Small business owners need a crash course in taxes

Small business owners need a crash course in taxes

Day 5: QuickBooks Setup

Many service companies can find progress invoicing very helpful in their business. Contractors especially find this helpful when requesting for draws. For our company, we expect payment in full when billed or completed, we will not use progress invoicing. Please select No.

Yes, even the best bookkeeper can lose track of bills owed, so we will select "yes" to this statement. Simply put, you want to be able to enter bills received and pay them later. Many of our bills that we will pay later on in the tutorial will be paid at the time of receipt using the "Write Checks" icon.
This tool can really come in handy if you print multiple or "batch" checks. Let's put it this way, printing 20 checks is a lot faster than hand writing 20 checks anyday of the week. In order to print check, you have to first order checks from a printing service company. The cheapest company checks I have found online is with Carousel Checks.

For many service industries in my area of expertise, they do not accept credit cards. If you would like to find out more about the costs associated with merchant accounts and credit card transactions, please look online and do your research. It may not be worth the cost if you only have a couple of clients paying via credit card.

Happy Small Business Week

I just received an email stating it was National Small Business Week. Happy Small Business Week everyone! What is one goal you have for this week?

Day 4: QuickBooks Setup

The next step will ask about sales tax. Now, depending on your state regulations, most service industries do not charge sales tax. This is unless you sale a tangible item such as a book, software or promotional items. Please check with your CPA to verify your state's tax laws.

Do you create estimates in QuickBooks? Many businesses do not need to create estimates. This feature, like all features in QuickBooks can be added later if you so choose.

Do you use statements in QuickBooks? Statements are a great tool to have in your financial system. They work directly with the invoice tool to allow you to keep track of receivables. The difference between invoices vs. statements:

1. Invoices are based on a per job basis. You do a single job, you create an invoice.

2. Statements allow you to group invoices together for a total sum. For example, you have a client that has three separate jobs (or invoices) during the month of July. Invoice #1 is for $200.00, Invoice #2 is for $595.00, Invoice #3 is for $75.00. The statement will show the invoice number, each individual amount and then a total sum due: $870.00.

Day 3 QuickBooks

Hello all! I am back and can breathe again. I can really describe how much I take for granted in my day to day living. The sense of taste and smell eluded me for a week and now they are back! Thank goodness! Surgery went well so onto more Quick Books.....

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Here we want to select the month of our fiscal year. Most companies will have January as their fiscal year. Sometimes a company will have the fiscal year on July 1. Make sure to choose correctly.

Our next step is choosing a password for Quick Books. I do recommend doing this for each set of books. It is an added layer of protection for your company.

Determining what type of product you sell...if any. Many of my clients are service only companies, thus I would select service only. For example, my business is a bookkeeping company, what selection would I choose? Depends. If I actually sold a tangible product such as software, books, etc. I would select products and services. At this time, I only provide services, so I will select services. For our real estate company, please select services only.

Now Hiring

I am seeking a bookkeeper for the Memphis, TN area. Please email me your resume to info@leeassociatesbookkeeping.com

For further details about the job, please visit our website at www.leeassociatesbookkeeping.com

Thank you

Break Time

Hello all! I had minor surgery yesterday so I will not be able to post for a couple of days. We will pick up the Quick Books setup where we left off on Monday. Take care and email me with any questions.

Crystal