Estimates-or quotes, or bids-are useful tools when you’re pitching a sale of products or services. Here’s how QuickBooks Online handles them.   Sales estimates are standard procedure in many professions. You wouldn’t authorize a car repair without one. Nor would you OK a remodeling job on your kitchen or a summer’s worth of yard landscaping… Read more »

You’re accustomed to money going in a certain direction, but sometimes you have to pay your customers. Here’s how it’s done.   QuickBooks is very good at helping you get paid by your customers. It comes equipped with customizable invoice templates for billing customers and sales receipts for recording instant sales. It supports online payments,… Read more »

The data in your QuickBooks company file contains some of the most sensitive information on your computer. Make sure it’s secure.   Your customer list is gold. And those Social Security and bank card numbers in your payroll, client, and vendor records need to be protected from intruders and only viewed by authorized employees.  … Read more »

Does your business do work for clients over weeks or months? Consider using QuickBooks Online’s progress invoicing. Let’s say you’re doing a job or project for a customer that is going to take a long time, but you don’t want to wait until you’re finished to get paid. Or you’ve agreed to let a customer… Read more »

  It’s a gig economy. QuickBooks Online makes it easy to track and pay independent contractors.   In days past we used to call it “moonlighting” – taking on a second, part-time job for extra money. And we saw how prevalent this became was when millions of people had to resort to side gigs to… Read more »

  How you record a customer payment in QuickBooks depends on why and how you received it.   One of the reasons we like QuickBooks is because it uses language and processes that are familiar to small businesspeople. Instead of using the term “accounts receivable,” it has a menu label that says Customers and menu… Read more »

Using Product and Service Records in QuickBooks Online Last month, we created product and service records in QuickBooks Online. This month, we’ll explore how they’re used on the site   If you ever did your accounting manually, you probably remember how tired you got of writing or typing the same things over and over. You… Read more »

Polish Your Image: Customize QuickBooks’ Forms The invoices and other forms you send to customers and vendors should reflect your company’s attention to detail, accuracy, and consistency.   Every opportunity you have to interact with your customers and vendors is critical. Whether it’s a phone call, an in-person connection, or an email, how you present… Read more »

  Get Paid Faster Using QuickBooks Are your customers slow about paying their invoices? QuickBooks can help accelerate your receivables.   Your company’s cash flow depends largely on how quickly your customers pay the invoices you’ve sent. And if you’re like most small businesses, those checks tend to dribble in close to-and after-the due date…. Read more »

Creating Product and Service Records in QuickBooks Online QuickBooks Online is good at managing and tracking inventory – as long as you’ve created thorough records.   When you first started your business, you might have been able to keep track of your merchandise by counting manually. But as you and your product list grew, this… Read more »