Quickbooks Online, Xero
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In our series on reviewing our bookkeeping systems let’s chat about software. Are you getting the most out of your bookkeeping software? There are a bunch of features that make your bookkeeping software easier or faster to use that you might not be taking advantage of. Here are a few of the top features that you might be missing out on and how to get started using them today.
Bookkeeping software has a handy feature where you can set a variety of rules to make your bookkeeping easier and faster. Some examples include setting a vendor to always go to a specific category. Perhaps Facebook always goes to Advertising. You can set rules to split transactions between categories based on dollar amounts or percentages. This can be very useful for utilities where a certain percentage goes to Utilities and the rest goes to Personal.
When a transaction comes in that matches your rule it will suggest you use the rule, but you are always able to ignore the rule and do something else with the transaction. Setting up rules for your most common and standard transactions helps save time and make your bookkeeping more efficient.
Bookkeeping software has made it truly easy to attach receipts to your transactions, which can be super helpful in the event you get audited by the IRS. Don’t forget, you need to keep all receipts over $75 (and I recommend you keep them all). So how does software help with this? First off most software comes with a phone app that makes it super quick and simple to snap a picture of your receipt and attach it to a transaction.
Quickbooks Online offers an option to email your receipt to a specific email address. This is super helpful for things you buy online (which is most of my business expenses, honestly). QBO pulls info from the receipt image and helps you to match it to a transaction from your bank.
Xero, on the other hand, does not offer this within its own software but they do offer you a free HubDoc account which also accepts emailed receipts and creates transactions within Xero. HubDoc is available for QBO as well but at an additional price of about $10. I love HubDoc and insist you take advantage of it if you are using Xero as your bookkeeping software.
This is the most obvious benefit of bookkeeping software, and really is the entire point of bookkeeping software. When you connect your bank accounts and credit cards to your software you’re helping to ensure that you don’t miss counting for a single transaction. You want to make sure you track every expense and get credit for every tax deduction possible. Make sure you’re using this handy software feature.
The ability to save custom financial reports is another feature that is often overlooked in bookkeeping software. While the standard reports are fantastic there are occasions where you want to see something a bit different or to dig into a specific area. When you figure out what you want to see and how to get the reports to show you that make sure you save that version of the report so you don’t have to continually create it each time you want to review that info.
This is especially useful if you’re using some of the additional tagging features in your software. For example you could be tracking sales by store location, or type of client. In this case you can create a custom report that shows your financial info broken down by this tag. This feature can also be used to create a report that helps you dig into a specific cost category that you’re trying to track. Really the possibilities are endless.
Pick just one of these features that you might not have tried yet and play with it. Take a few minutes to figure out if you can make your bookkeeping easier and more efficient with your new found knowledge.
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