Quickbooks has been around for a while- it was invented in 1983, and although some of us who are heading into our 4th decade are feeling a little bit “why are these kids on my lawn”, Quickbooks has managed to keep up with the times. So rather than making a whole bunch of you salty, we’re going to spill the tea on why we totally stan Quickbooks as the GOAT, so you can lowkey yeet your current basic accounting method, and get started on some serious adulting. (That’s what the kids are saying these days, right?)
Import Your Accounts Directly
Not only can Quickbooks link to your bank so that all of your accounts are imported directly, you can also link accounts like Venmo, CashApp, PayPal, Square, Stripe, and so many more. With all of your information automatically loading into Quickbooks Online, all you (or your accountant) need to do is go in and categorize each item!
Quickbooks has an entire app center with so many apps, so if you have an account, odds are, there is a way to sync it to Quickbooks. For example, you can sync Etsy, Amazon, Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, and many other ecommerce companies directly to Quickbooks. You can even link receipt and mileage tracking apps like Expensify, bill.com, Abukai, Zoho, and TripLog.
Customize Your Categories
Once Quickbooks has imported your account information, you categorize your transactions. Now, Quickbooks comes with some pre-loaded categories which should work for any business. But you can set up your own categories to work specifically within your business. Are you a restaurant that needs to keep track of how much you spend on food, alcohol, and to-go supplies. You can make a category for each one of those things? A theater company that needs to know how much you are spending on lumber for sets, fabric for costumes, and equipment for lighting? Those categories might not be as useful to a restaurant, but you can certainly set them up for your theater!
If you really want to get into the weeds with your categorization, Quickbooks Online Plus and Advanced have a “Classes” and a “Projects” mode. Projects allow you to sort out your income and expenses even more by assigning them to each individual project you are working on as well as categorizing them into your more general categories. (You can even add timesheets to a project to bill your customers properly, or just know how long something is taking.) Classes allow you to sort out your income and expenses by departments in your company. For example, our theater we mentioned above might have a number of classes, including their production, marketing, box office, development, and education departments. Their different projects would be the different shows which they are putting together this season. And their categories would be things they spend money on, say, lumber, tools, paint, fabric, supplies, rental equipment, utilities, printing, concessions, etc.
Accept Payments For You
That’s right, Quickbooks is ALSO a payment processor. Now, it is something you have to set up separately, and they do take a certain percentage of the payment as a fee, however, if you sign up for Quickbooks Payments, all of your invoices will be sent with a “Pay Now” button so that your customers can easily pay you online via Quickbooks using a card or an e-check.
Of course, this means that their payment is instantly added to Quickbooks as well, so that it is easily (and automatically) matched to the proper invoice. Talk about working smarter, not harder!
QB To Go
Let’s be honest, how many of us who own our small business or work from home actually work from HOME these days? Small business owners are far more likely to be seen checking their email quickly while on a break at the kids softball game, or sending a quote or invoice from their car right after finishing a job or meeting. Quickbooks was developed by real people, who are very aware of this need for flexibility in small businesses (let’s be honest, flexibility is part of why we all get into this game to begin with)!
Using the Quickbooks Mobile App, you can pretty much run your entire business from your phone - iPhone or Android. You can use your mobile device to enter transactions, record expenses, invoice customers, send reports, accept payments, invoice customers, attach receipts to invoices, provide estimates, and best of all, because it’s Quickbooks Online, it’s all synced to the cloud, so when you get home and want to use a bigger screen, you can continue your work from a desktop or laptop.
Alright, Let’s Do This!
There you have it. 4 things that, 5 minutes ago, you didn’t even know you wanted Quickbooks to do for you. If you are thinking the Quickbooks universe might be the right move for you and your small business (becoming an adultier adult, like the kids are saying these days… maybe?), set up a meeting with us at Thrive so that we can talk about how we can help you and your business grow. We might not be great and up to date on the latest Gen Z slang- but we ARE up to date on the latest in accounting and bookkeeping technology!