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By Brian Ravencraft
QuickBooks continues to be a very popular accounting software choice for many agribusiness owners. Don’t get me wrong, those of you that work in this industry have many software choices at your disposal. In fact, my team and I are always learning about new ag-specific software to hit the market. However, QuickBooks remains an industry leader. Our team is often asked about time savings tricks that can be used within the software. I recently asked some of the top users of the software are our firm to share some of tricks with me for this article. I hope you find their tips to be useful.
Utilizing the bank feed option in QuickBooks Online is a great tool for maintaining up to date information and reduce data-entry. Frequently matching transactions will help with month end reconciling. This will save you time if an item needs to be researched, you catch it early and don’t put yourself in a time crunch later on.
– Emily Zuver
Connecting your bank and credit card accounts in QuickBooks Online to your bank is a great way to quickly record bank transactions in the accounting software without having to manually enter every transaction. It only takes a few minutes to establish the secure connection between QuickBooks and your banking institution. Once the connection has been made, it will begin pulling through bank transactions daily. The program will match existing entries already in QuickBooks Online and will add new records for transactions based on bank rules that you create. Besides saving you time, the automation also prevents data entry errors that may occur with manual data entry and makes the month end bank reconciliation seamless.
– Danielle Cottle
One QB feature I find to be very helpful is “FIND.” This can be found in QuickBooks Desktop versions under the Edit menu; or just use Ctrl+F.
FIND allow you to search for a specific transaction using any number of filters. For example, if you are looking for a transaction for $155, you can use the Amount filter. This will then show all transaction in QuickBooks for $155. You can further filter this search for a specific date range. This feature has saved me quite a bit of time!
QuickBooks Online also has the FIND feature. Click on the magnifying glass in the upper right corner, choose Advanced Search and then apply filters based on what transaction you are looking for.
– Linda Lehman
Connecting the bank accounts in QuickBooks online is a huge time-saver. This tool is not new but saves so much time each month. This allows your bank transactions to flow into the software. It matches with transactions already entered and you can create banking rules to automatically categorize transactions that happen on a recurring basis. With your bank account updated in real time, you will have an accurate and up to date picture of income and expenses.
– Carmen George
QuickBooks Apps are one of the biggest time savers that I use on a day-to-day basis. These save a significant amount of time by automatically entering activity in QB from the app, thus reducing data entry. For example, a bill pay app will record the bill, and payment in QB from the app. This reduces the time to enter the bill and manually print the check. Many payroll providers also have apps to sync payroll activity to QBO. By syncing with the payroll provider, the manual time in entering each employee’s paycheck and payroll information is reduced significantly.
– Natalie Bruns
If I can be of help as you navigate QuickBooks or any other software, please reach out. Our team even offers software training so you can be as efficient as possible when logged in.
Brian E. Ravencraft, CPA, CGMA is a Principal with Holbrook & Manter, CPAs. Brian has been with Holbrook & Manter since 1995, primarily focusing on the areas of Tax Consulting and Management Advisory Services within several firm service areas, focusing on agri-business and closely held businesses and their owners. Holbrook & Manter is a professional services firm founded in 1919 and we are unique in that we offer the resources of a large firm without compromising the focused and responsive personal attention that each client deserves. You can reach Brian through www.agribusinessaccounting.com or www.HolbrookManter.com.
