QuickBooks - tips and tricks

[Bury the Trash]

Just signed up to it £14 a month job , so new to it and greenhorn but i will learn in my own time

Xero has its own thread so i thought QB's might need one ......

Book keeping is not my natural calling but....

Completing and sending a Vat return is the first serious challenge

Happy Days

 

[Bury the Trash]

As long as I've an email address to send to and the customer has been asked, can i just simply send an invoice forthwith and stop with my little scruffy triple copy book ?

 

[ploughman1963]

I don’t blame quickbooks but we had a lot of invoices that ended up in peoples spam folders. At least that was the excuse they gave for not paying I’m gravitating back to sending paper ones by snail mail

 

[Great In Grass]

As long as I've an email address to send to and the customer has been asked, can i just simply send an invoice forthwith and stop with my little scruffy triple copy book ?

Yes.

 

[Bury the Trash]

I don’t blame quickbooks but we had a lot of invoices that ended up in peoples spam folders. At least that was the excuse they gave for not paying I’m gravitating back to sending paper ones by snail mail

Good point but we don't find the RM as reliable these days as it was , often get others post which we have to pass on.

 

[matthew]

QB Simple start - the £14 model - has zapped the 'supplier credit' option which is on the next level.. so you have to faddle your way around that with minuses. As they saw fit to do this, they - or HMRC- had to wait while i worked out how to log it in.
I'm afraid i only use it for VAT, relying on my ledgers for everything else.

I hate it with a passion.

 

[Great In Grass]

I use QB to raise invoices and enter supplier invoices.

The accountant logs in & does the VAT and the year end stuff.

I pay through my accountant for Quickbooks Pro Online £45.00 + VAT every three months.

 

[Bury the Trash]

QB Simple start - the £14 model - has zapped the 'supplier credit' option which is on the next level.. so you have to faddle your way around that with minuses. As they saw fit to do this, they - or HMRC- had to wait while i worked out how to log it in.
I'm afraid i only use it for VAT, relying on my ledgers for everything else.

I hate it with a passion.

crafty devils holding back a bit like that ,next plan up is £24 a month looks like

 

[Great In Grass]

crafty devils holding back a bit like that ,next plan up is £24 a month looks like

Does your accountant use QB as they should be able to get a good deal for you.

 

[tepapa]

crafty devils holding back a bit like that ,next plan up is £24 a month looks like

I signed up my second business to qb's two months back (first business is on zero) at a 90% discount for first 6months. If I dont like it by then I'll switch the data over to Xero.

 

[4course]

we are on quickbooks as thats what the accountant was promoting/suggesting a few years back , its a fecking mess so we run the old ledger /cash flow sheets system alongside .Ou paper system is accurate to a penny so i know where we are and what we have done and where we are going ,Its a f----g nightmare and our accountancy fees have gone up and I mean up. Im just waiting for him to say its saved tax . Folks go on about the digital age saving money but ive yet to see it or more relevant benefit from it .

 

[Bury the Trash]

Does your accountant use QB as they should be able to get a good deal for you.

they do that's sort of why ive got it , but it wouldn't be any cheaper getting it through them, and after all certain amount of independence is important as well .

tbh i'm half inclined to try Xero just for the heck of it .
Saving accountancy fees is imperative, theyve got horrendous and unsustainable for our small business .
TRouble is the darn HMRC helpline is so slow ,you can wait an hour for them to answer.

 

[4course]

To be fair I dont think there is that much difference in which ever digital system folk use but ive yet to come across one that can tell you how much you have going out or coming in or likely to have in the next 3 months 6 months year altering on an almost daily basis at the tip of your fingers in an instant faster than switching the fecking machine on than most old farmers brains can . ho ho

 

[Kidds]

The first VAT return with QB can be a bit challenging as you have to sign in with HMRC to do it, last time round I had a right nightmare but it was down to me trying to sign into my HMRC account with my personal tax account number. Accountant sorted it for me but tbh I was a bit under par at the time. Once I figured out where I had gone wrong it was all fine.
A bonus with QB is you can error check your return before sending to check there are no duplicates etc, I find that feature useful.

Invoices sent from QB are sent via their email account rather than your own, the way around it if you need one is to download the invoice as a pdf and email that to your customer. On bigger companies I find they are well versed in getting invoices via QB and if you warn them first they are fine thereafter. For smaller customers that don't have a dedicated accounts department I use the pdf and download to send. Print or Download is one of the options so very easy to do.

I find QB to be OK, same as most things after you've done it once it's easy after that. Plenty of help tips and how to videos if you get stuck.

I have concluded that all these time saving things save the accountant time not me and it never seems to be reflected in their bill. No wonder they offer the software at a discount.

 

[balerman]

we are on quickbooks as thats what the accountant was promoting/suggesting a few years back , its a fecking mess so we run the old ledger /cash flow sheets system alongside .Ou paper system is accurate to a penny so i know where we are and what we have done and where we are going ,Its a f----g nightmare and our accountancy fees have gone up and I mean up. Im just waiting for him to say its saved tax . Folks go on about the digital age saving money but ive yet to see it or more relevant benefit from it .

Ive said this before,but QB is unbeleivably complicated for what it does.Cost me a fortune in accountants time and my own in the 6 months i used it.Got so fed up i started the year again with Freeagent,it has cost me nothing (free for Nat West customers) and i set it up myself with minimal telephone support.For a simple farmer like me it just works and is very easy to use.Highly recommended.

 

[4course]

i ve sort of realised over the years that most if not all accountants are historians along with their systems and im not being a futurist ,even if nearing 70 ho ho

 

[Still Farming]

Make tax Digital threads on here too.
VAT been MTD year or so now and self assessment tax next.
I went from paper and pen into QB's .
Wize guys already on spreadsheets and relevant bridging software or certain business bank accounts can do it cheaper .
For £14 (was lot cheaper) looks like lots of features in it if you know how to use to its maximum.
I am self taught and still struggle with stuff on it.
My accountant charged me to set it up and I bought and set it up myself???
I used the QB 1 to 1 set up chat to get going, but make sure you got it in the best view for you as 2 types and often the default view is different to all their step by step tutorials.
Took a while to alter that.
Every day stuff, bank matching ok , make tags up that suit your business in and out stuff and vat rates .
Vat returns easy but leap of faith that all tally correct though.

 

[neilo]

As long as I've an email address to send to and the customer has been asked, can i just simply send an invoice forthwith and stop with my little scruffy triple copy book ?

How many invoices do you send out? I can understand (maybe) the wish to keep things on one program if you send hundreds out, but why complicate things otherwise?

I just email any invoices completely separately to QB, drawn up on a Word template. Enter them as a ‘sales receipt’ on QB and forget about their invoicing bit.

One of my pet hates is those suppliers that send invoices from Xero, which are then followed by automated ‘reminders’, even though I’ve already set up BACS payments to go out on the due date. Save your reminders for those that don’t pay on time!

 

[Bury the Trash]

How many invoices do you send out? I can understand (maybe) the wish to keep things on one program if you send hundreds out, but why complicate things otherwise?

I just email any invoices completely separately to QB, drawn up on a Word template. Enter them as a ‘sales receipt’ on QB and forget about their invoicing bit.

One of my pet hates is those suppliers that send invoices from Xero, which are then followed by automated ‘reminders’, even though I’ve already set up BACS payments to go out on the due date. Save your reminders for those that don’t pay on time!

Not many tbf,
i want to grade up from dirty old copy book mind.

Ive actually just signed in to freeageent again tried it breifly yrs ago on banks recomendation but didnt go for it.
connected to the bank just had a look around and in the vat section ,although not connected to MTD yet it seems to have done my current Vat return including total refund due without me doing anything
thats with checking anything of course ,. impressive though and much more 'straight out of the box ' than several initial quickbooks 'look ins.'...

first impressions could count for a lot with software if youre not a computer natural... i think.

Good to see that Agriculture is mentioned as well unlike QB's ....

had more than enough bookwork for today tbh

 

[neilo]

Ive said this before,but QB is unbeleivably complicated for what it does.Cost me a fortune in accountants time and my own in the 6 months i used it.Got so fed up i started the year again with Freeagent,it has cost me nothing (free for Nat West customers) and i set it up myself with minimal telephone support.For a simple farmer like me it just works and is very easy to use.Highly recommended.

Horse for courses I suppose, but I went with QB when I set up on my own in 2912, against my accountant’s advice, who offered me Excel templates to use instead.
Since the, I’ve only ever called the QB support line once, and only asked my accountant’s advice in setting an account up twice.

I find it generally intuitive, even for someone like me who knows sweet FA about accountancy and book keeping. I know I’ve had a hell of a lot less issues than Mum had, even after several years of using the damned Sage software.
I know Xero is near identical, but see no reason whatsoever to change anything at the moment.QB is simple, intuitive, gives me everything I need and meets all statutory requirements.