In short, yes. It is recommended that small businesses reconcile their accounts at least monthly, although some small businesses reconcile daily for cash flow reasons. This step-by-step video shows how to reconcile your bank account using QuickBooks.
The process of comparing your balance (known as the book balance) to the bank’s records (bank balance) is important for the following reasons:
It’s nearly the fourth quarter and year-end is just around the corner. A lot of small business owners wait too long to get their financials in order. Closing the books for the year doesn’t have to be a race to the finish, it can be a jog. Below are a few things you can do now:
Many small business owners advocate doing payroll in-house as it’s considered easy and keeps them involved. The truth is, doing your own payroll can be a time drain and is costly. While you’re not paying the nominal fee for a payroll service, you’re spending your valuable time on a task that is likely below your pay grade.
Below are a few reasons why you should consider outsourcing your payroll.
When is it too late to start a budget? Some business owners don’t use a budget, and as a result, aren’t sure where money is being spent. Maybe you created some projections at the beginning of the year but are missing the mark on the sales side. Even though half the year is over, you can gain some valuable insights by assessing your first-half actual results to create a new budget.
Do you struggle with keeping track of your Travel Mileage at your small business or startup? Do you find keeping track of your mileage to be a tedious task? I do. At the end of every year, I go through my calendar, note all the business events that I drove to, calculate the mileage using Google Maps, add up the miles on an excel spreadsheet (and I don’t drive nearly as much as many of you), and after multiplying by the allotted mileage reimbursement, I have entered a tidy business expense.
If you receive a K-1 for an investment owned by your small business, use these simple instructions to adjust your Investment Account (Long-Term Asset) in QuickBooks to reflect the net income and any of the other items on the form. When you’re finished, the amount in the Investment Account will equal the Ending Capital reported on the K-1.
Want to make sure your business QuickBooks file agrees with your tax return? Best practice is to use your accountant’s adjusting journal entries or an accountant copy update file to bring your QB in line with the tax return. If neither are available, use this approach:
If your small business has fixed assets or property, how do you determine the amount of depreciation to be entered into QuickBooks? Best practice is to use your accountant’s depreciation schedule, adjusting journal entries or an accountant copy update file to bring your QB in line with the tax return. If none are available, use this approach:
The selection process for deciding which bookkeeping tool is best for your business can be tedious and challenging to decipher in terms of features and benefits. If you've landed on QuickBooks®, congratulations! You've chosen what we at BudgetEase consider a necessary and highly effective tool to help make YOU more profitable!
It's all about the report! How often are you checking your books for accuracy? Reviewing a P&L (profit and loss statement) is a great practice to see how you’re netting out each month. But reviewing the GL (General Ledger) can quickly show you where something’s not adding up, or you've incorrectly entered data.
