Paper Timesheets versus Time Tracking Apps

Paper Timesheets versus Time Tracking Apps

by | Sep 23, 2017 | Bookkeeping Tips, QuickBooks Online

Many businesses continue to rely on the conventional paper timesheets for their employees to track their attendance. Paper timesheets require a lot of dedication in the creation process and it can also increase your monthly cost. So why not go for a simpler solution that will make things easier for you? Here’s a quick look at some reasons why you should stop using paper timesheets and start using time tracking apps.

 

1. Reduce Clerical Mistakes

Paper timesheets require writing out the details of employees attendance and sometimes the words or numbers don’t appear clear. However, with time tracking apps, names and time tables are so clear that you will not have an opportunity to mix up things.

 

2. Save Time

The truth is that paper timesheets can be poured over for hours by employers. This is simply inefficient and costly for the business because that time could be used for other business dealings instead. A digital timesheet is non-negotiable as the employer can see when the employee logged in and out of the computer.

 

3. Increase Visibility

The pendulum swings both ways and the employer can be at fault with messing up paper timesheets. The employer can be accused of adjusting the paper timesheets. There is room for debate with paper timesheets that no employee would welcome.

Time tracking apps are more reliable and they include audit trails. The employees have digital records to back up their claims as to when they signed in and signed out for the day. This can really help when an employee has a dispute regarding the hours that they were paid for. There is that added bit of proof that an arbitrary piece of paper cannot provide.

 

4. Added Features

An employer can do more with digital timesheets than a piece of paper can provide. They can delegate some of their managerial responsibilities to the program’s features such as approvals, reporting, automatic reminders and online scheduling. The entire workplace operation process is streamlined.

These reasons are just a few of the advantages that time tracking apps, such as TSheets, provides over paper timesheets. The choice of using a virtual process is a no brainer in this digital age.  

We love TSheets time tracking and think you would too. Employees can track time on any device, you can easily integrate with various payroll programs, and the customer experience team is phenomenal! There are tons of amazing features, try it free for 14 days by clicking here:

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What Is a Vendor Credit, and How Do You Record One?

What Is a Vendor Credit, and How Do You Record One?

by | Sep 18, 2017 | Bookkeeping Tips, QuickBooks, QuickBooks Online

Whether you’re getting a vendor credit for a refund or a return, you can record it in QuickBooks Online.

When you’re dealing with your company’s vendors, you’re probably accustomed to money flowing in one direction: theirs. Maybe you send them to purchase orders and they send you invoices. Or they send you bills and you pay them. Or you walk into a store and buy something your business needs.

Sometimes, though, vendors owe you money. Probably the most common scenario is a return of merchandise, products that you’ve sent back to the supplier for any of a variety of reasons. You may be issued a credit of some kind simply because you’ve been a loyal customer, and a vendor wants to reward you. You might also get a rebate for an item you bought.

In these cases, you’ll enter a Vendor Credit in QuickBooks Online, which you can apply the next time you buy something from that supplier. Usually, the process is pretty straightforward, but sometimes situations arise that may make it hard for you to know how to record a vendor credit accurately. We can help if this happens.

Simple Steps

Let’s start with a simple example. Let’s say you received a shipment of pens that you’d planned to use as promotional items for your salespeople. The ink on some of the pens had gotten smudged, so your company email address printed on them was illegible. The supplier issued you a credit of $50.00 for future purchases and sent you a reference number to use.

It’s easy to complete a Vendor Credit form in QuickBooks Online for a simple credit. But other situations are more complicated.

Here’s how it would work. Click the + (plus) sign in the upper right corner of the screen and select Vendors | Vendor Credit. A screen like the partial one pictured above would appear. These are the fields you would need to complete:

Vendor – Click the down arrow in the field in the upper left corner and select the correct vendor, or + Add New.

Payment date – Change the default date if it’s not correct.

Ref no. – Enter a reference number if applicable.

Under Account details, click in the field under Account, and open the drop-down list by clicking the down arrow on the right. Select the account you used when you created the original expense. Enter a Description and the Amount of the credit.

You can add a Memo in the box at the bottom of the screen if you’d like, and select any Attachments to include from your file directories. Otherwise, click Save and close or Save and new.

Additional Input

There’s much more to the Vendor Credit screen that you didn’t need to consider for this example. The row where you entered Account, Description, and Amount contains several additional fields that you may need to complete in some cases. They are Billable, Markup %, Tax, Customer, and Class. If you’re not sure when these fields are required, ask us to go over these concepts with you.

There’s also another section under Account Details you may need to address: Item Details (click the arrow to open if necessary). You would only enter information here if you’re returning items to a vendor. Fields displayed there include Product/Service, Qty (quantity), Rate, and Sales Amt (amount). We don’t recommend that you do this the first time on your own; let us help.

Using Your Credit

How do you redeem this credit? QuickBooks Online reminds you to use it.

QuickBooks Online records your Vendor Credits and reminds you that they’re there when you go to pay that vendor again.

The next time you enter a transaction that involves—or will involve—sending that vendor some money, you’ll see a record of that credit to the right of the Check or Expense screen, for example. In the image above, a small box has opened as soon as the vendor’s name was selected. You can Add that credit to the current transaction or Open it if you want to see the original screen.

Not everyone uses Vendor Credits. Some businesses find workarounds. But we recommend you at least understand when and how they’re used so your bookkeeping is accurate and precise. We’d be happy to spend some time with you going over your financial relationship with vendors, and how QuickBooks Online helps you document it.

 

Looking for a QuickBooks Expert?

QuickBooks ProAdvisor Houston TxWorking with a QuickBooks ProAdvisor is the best way to learn how to use QuickBooks to help your business grow and flourish. You won’t find a better way to get the support you need anywhere else.

As a small business owner, we realize that you may not have the budget to hire a QuickBooks expert. If you’re looking for a more economical way to get set up on QuickBooks, we provide cloud bookkeeping programs to match any business requirement. Here are our Quickbooks Services; QuickBooks Setup, QuickBooks Training, and QuickTune-up.

You can feel confident in knowing that our STAC Bizness Solutions team are Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors. Meet Our Team.

If you would like to learn about all the benefits that STAC offers, just give us a call and we’ll provide you all the details. Call us at (844) 424-9637.

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7 Best Practices for QuickBooks Online

7 Best Practices for QuickBooks Online

by | Aug 12, 2017 | Bookkeeping Solutions, Bookkeeping Tips, QuickBooks, QuickBooks Online

Even if you’ve been using QuickBooks Online for a long time, it’s good to step back and evaluate your actions.

“Best practices” aren’t enforceable rules. They’re simply guidelines businesses commonly follow in one area or another. If you’re in retail, for example, one best practice might be to always ask customers checking out if they found everything they were looking for. This serves two purposes: It conveys a feeling of concern for the customer’s shopping experience, and it may also lead to increased sales.

QuickBooks Online has many best practices, some of which may serve multiple purposes, including these:

  • They keep your company data safe and clean.
  • They provide insight on your financial status.
  • They save time.
  • They can lead you to better relationships with customers and vendors.

Are any or all the following common practices for your business?

1. Reconcile accounts regularly.

One of QuickBooks Online’s most useful features is its ability to connect to your financial institution’s websites and download cleared transactions. QuickBooks Online also offers tools to help you keep your accounts reconciled online like you used to do every month when your paper statement came. Reconciling accounts can help you uncover errors. It gives you a truer picture of your cash flow, and it improves the accuracy and timeliness of some reports.

It’s not a particularly pleasant process, but you should be reconciling your accounts regularly in QuickBooks Online. We can help.

2. Clean up your lists.

Some lists in QuickBooks Online aren’t overly long. You don’t have to worry about, for example, Payment Methods, Terms, or Classes. Your lists of customers and vendors, products, and services, on the other hand, can grow unwieldy over the years. This means it can take more time than it should be scrolling through lists when you’re using those entities in transactions. It also puts unnecessary stress on your company file. If you can’t delete any, at least make them inactive.

3. Never leave QuickBooks Online open when you leave your work area.

This goes for everyone, even people who work alone and don’t access their company files away from their work areas. The obvious reason is to keep someone else from getting in and authorizing payments, for example, or otherwise compromising your financial information. It also protects the integrity of your data file in case your internet connection suffers some kind of outage.

4. Keep track of 1099 vendors.

Whether your company uses 10 vendors or a hundred or more, you may have to supply at least some of them with an IRS Form 1099 at about the same time you’re preparing W-2s for employees. Your 1099-related tasks will be much easier if those individuals and/or companies are earmarked. If you think vendors might need 1099s when you create their records in QuickBooks Online, click in the box to the left of Track payments for 1099 in the lower right corner. Not sure? Ask us.

5. Classify everything with care.

Every time you have to create a record or transaction where categories are involved (i.e., Classes, Customers and Vendors, Territories), check and double-check that you’ve assigned them the correct classification. Errors here can result not only in problems with daily workflow, but your reports will not be accurate.

6. Create a meaningful group of Classes, and use them faithfully.

They’ll help you make better business decisions.

To create your list of Classes, click the gear icon in the upper right and select All Lists | Classes | New.

7. View reports on a regular basis.

There are some advanced financial reports in QuickBooks Online that we should be creating for you on a regular basis, either monthly or quarterly. These include Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, and Statement of Cash Flows. The mechanics of creating them aren’t difficult, but analyzing them is. You should be running reports on your own at frequencies that you think would be helpful, like A/R Aging Detail, Unpaid Bills, and Sales by Class Detail.

If you’ve been using QuickBooks Online for a while, you could probably come up with your own list of best practices. If you’re new to the site, consider scheduling some time with us to go over more of them. Develop good habits from the start, and there won’t be nearly as much need for troubleshooting down the road.

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Decision-Ready Financial Reporting for Your Salon

Decision-Ready Financial Reporting for Your Salon

by | Aug 8, 2017 | Bookkeeping Tips, Salon Spa Bookkeeping

Decision-Ready Financial Reporting for Your Salon or Spa

Financial reporting is a crucial element for any business as it helps in making decisions. Reports such as Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Statements are helpful with the growth analysis of small businesses, but they are typically prepared monthly.  So let’s look into how this helps with making intelligent business decisions this month?

When your virtual bookkeeper sends your business customized, decision-ready, financial reports for your Salon & Spa at your fingertips it can help your business become more profitable.  Here are five areas where STAC Bizness Solutions can assist with your business growth:

1. Providing Gross Margin Analysis

Gross margin is an indicator of a company’s financial health. It will tell you how much profit the company is earning before operating expenses.  Here is a question to ask yourself.  Are your margins lower than the industry average? Here at STAC Bizness Solutions, we have extensive knowledge in the salon and spa industry and can provide gross margin insights.

2. Establishing Key Performance Indicators

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) measures how effectively a business is reaching their targets. Successful salons and spas set their goals within a given period and monitor them each week.

Would you like to increase your new clients or increase the number of retail product sales? Our services provide you with customized reports for salons and spa to track the KPIs required for your business.  Ask one of our team members to show you the benefits of having your small business managed by STAC Bizness Solutions.  We would be happy to give you a free consultation.

3. Delivering Industry Benchmarks

Industry benchmarks help in assessing your Salon and Spa business performance by comparing it with your competition. These industry benchmarks help with identifying the gaps in your business and give you valuable insights about where you are successful or where you can make an improvement.  Your STAC Bizness consultant will assist in helping you get these reports to make the best decision for your Salon or Spa business.

4. Preparing a Twelve-Month Forecast

A 12-month forecast is integral for any business to thrive. It is a prediction of future developments such as sale, expenses, and profits. The twelve-month forecast that we will prepare for your Salon and Spa business will assist with making goal-oriented decisions.

5. Providing Management Reports

Management reports give you a deeper understanding of your success. We will identify the data that your business needs and our management reports will help make predictions about the future growth and profitability of your company.

At STAC Bizness Solutions, we go beyond just bookkeeping. We will provide your Salon and Spa with customized, decision-ready, financial intelligence reports to help your business become more profitable and reach your goals.

Hire a QuickBooks ProAdvisor

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Hired Your First Employee? Your Tax Obligations

Hired Your First Employee? Your Tax Obligations

by | Jul 11, 2017 | Bookkeeping Tips, QuickBooks Tax Tips

It’s a major milestone for you, but it comes with a lot of paperwork that must be done correctly. Bringing a new employee into your business is a reason to celebrate. You’ve done well enough as a sole proprietor that you can’t handle the workload by yourself anymore. Onboarding your first worker, though, comes with a great deal of extra effort for you at first. You have to show him or her the ropes so you can offload some of the extra weight you’ve been carrying.

But first things first. Before your employee even shows up for the first day of work, you should have assembled all the paperwork required to keep you compliant with the IRS and other federal and state agencies.
A New Number
As a one-person company, you’ve been using your Social Security number as your tax ID. You’re an employer now, so you’ll need an Employer Identification Number (EIN). You can apply for one here.
The IRS’s EIN Assistant walks you through the process of applying for an Employer Identification Number (EIN).
Once you’ve completed the steps in the IRS’s EIN Assistant, you’ll receive your EIN right away, and can start using it to open a business bank account, apply for a business license, etc.
You’ll also need an EIN before you start paying your employee. It’s required on the Form W-4. If you’ve ever worked for a business yourself, you’ve probably filled out this form. As an employer now, you should provide one to your new hire on the first day. When it’s completed, it will help you determine how much federal income tax to withhold every payday. If you’re not bringing in a full-time employee but, rather, an independent contractor, you won’t be responsible for withholding and paying income taxes for that individual. You’ll need to supply him or her with a Form W-9.
Note: Payroll processing is probably the most complex element of small business accounting. If you don’t have any experience with it, you’ll probably want to use an online payroll application. After you’re set up on one of these websites, you enter the hours worked every pay period. The site calculates tax withholding and payroll taxes due, then prints or direct deposits paychecks. Let us know if you want some guidance on this.
Don’t forget about state taxes if your state requires them, and any local obligations. The IRS maintains a page with links to each state’s website. You can get information about doing business in your geographical area, which includes taxation requirements.
More Forms
You also have to be in contact with your state to report a new hire (same goes if you ever re-hire someone). The Small Business Administration (SBA) can be helpful here, as it is in many other aspects of managing a small business. The organization maintains a list of links to state entities here.
All employees are required to fill out a Form I-9 on the first day of a new job.
New employees must also prove that they’re legally eligible to work in the United States. To do this, they complete a Form I-9 from the Department of Homeland Security. As their employer, you’re charged with verifying that the information provided is accurate by looking at one or a combination of documents (U.S. Passport, driver’s license and birth certificate, etc.). By signing this form, you’re stating that you’ve done that.
You can also use the U.S. government’s E-Verify online tool to confirm eligibility.
A Helping Hand
The Department of Labor has a great website for new employers. The FirstStep Employment Law Advisor helps employers understand what DOL federal employment laws apply to them and what record keeping they’re required to do.
Please consider us a resource, too, as you take on a new employee. Preparing for a complex new set of tax obligations will be a challenge. We’d like to see you get everything right from the start.

Looking for a QuickBooks Expert?

QuickBooks ProAdvisor Houston Tx

Working with a QuickBooks ProAdvisor is the best way to learn how to use QuickBooks to help your business grow and flourish. You won’t find a better way to get the support you need anywhere else.

As a small business owner, we realize that you may not have the budget to hire a QuickBooks expert. If you’re looking for a more economical way to get set up on QuickBooks, we provide cloud bookkeeping programs to match any business requirement. Here are our Quickbooks Services; QuickBooks Setup, QuickBooks Training, and QuickTune-up.

You can feel confident in knowing that our STAC Bizness Solutions team are Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors. Meet Our Team.

If you would like to learn about all the benefits that STAC offers, just give us a call and we’ll provide you all the details. Call us at (844) 424-9637.

Hire a QuickBooks ProAdvisor

To schedule an initial consultation with us, please click the button below.

Schedule an Initial Consultation
Receiving Payments in QuickBooks Online

Receiving Payments in QuickBooks Online

by | Jul 6, 2017 | Bookkeeping Tips, Cloud Bookkeeping, QuickBooks

It’s perhaps one of your favorite activities in QuickBooks Online: recording money that comes in.  Are you doing it right?

Your days of matching paper checks to paper invoices are over. QuickBooks Online excels at keeping your accounts receivable organized. No more digging through piles of forms and hand-stamping PAID on your customer bills and statements. No more trying to write small enough in your register so you can identify the origins of deposits.

You do, though, need to know how to get to payment screens—there are multiple ways—and which form to complete for each remittance. Here are the three types you’ll deal with most often.

Receive payment on an invoice

When payment comes in on an invoice, you can get to the right screens in any of several ways.

Click the + (plus) sign in the upper right corner. Under Customers, select Receive Payment. In the upper left of the window that opens, select the correct customer by clicking the down arrow at the end of that field to open the list

Make sure the Payment date is correct. Open the Payment method list and select from Cash, Check, Credit card, etc. If there’s a Reference no., like a check number, enter it in that field. The default value for Deposit to is Undeposited Funds. Leave that active, and enter the Amount received in that field.

When you select a customer’s name in the Receive Payment window, a list of unpaid invoices will appear at the bottom.

If the customer has multiple outstanding invoices, QuickBooks Online will put a checkmark in front of the oldest one(s). You can change this if you need to by clicking to uncheck the box and click in the box in front of the correct one.

Tip: If you want to isolate invoices from a specific date range, click the arrow next to Filter.

When you’ve specified where the payment(s) will go, add a memo and/or attachment if you’d like and select either Save and Close or Save and New in the lower right corner.

You can also record payments on invoices from other screens in QuickBooks Online. For example, click Transactions in the left vertical navigation bar and select Sales to open the list of sales transactions. At the far right end of every line that contains an unpaid invoice, you’ll see a link to Receive payment. Click it, and the payment screen will open with the name and amount already filled in. Another option: With an invoice open, click Receive payment in the upper right corner.

Receive payment at the time of the sale

When a customer pays you immediately for products and/or services, there’s no need to create an invoice. You’d instead use a sales receipt. Click the + sign in the upper right and select Sales Receipt under Customers.

Tip: If you click the small diagonal arrow when it appears next to an option, the site will open the screen in a separate window.

Fill in the fields at the top like you did on the Receive Payments screen.

Use a sales receipt in QuickBooks Online if you receive payment at the same time you provide a product or service.

Complete the lower half of the sales receipt by selecting the products and/or services sold from the drop-down lists. Then click the links at the bottom of the screen to print or email the receipt.

Receive a down payment or retainer

If a customer gives you money as part of a down payment or a retainer for work to be done or products to be delivered, you can enter it on the Receive Payment screen without connecting it to an invoice. If you’re prepared to create a record of the specific charges, though, you can use an invoice form and categorize the payment as a deposit. There are other ways to receive payments from customers in QuickBooks Online, like creating credit memos or using a mobile payment device. However you do it, your bookkeeping needs to be precise, or you’ll run into problems down the road. If this is a topic that creates some uncertainty, we can go over the whole concept with you and outline your options. You work too hard for your money to risk applying it incorrectly –or worse, losing it to an accounting error.

There are other ways to receive payments from customers in QuickBooks Online, like creating credit memos or using a mobile payment device. However you do it, your bookkeeping needs to be precise, or you’ll run into problems down the road. If this is a topic that creates some uncertainty, we can go over the whole concept with you and outline your options. You work too hard for your money to risk applying it incorrectly –or worse, losing it to an accounting error.

Hire a QuickBooks ProAdvisor

To schedule an initial consultation with us, please click the button below.

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