Accounting

How to Clean up QuickBooks for 2020

Yes, it’s here again: a new year. You may have a lengthy to-do list full of tasks that must be done before you close out the books for 2019, but there’s one task – or rather, a series of tasks – that you should add to that list: year-end QuickBooks cleanup. Even if you’ve closed out the books it’s always good to double-check, and following the guidelines outlined below will:

• Ensure that you’ve processed every 2019 transaction (or that you know why you can’t).
• Give you a sense of closure, knowing that you’ve dealt with all your 2019 financial data.
• Allow you to start your 2020 QuickBooks activities with as clean of a slate as possible.

First Things First

Before you start looking at transactions and running reports, check to make sure that your fiscal year is recorded correctly in QuickBooks. Open the Company menu and select My Company. Click the pencil icon in the upper right to open the Company Information window, then click Report Information in the tabs to the left. This window opens:

Figure 1: Is your company’s fiscal year recorded correctly in QuickBooks? If not, please call. Don’t try to fix this on your own.

Account for All of Your Income

You certainly want to have received all the money owed to you by December 31 if at all possible. So, run a report to see which customers have outstanding, overdue balances. Open the Reports menu and select Customers & Receivables | A/R Aging Summary.

The first column here will read Current. You don’t have to worry about these customers. It’s the next four columns that will require follow-up. If your default payment terms are 30 days, you’ll see columns for 1-30, 31-60, 61-90, and >90. Customers with dollar amounts in those columns have not met their obligations and are past due by those date ranges.

Note: If your default terms are different (like 15 days), you’ll need to customize the report. In the toolbar at the top, you’ll see a field labeled Interval (days). Change it to reflect your own default terms and click Refresh in the upper right corner.

If your report contains only a sea of zeroes in those four columns, everyone is paid up. If not, you can send statements to anyone who is at least one day past due to remind them of what they owe. Open the Customers menu and select Create Statements to see this window:

Figure 2: Partial view of the Create Statements window.

Make sure the Statement Date is correct since QuickBooks will use this to calculate aging. Then you can either enter a specific Statement Period or request All open transactions as of Statement Date. If you choose the latter, you’ll most likely want to limit the statements to customers whose payments are overdue. So, you’d click in the box in front ofInclude only transactions over [your number here] days past due date.

Below these options, you’ll be able to indicate which customers should receive statements. The most common choice is All Customers (who fall into the group you just defined), but you can also send to one or multiple customers, for example. QuickBooks will display a list if you select one of these. The right pane of this window contains several additional options that you can check or uncheck. When you’re satisfied, you can Preview, Print, or E-mail the statements.

Pay Outstanding Bills

You should also try to settle your Accounts Payable before the end of the year. Open the Reports menu and select Vendors & Payables | A/P Aging Summary. Look for dollar amounts in the columns that show aging beyond the first column. You can also run the Unpaid Bills Detail report and look at the Aging column, as pictured here:

Figure 3: Look in the aging column of this report to see which bills are past due and by how many days.

Note: QuickBooks has multiple Preferences that relate to reports and aging. We can go over these with you if you haven’t explored them.

If there are other tasks you have not completed yet because you need assistance such as reconciling all accounts, running year-end reports, and clearing any deposits that remain in the Undeposited Funds account, don’t hesitate to call.

• By Leon Clinton
• January 30, 2020

Setting up Sales Tax in QuickBooks, Part 2

Last month, the focus was on the process of setting up sales taxes in QuickBooks. As you may recall, the first step is to go to Edit | Preferences | Sales Tax and make sure the software is set up correctly for this use. Before you do this, however, you will need to know what your state and local sales tax rules are. You can find this information on your state’s Department of Revenue or Department of Taxation website.

State sales taxes are considered Items in QuickBooks; you create them like you would create product records, and when local sales taxes are also required, you can set up Sales Tax Groups. You’ll be assigning these Items as well as Tax Codes to customers.

Using Sales Taxes

Once you have sales taxes set up, you can start using them in transactions. You can create them on the fly from within transactions, but we recommend taking care of this important housekeeping task before you start.

Figure 1: QuickBooks applies the Sales Tax Item or Sales Tax Group that you assigned to the customer on your invoices. You can see the others that are available.

Start by creating an invoice. When you reach the Tax column for your first line item, you’ll see that QuickBooks has already assigned Tax or Non to it based on the information in the item’s record. You can mix taxable and non-taxable items on the same invoice. You can also add a new sales tax on the fly from the invoice itself. Click the down arrow in the Tax column and select .

Be sure you’re not required to pay sales tax on an item when Non is selected. You may not have to charge sales tax on. For example:

• Nonprofit organizations
• Out-of state sales
• Items that your customers will resell

Tip: If you’d like, you can create more specific sales tax codes for these situations. You could use OOS for out-of-state sales, for example, LBR for labor, and NPO for nonprofit organization.

Figure 2: QuickBooks already includes Sales Tax Codes Tax and Non, but you can add additional ones that are more descriptive.

Be very careful with your sales tax classifications in QuickBooks. As was mentioned last month, such errors will be discovered in a sales tax audit, should you ever be subject to one.

Once you’ve entered all the line items in the invoice, look down toward the bottom of the screen, directly beneath the table containing invoiced items and above the Total. QuickBooks will have calculated the sales tax due using the Sales Tax Item or Group you assigned to that customer during setup, placing it in the Tax field.

Look to the left of those numbers, and you’ll see the actual rate that was applied. To the left of that is a drop-down list containing the correct Sales Tax Item or Sales Tax Group. Click the down arrow if you want to see the list of other options. And in the lower left of the screen, you’ll see the Customer Tax Code.

The Sales Tax Center

Figure 3: The Manage Sales Tax window.

When it’s time to pay sales taxes, you’ll open the Vendors menu and select Sales Tax | Manage Sales Tax. From the screen that opens, you’ll be able to:

• Access Sales Tax Preferences.
• Generate sales tax reports that help you fill out required forms.
• Visit related screens.

There are two reports you’ll need to run: Sales Tax Liability (displays total sales, amounts that are taxable and at what rates, taxes collected, and how much sales tax is due to each taxing agency) and the Sales Tax Revenue Summary (breaks down total sales into taxable and non-taxable). These reports are, of course, customizable, so you can filter them, for example, by Sales Tax Code.

A Delicate Balance

Collecting the correct amount of sales tax on taxable items and submitting the right tax totals to the right agencies takes vigilance. You don’t want to charge customers for unnecessary taxes, but you also don’t want to end up paying taxes you should have invoiced out of your own pocket. It’s much easier to spend a few minutes up front setting up sales tax accurately in QuickBooks than it is to go back and untangle inaccurate records. If you need assistance with this, don’t hesitate to call and set up a consultation.

• By Leon Clinton
• December 31, 2019

Job-costing is not just for contractors. While that’s probably the most common understanding of this concept in QuickBooks, you can also use the software’s jobs tools to track income and expenses for any related group of items and/or services.

Think of them as projects. If you’re an expert in business promotions, for example, you probably have multiple projects going on simultaneously that consist of materials you might need to order for your client (like special paper) and the actual work you do (design, content-creation, etc.). You could also have to track expenses like mileage, and you may price your services by the hour.

QuickBooks can handle all of this. If you’re conscientious about documenting all of the pieces that go into every job, you’ll be able to run reports that show you how much you spent and took in on each. This information can help you better price your services and manage your time to maximize profitability.

Many Elements

In part one of this of a two-column series, we’re going to explore the basic elements that go into job-tracking. Keep in mind that there are many different ways to work with jobs. How you choose to do it will depend on the structure of your business.

First, let’s look at a simple example. The first step involves setting up a job for an existing client. Even if you think you’re only going to be doing one project for them, you can still set it up as a job so you can assign all related income and expenses to it. This will make it much easier if you get additional work from the customer down the line – and if you have to bill the customer for something that’s not related to a specific project.

To create a job, open the Customers menu and select Customer Center. Make sure the Customers & Jobs tab is highlighted. Select the customer by clicking on it. Right-click the name and select Add Jobfrom the drop-down list. When the New Job window opens, click the Job Info tab.

Figure 1: You can track your Jobs by keeping their status current in the New Job window.

Fill in the Job Name field. In this example, we’ve selected a name that’s broad enough that we’ll eventually be able to break down into specific tasks. If your customer has an outstanding balance as of the current date, that amount will appear in the Opening Balance field.

Enter a Job Description. The Job Type field is optional, but creating these classifications can help with advanced reports that gauge profitability. Consult with us if you want to explore these.

Open the Job Status list and select the correct one, then choose a Start Date and Projected End Date. You’ll document the End Datewhen you’re finished. Click OK.

Creating Item Records

You may already know that if you buy and/or sell products and/or services, you have to set up individual records for each one so you can include them on sales and purchase forms. You’ll need these to record income and expenses related to your Promotion job. If you’re new to QuickBooks, here’s how it works.

Open the Lists menu and select Item List. In the window that opens, click the arrow next to Item in the lower left corner and select New. A window like this will open:

Figure 2: The New Item window. 

The Item Type list will drop down. Select Service. In the example above, you’re creating a record for a service you sell: Website Development. Enter that in the Item Name/Number field. Ignore the U/M Set field; this is not available in QuickBooks Pro or Premier.

Enter a Description and your hourly (or project) Rate. Choose the correct Tax Code status and select the Account. When you’re done, click OK.

Warning: You may not have an Account in your Chart of Accountsthat fits the specialized income and expenses you want to track. If you need assistance setting this up, don’t hesitate to call.

You’ll repeat this process for other types of promotional work you do (making flyers and brochures, designing and ordering branded products, general content creation, etc.).

Think it through first

Before you create your first job, spend time envisioning how you want it structured. Remember that every invoice or timed activity or other income or expense you enter will only be assigned to one Customer:Job, but you can include as many Items as you want. If you need help envisioning this, please call, and a QuickBooks professional will be happy to help you think this through and go through the setup with you

.

Next month: a look at how the records you’ve created can be used.

• By Leon Clinton
• March 31, 2019