Accounting!

TRANSACTION FLOW

There are basically four kinds of business transactions whether you run a one-person shop or a Fortune 100 company. They are:

1. You buy things.
2. You pay for things.
3. You sell things.
4. You collect the money.

However, within those four transactions are many different parts.

YOU BUY THINGS

1. Decide when and how much to order.
2. Issue purchase orders to keep track of the quantity and price that you ordered.
3. Receive the items ordered and make sure you did order them.
4. You verify the price and the quantity and the total of the bill.
5. Defective merchandise is returned to the vendor for credit.

YOU PAY FOR THINGS

1. Take discounts for early payment.
2. Remember to issue checks for expenses you don’t receive a bill, such as rent.
3. Issue checks for bills received.
4. Pay employees, payroll taxes, health insurance, etc.
5. Pay credit card bills.
6. Pay for things out of your pocket.

YOU SELL THINGS

1. Estimates are prepared.
2. Sales orders are taken.
3. Merchandise is priced and removed from inventory.
4. Discounts are given to employees, wholesale customers and special situations.
5. Retainers and deposits are received.
6. Invoices are issued.
7. Z tapes are run from cash registers.

YOU COLLECT THE MONEY

1. Early pay discounts are taken.
2. Refunds and credits are issued.
3. Wrong amounts are paid.
4. Invoices are paid by credit cards.
5. Checks are received for payment.
6. Monthly statements are sent to customers.
7. Some customers need to be reminded to pay.
8. Certain customers need to be reminded again with tougher language.

And that is not all. There are sales taxes to collect, bank reconciliations to perform, payroll taxes to pay and reports to file, and much, much more.

Everything mentioned above has to be performed by someone. Before QuickBooks, many times the work was doubled because all those tasks had to be performed and recorded separately.

With your proper use of QuickBooks, you can do both at the same time and generate all kinds of reports that are available at your fingertips.

You should take a systematic approach to implementing or improving your use of QuickBooks. Most likely you will need some help from a QuickBooks expert. Within a few months, QuickBooks should be functioning properly for your business. Depending on what you choose to spend your time doing, you can significantly lessen your outside accounting cost and still produce quality and reliable information.

We have many clients in different kinds of businesses that use QuickBooks effectively with very little help from us.

Let’s get started with a complimentary business consultation, where we will answer your questions, assess your situation and recommend a course of action. We can be reached at (408) 378-9500 or by completing the form at Contact Us.