Small Business Solutions

QuickBooks is accounting software targeted at assisting small businesses in organizing their financial bookkeeping. It is developed by Intuit® and was first released in 1992. It is currently the #1 selling accounting software package for small businesses.

Uses can include:

+ Expense tracking

+ Invoice preparation

+ Financial Statement preparation

+ Inventory tracking

Competitive products include:

- Simply Accounting By Sage®

- Peachtree® by Sage

- Microsoft® Office Accounting Professional

There are 4 flavors of QuickBooks currently offered:

+ QuickBooks SimpleStart-

o Print checks, pay bills, track sales and expenses

o Create estimates & invoices

o Accept credit cards

+ QuickBooks Pro- All QuickBooks SimpleStart functionality, plus:

o Payroll capabilities

o Interoperability with Microsoft® Office

o Inventory tracking

o Download capabilities for credit card & bank transactions

+ QuickBooks Premier- All QuickBooks Pro functionality, plus:

o Business planning & forecasting tools

o Advanced pricing capabilities

o Advanced cost tracking tools

+ Enterprise Solutions- All QuickBooks Premier functionality, plus:

o Multiple user capabilities (up to 20 concurrent)

o Increased capacity for inventory tracking

o Advanced reporting tools (including financial statement templates)

o Employee Organizer tool

There are also some targeted functionality products that allow businesses to use QuickBooks as a complement to less feature-rich accounting software:

+ QuickBooks Payroll (including Basic, Standard, Enhanced, Assisted, Online, and Direct Deposit variations)

+ QuickBooks Point of Sale (including Basic, Pro, Pro Multi-Store, Merchant Service, and Gift Card Service variations/add-ons)

+ Customer Manager

+ Invoice Manager

+ Credit Card Processing

+ Other various transaction and remote services

Additionally, Intuit released an online service called QuickBooks Online Edition in 2001, which has gradually matured into a best-in-class accounting service for small businesses.

There are many other helpful online resources for finding out more about QuickBooks and what it can do to improve your business. Some of these include:

+ QuickBooks’ Support site on quickbooks.com

+ QuickBooks Support Forum (also found on QuickBooks’ website)

Finding the best accounting software for your business can be a challenge. If you would like more information on how you can “make technology your #1 employee”, go to the TeknoCoach website (http://www.teknocoach.com) and check out our solutions and services.



By: Chris Smith (The TeknoCoach)

About the Author:

business planning

As a new business owner, naturally you’ll want to make the most informed, cost-effective decisions. One of the most crucial decisions is how to process payroll and tax information.

You’ll have to factor in local and federal tax regulations, retirement planning and quarterly financial reporting. These responsibilities can seem overwhelming without the right assistance.

Here you’ll find several different options to make payroll a breeze: accountants, payroll software or payroll services.

New businesses are advised to “Hire an accountant,” which is very sound advice if you’re looking for peace of mind. A salaried accountant could provide tremendous payroll services but could also set you back $50,000-$80,000 annually, which isn’t feasible for smaller companies.

Sometimes your best bet is to hire a consultant for $100-200/month to cover book keeping. Ask around to find a personal accountant who is reliable. The last thing you want is late tax returns or penalties due to an accounting error.

You can hire a company like H&R Block to cover your tax filings, but they won’t be able to provide you with retirement planning services.

To save time, medium to large sized companies choose to outsource payroll services and retirement planning to a company. ADP and Paychex 401k plans and services are ranked among the best in the nation.

There’s always a danger in using one of these service providers with over 543,000 clients, that you may be the one to slip between the cracks. Some clients report poor customer service, false promises, late deposits and hefty penalties.

Yet in general, you can sleep sounder by not having to spend all of your time micro-managing payroll and taxes.

Quickbooks Assisted Payroll costs half the amount of payroll services, around $59/month on average. Instead of waiting by the phone or fax machine, you can enter data into your computer immediately and have information updated in real time.

You may choose to print your own paychecks or directly deposit funds into employee bank accounts. Similar to outsourcing, Quickbooks will cover state and federal tax filings as well, taking a huge load off your shoulders. With just the click of a mouse button, you can have W2’s printed right in the office.

With Quickbooks or other payroll software, you will have maximum control over your financial pay-outs so you can feel comfortable knowing all your employees and tax agencies will be satisfied.

To help with your retirement planning needs, Quickbooks Retirement Solutions is easy-to-navigate software with clear-cut employee retirement plan options.

The importance of payroll services should not be taken lightly. Whether you’re assessing your business retirement plan options, filing your taxes or simply paying your workers, payroll services are a vital part of every business.

A good accountant can keep you out of lawsuits and jail, keep your employees happy and give you the peace of mind you need to run a successful business.



By: MIKE SELVON

About the Author:

legal resources

New payroll items are mapped to an expense account in QuickBooks called Payroll Expenses, but you can edit your payroll items so they post to any expense account you wish.  However, each payroll item can only be mapped to one expense account which causes problems when you want to allocate field labor to cost of goods sold and admin labor as a regular expense.  You can get around this by establishing two payroll items for each of your payroll expenses – one mapped to a cost of goods sold account, another mapped to a payroll expense account – with one important exception, payroll taxes.  Because QuickBooks requires that you use one payroll item for each federal and state tax, you are forced to choose between mapping your payroll taxes to an expense account and understate Cost of Goods Sold or a Cost of Goods Sold Account and understate Payroll Expenses.  Many QuickBooks consultants recommend that you prepare a journal entry each month to move your payroll taxes into the correct category.  But there is a way to automate this.

1.  If you haven’t already, create payroll tax accounts under cost of goods sold and expenses.  Go to Lists > Chart of Accounts, click on the Accounts button, and select New.  The cost of goods sold type is one of the Other Account Types.  You may want to create sub-accounts for each payroll tax.  You can do this by creating a parent account called Payroll Taxes, checking the box next to Subaccount of, and entering in the Payroll Tax account when creating the sub-accounts.  Note: the sub-account types must match the parent account selected.

2.  Go to Lists > Payroll Item List and edit your payroll tax items to map to the Cost of Goods Sold payroll accounts you created above.  

3.  Click on the Payroll Item button and select New.  Create an Addition payroll item called “Allocated Admin Payroll Taxes”.  Select EZ Setup, Other Additions, and map it to your regular payroll tax expense account.  Don’t change any of the other defaults until you get to Gross vs. Net.  Change this to gross pay.  You can enter an estimated % for payroll taxes (make sure to enter the % after it) or if you want really accurate job costing you may want to create separate payroll items for each tax so you can set the % and upper limits for each one.  Just don’t forget to adjust the upper limits each year.

4.  Create a Deduction payroll item called “Admin Payroll Allocated to Admin”.  Follow the same steps as you did when creating the Addition payroll items, except select Other Deductions as the account type and map it to your cost of goods sold payroll tax account.  

5.  Add the addition and deduction items to each admin employee’s Payroll and Compensation Info tab.  Note: you must enter the deduction payroll item on top of the addition payroll item, or you will change the amount of net pay.

6.  When you create paychecks for these employee in the future, the addition payroll item will increase regular payroll expense, and the deduction payroll item will decrease cost of goods sold by the same amount.  You can also edit prior paychecks by unlocking them.  Just make sure that the deduction item is ALWAYS listed first.



By: Ruth Perryman

About the Author:

tax planning

Payroll check software can save time and money and reduce stress when it’s time to get checks out.  Picking the right software is the key to success long-term.  You see there are several parts of the payroll process and you want a solution to all the parts.  These are some considerations that will help you avoid wasted time and money when selecting software.

Does it fit what you do?

You may assume that any payroll software will fir t any company.  Not so.  What is a standard payroll problem for your company may not be standard at all.  So make the best investment you can make when selecting software.  Before you shop, decide what you need from software.  That way you’re less likely to buy a product that you’ll find won’t do the job.

It’s more than just checks.

Owning payroll software to print checks is a plus.  But there’s more, much more.  To correctly calculate payroll, you must keep the tax tables in the programs current with any changes.  That goes for federal returns as well as state returns.  Otherwise, your payroll deductions may be wrong.  How does this software stay current?  You’ll have to do something to keep it current.  Find out what that is and what’s it cost before you buy.

Returns and deposits.

Quarterly returns come due about every three months!  ANd then right after that one, there’s another one and they just keep coming.  Your software can help you prepare those returns and also the employee statements too.  But will it print the forms on plain paper or is it special paper and where do you get and what does it cost?  Ask the questions before you buy.

Accounting for payroll cost.

It’s easiest if your payroll software is perfectly compatible with your main accounting software.  For example QuickBooks payroll module works perfectly with the QuickBooks payroll module.  In any case make sure the payroll software works with the other accounting software.  If not you may be forced to enter a lot of data twice.  That’s not much saving and a good chance for more errors too.

Payroll check software can save you time, money and aggravation.  Plan ahead and get a solution that fits the way you do business and the way your accounting system works.  Software that doesn’t fit your system is a quick dead end trip.  Get the wrong program and you’ll waste time and money instead of saving.



By: Al Bullington

About the Author:

small business tips

Many companies believe that setting up payroll in QuickBooks for job costing is frustrating and difficult.  It’s true that there are several steps that need to be taken in order for payroll to flow properly to the job costing reports, especially if you want to include payroll taxes and benefits, but the step-by-step instructions below will help guide you through the setup.  

You must have a QuickBooks payroll subscription to use these instructions.  If you are trying to use job costing with a non-QuickBooks payroll provider, you will not only make your bookkeeping much more time-consuming but also introduce opportunities for errors to be made.  QuickBooks offers a complete payroll solution, just like ADP and Paychex, at a great price so there’s no reason not to switch.

Since labor is usually the biggest expense for most companies who are doing job costing, it is vitally important that it be included in your job cost reports. If you don’t, then jobs will look more profitable than they really are.  Even worse, some of them might even be losing money without you even knowing it.  This not only affects your present situation, but can lead you to create inaccurate estimates for future jobs.

So here are the steps for setting up payroll for job costing in QuickBooks:

Set up Preferences:

1.  Go to Edit > Preferences > Company Preferences and select Payroll & Employees

2.  Select “Full Payroll” or “Complete Payroll Customers”

3.  Check “Job Costing, Class and Item tracking for paycheck expenses”

4.  Go to Time & Expenses

5.  Select Yes under “Do you track time?”

6.  May also want to check “Create invoices from a list of time & expenses”

Set up Payroll Items:

1.  Go to Lists > Payroll Items

2.  Edit every Addition and Company Contribution item to ensure that “Track expenses by job” is checked

3.  Payroll items can only map to one expense account, so you may want to setup separate ones for COGS and overhead payroll expense

4.  You can’t assign have two payroll items for payroll taxes – check out my workaround

Set up Employee Records:

1.  Go to the Employee Center and double-click on employee name

2.  Change Tab to Payroll & Compensation Info

3.  Check “Use time data to create paychecks”

Set up Default for New Employees:

1.  Go to the Employee Center and select Manage Employee Information > Change Employee Default Settings

2.  Check “Use time data to create paychecks

Set up Workers Comp:

1.  Setup workers comp at Employees > Workers Compensation > Setup Workers Comp

2.  Setup your workers comp codes at Employees > Workers Compensation > Workers Comp List

3.  Go to Lists > Payroll Items to double-check that the Workers Comp payroll item has “Track expenses by job” checked

Using Timesheets

1. Go to Employees > Enter Time > Use Weekly Timesheet

2. Complete all information including both a payroll item & a service item (these are different) – mark as billable if you do time & material billing

3. You may want to add a customer:job for overhead

4. Consider using Time Tracker or WorkTrack Time Card so employees can enter their own time



By: Ruth Perryman

About the Author:

business plans