7 Steps to Take When You Open QuickBooks 

Checking in every few days? Here are seven things you should do when you launch QuickBooks. 

What do you do when you first log into QuickBooks? Maybe you’re there frequently and you’re just popping in to look something up or fire off a quick invoice. If that’s the case, we’re not suggesting that you take all these steps every time you open the program (unless it’s been a while). But if you only launch QuickBooks once or twice a week, we’re recommending that you start a new habit by taking these actions every time you visit.  

The steps we’re recommending might seem excessive to you at first. After all, how much can change in a few days? 

Our answer to that, having spent many years using QuickBooks, is this: a lot. One of your connected accounts could have been hacked, and you have bogus transactions coming in. There might have been a run on an item you’re selling, and you need to do some inventory management. Or you may find that a customer has slipped into past due status on an invoice. So we hope you’ll take our advice seriously. Here are seven things we recommend you do. 

Check for QuickBooks Updates 

If you haven’t opted into automatic QuickBooks updates, do a manual check. Open the Help menu and click Update QuickBooks Desktop, then click the Update Now tab. Click in front of every program option you want updated or Select All. Click Get Updates. 

Look for New Transactions 

If you’ve connected your bank accounts to QuickBooks, check to see what transactions have come in since the last time you accessed your Bank Feeds. Open the Banking menu and click Bank Feeds | Bank Feed Center. Double-click the account you want to start with and look for a line that says x transactions are waiting to be added to QuickBooks. If there are any, click Transaction List. Click the down arrow in the Action column to handle the transaction. If you are new to online banking and have not worked with transactions much, please schedule a session with us to go over this feature. 

QuickBooks provides a drop-down menu in accounts registers to help you manage transactions. 

See Who You Owe and Who Owes You 

If you’re checking in with QuickBooks every few days, you’ll be able to spot trouble brewing ahead when you look at your receivables and payables. Certainly, deal with any immediate problems, but anticipate what might transpire soon, too. 

There are two ways to get a good overview of bills and invoices that are close to being late. For receivables, you can either: 

• Use the Income Tracker. Go to Customers | Income Tracker. Click on any of the colored bars representing, for example, Unpaid Open Invoices and Overdue Invoices.  Click any of them and the list below displays only those transactions 
• Run an A/R Aging Detail report. You’ll find this by opening the Reports menu and clicking Customers and Receivables. 

To see who you owe, you can use a tool similar to the Income Tracker, the Bill Tracker (Vendors | Bill Tracker). Or create an A/P Aging Detail report (Reports | Vendors & Payables).  

Look At Your Inventory Levels 

We can’t stress this enough. If your business sells products, you must keep a very close watch on your stock levels. This isn’t as much of an issue if you make one-off sales, like mineral specimens or handmade baskets. But if you’re buying and reselling items, or you’re building them yourselves, you need to know when it’s time to re-order – and when it’s time to discount and discontinue a poor seller. Open the Reports menu and click Inventory, then select Inventory Stock Status By Item. Pay special attention to the On Hand and Reorder Qty columns. 

Deal With Past-Due Customers 

Here’s one of your least favorite tasks: asking customers to catch up with their bills. Once you’ve determined that someone is behind by running a receivables report or looking at the Income Tracker, as we already mentioned, it’s time to take some action. Try not to let your collections tasks stack up. Here are our three favorite approaches. 

Send past-due customers a list of outstanding invoices by creating Statements. 

• Send Statements. Open the Customers menu and click Create Statements. You’ll see a window like the one pictured above. Statements are basically lists of sales transactions that show customers what their outstanding debts and credited payments are over a period of time. 
• Send automated reminders. This is a great tool that QuickBooks offers, but it’s complicated to set up. We can walk you through the process. 
• Get personal. Sometimes, just a phone call or a written note or postcard (handwritten if you have the time) can be very effective. 

See Whether Payments Need to Be Deposited 

You don’t want to leave money that customers have sent you languishing in the Undeposited Funds account. Open the Banking menu and click Make Deposits. In the window that opens, select the payments you want to include and click OK. Finish creating the deposit in the next screen and save it. Create a physical deposit slip and take it along with the checks and/or cash to the bank. 

Take A Quick Look at Your Income vs. Expenses 

Get a bird’s eye view of your finances. Click the Insights tab on the Home Page and look at the Profit & Loss graph. If you’re noticing a pattern of your expenses outpacing your income, we’d encourage you to explore QuickBooks’ cash flow tools. If you’re not familiar with them, we can set up a session to go over them and answer any other questions you might have about using QuickBooks more effectively. We’re available for consultations on any aspect of the software that you don’t feel confident about using.