based, and easily integrates with third-party applications.

If you haven’t adopted QuickBooks, there’s a good chance it’s because you’re not sure where to start. Here’s a guide on how to use QuickBooks for small business owners to simplify the adoption process.

TRACKING

One of the best components of QuickBooks for accounting is its ability to track important financial records you’ll need for your year-end tax planning checklist. This includes your invoices, expenses, inventory, and even mileage. 

Create and track invoices

QB automatically records your income and can track how much each client owes you. Right off the bat, you know the full amount of each sale, how much you received so far, and what is still owed (and when).

Even better, QuickBooks has built-in tools that assist in collecting payments via payment links and automatic reminder emails. You can also view outstanding invoices to ensure you’re up-to-date on which clients are caught up in payments and which ones you may need to reach out to soon. 

Keep track of expenses

Connect your bank account and benefit from everything from your bank account to your credit cards, being automatically downloaded and categorized in the software. What’s more, you can manually enter in checks or other expenses that can’t be automatically transferred to the software following the transaction. 

You can also add bills to QB to track when they need to be paid and if you have any outstanding bills that need attention right away. This ensures you stay on good terms with all your business relationships. 

Track inventory

QB allows you to track the quantity and cost of your inventory in one place and provides real-time reports and updates throughout the entire inventory process. Not only can you manually input data if you need to, but you can track what’s on hand at any given time to help prevent shortages that could unexpectedly disrupt business. 

QB will also automatically remind you to order more inventory when you are running low, which can make a significant difference between running your business as smoothly as possible and not having supply for demand. 

Track mileage

Whether you need to keep up with mileage in one or more vehicles, the QB app can help by automatically tracking when you are in a moving vehicle for work. All you or your drivers need to do is check user permissions, add the right vehicle and turn mileage tracking on, and have the QuickBooks Online app open when you start driving. 

From there, you can also go back to review, edit, and add notes. Your notes combined with QB’s automatic tracking can really come in handy come tax time when you need to calculate your deductions.

SIMPLIFY TAX SEASON

One of the biggest headaches when it comes to filing taxes as a small business owner is compiling income and expenses. QuickBooks automatically does this for you, so when tax season rolls around, all you have to do is print your financial statements. QB also gives you the option to share your statements with your tax preparer, so they can directly view your numbers and print whatever information they need.

Documents your small business will need to present to an accountant for filing include:

• Financial statement — cash flow, income, and balance sheet
• Vehicle use for deductions — QB mileage tracking
• Capital-asset — traded, sold, and bought assets can be inputted and tracked on QB
• Home-office expenses — if you use a part of your home for work or meet with customers in your home office
• Form 1098 — needed for your typical mortgage-interest deduction and your home-office deduction

The type of taxes your small business should be familiar with include income, self-employment, estimated, and excise. Having a solid record of all your accounting income and expenses not only ensures you’re prepared for tax season but makes your accountant’s life much easier as well. 

Tip: Stay up to date on deadlines for filing your small business tax return with a tax calendar. This will save you a substantial amount on preventable late fees and charges. 

MANAGE PAYROLL

QuickBooks has a function to track and run payroll automatically, so you don’t have to do it manually. This means even more cost savings! According to recent research, manual data entries can cost your business as much as $16 or more per invoice — not to mention nearly 20-30% of your annual revenue in inefficiencies. 

QB also has beneficial tracking features that record employee hours, saving you at least 11 hours a month in time spent managing employees:

• Streamlined payroll and invoicing
• Real-time reports
• Job and shift scheduling
• See who’s working
• Mobile app with GPS
• QuickBooks integration
• Time-off management
• Alerts and notifications
• Time clock kiosk
• Photo attachments
• Unlimited live customer support, and more if you upgrade

What’s more, hours are automatically added to customer invoices if billable. This way, you and your clients have easy access to the breakdown in costs of your service and how employee hours played into it. This can also inform bidding in the future to ensure you’re pricing your service with the average time spent on similar jobs.

QUICKBOOKS FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS IN THE NORFOLK, NE AREA

Today, more than half of small businesses are using automated accounting software, with many of them relying on QuickBooks to keep records and track business income and expenses. The more you know about how to use it and get started, the better prepared you will be in ensuring you are in compliance with ever-evolving laws and regulations, as well as typical tax preparations. 

If you’re a small business owner in the Norfolk, Nebraska area, contact us at McMill CPAs & Advisors for more expert financial and accounting advice.