reminders

QuickBooks Helps You Make a Statement

How do you let customers know they owe you money? Probably by sending invoices. And how’s that working for you? If your customers are all conscientious and pay on time, maybe that’s all you need to do.

But perhaps you need to consider doing at least part of your billing by dispatching statements. These forms have their drawbacks. For example, you can’t include sales tax or discounts on them. You can’t group related charges and subtotal them. And your customization options are weaker than in invoices.

Statements lay out the customer’s current financial obligation to you, including any statement charges, invoices, payments, unpaid bills and finance charges that have accrued during a specified period. Unlike invoices, they do not create new charges; they simply report on what’s already been entered. Billing statements that outline historical transactions can be sent as reminders of past due accounts, or you can use them for customers who order frequently, to keep track of items until you’re ready to bill and ship. They’re also useful when you request payment in advance.

You should not invoice for any products or services that have already been entered as statement charges or the customer will be double-billed. Statement charges show up under Recent Transactions in the window adjacent to invoice forms; they also appear in the Customer Center and your Accounts Receivable account in the Chart of Accounts. And you can find them in the Customer Register (Customers | Enter Statement Charges).

Outlining the charges

If you want to enter new statement charges instead of an invoice for, say, a monthly billing or a customer who is ordering frequently but is not ready to be billed, click on the Statement Charges icon on the desktop. (If there’s no icon and you want one, click Edit | Preferences, then Desktop View | Company Preferences, then click in the box next to Statements and Statement Charges.) Or you can just click Customers | Enter Statement Charges.

Click on Edit | Preferences to add Statement Charges and Statements icons to your desktop.

The customer register opens. Select the customer you want to create a charge for by clicking the down arrow next to Customer:Job. If you are in the middle of more than one job for the customer, make sure you make the correct one active.

Go down to the first blank line and change the date if necessary. Tab to the Item field, and drop the list to select the relevant product or service. Tab and enter the Quantity. The Rate and Amt Chrg should be filled in (if not, go back to Lists | Item List and edit the record). QuickBooks will have entered STMTCHG in the Type field. Tab to the Description field and complete it if it’s blank, and select a Class if you’d like. Your window will look something like this:

It’s very easy to enter statement charges in QuickBooks.

If you have another charge for that job or customer, go ahead and enter it. When you’re done with charges for that job/customer, click Record.

Build a statement

You can create statements at any time from data already entered in QuickBooks. The process is the same whether you’ve just entered a series of charges, as outlined above, or you want to remind a customer of outstanding invoices. You’re simply capturing all activity within a given time period. To do so, click the Statements icon on the home page. This window opens:

You’ll select options from this window when you’re building a statement run.

If the window contains an A/R field, that means that you have more than one receivables account. Be sure to select the appropriate one. Verify, too, that the date is correct. This will appear in the customer’s register as the Billed Date.

Here, too, you can choose a range of transaction dates for your statement(s), or simply opt to create forms for all customers with open transactions (in the latter case, you can limit it to transactions that are more than 30 days past due). You must also indicate whether you want statements sent to all customers or a subset. You can manually choose one or many customers, or select by Type (commercial, residential) or Preferred Send Method (E-mail or Mail).

QuickBooks gives you some control over your statements’ layout; click Customize if you want to explore this. Next, you can indicate whether you want to create one statement per customer or per job. The other options here are self-explanatory, but be sure to go through them every time you create statements.

Another decision

Will you be wanting to assess finance charges on the past due charges? This is a decision you should talk over with your ProAdvisor. It’s a complex issue. Should you want to do so, though, clicking on Assess Finance Charges will open the Assess Finance Charges window.

When you’re satisfied with all of your statement choices, you can Preview them. Here’s an example:

Statements lay out all transaction activity within a given period. Statement charges appear as “Due.” In this case, you’re reminding the customer that there’s a large past due balance as well as additional new charges.

Statements can be an effective way to let your customersâ€”and youâ€”get a comprehensive view of their financial interaction with you. They can be used instead of invoices, but there are limitations. If you’re still unclear on how these forms can fit into your accounting workflow, your ProAdvisor can help.

Tracking Bills in QuickBooks, Worth the Effort

Next to payroll, paying bills is probably your least favorite task in QuickBooks. You don’t have to use this feature — you can keep stacking bills on your desk, scrawling the due dates on a paper calendar, and writing checks.

If you’re still operating this way, though, you’re missing out on the numerous tools that QuickBooks offers to track your accounts payable, including the ability to:

Enter bills as they come in
Set reminders for bills due
Pay bills easily
Locate a bill or payment quickly
Enter bills as (or after) you receive items
Link bills to purchase orders
Have instant access to a bill’s status

Receiving the goods

When an expense bill comes in (from a utility company, for example), click the Enter Bills icon on the home page, or Vendors | Enter Bills. A window like the one displayed above opens. Select the vendor and fill in the blanks. Make sure that the Expenses tab below is selected and the appropriate account number and amount fields are completed. If it’s a bill for an item that already has a related Item Receipt (the shipment preceded the bill), QuickBooks instructs you to use Vendor | Enter Bill for Received Items. Follow the prompts. Note: Dealing with incoming inventory is complex. Consult with us if you plan to use this feature. If the bill came simultaneously with items, click Vendors | Receive Items and Enter Bill. When you select the vendor from the list, this box opens (if you have sent a purchase order):

Figure 2: QuickBooks is telling you that you have open orders with this vendor.

Click Yes. The Open Purchase Orders box opens, containing a list of open POs. Select the one(s) you want and click OK. The bill form opens, containing the details of that purchase order. Change quantities if they don’t match the shipment, and edit other fields as necessary. Save the bill.

Settling your debts

It’s good to set reminders for bills. Go to Edit | Preferences and click Reminders. Make sure that the Show Reminders List…box is checked, then click Company Preferences. Find the Bills to Pay row and enter the advance notice you’d like. Indicate whether you want to see a list or a summary, then click OK. When bills are due, click the Pay Bills icon or select Vendors | Pay Bills. A window opens displaying all outstanding bills. You can pare this down by selecting a date in the Due on or before field and filtering by vendors. The screen will look something like this:

Figure 3: You can easily select the bills you want to pay.

Enter a check mark next to the bills you’re paying, and change the amount in the Amt. To Pay field at the end of the row if necessary. At the bottom of the screen, you can set the payment date and type, use any discounts or credits, and make sure the correct payment account is selected. When you’re done, click Pay Selected Bills. Tip: You can have credits and discounts automatically applied by going to Edit | Preferences | Bills

After You’ve Paid Up

There are a number of places where your bills appear in QuickBooks, including:

The Unpaid Bills Detail report
The A/P Aging Detail report
The Vendor Center
QuickReports
In the Recent Transactions pane of some forms
On the bills themselves

Figure 4: QuickBooks displays the Paid status of bills.

QuickBooks also lets you void and delete bills, and copy and memorize them. Check with us before voiding and deleting, as this can make some complicated changes in your accounts.

You can just pay bills by using Banking | Write Checks or Enter Credit Card Charges. But the payoff for tracking bills is instant access to your accounts payable status, better relations with vendors, and a more insightful accounting of your company’s cash flow.