Use all the tools available to you to simplify the accounting side of your business. Sync your QuickBooks program with your business bank and credit card accounts. Set up recurring transactions, expenses, and invoices.

Allow QuickBooks to automatically send payment reminders to your customers and to send you your accounting reports directly to your email.

Getting as much of the process automated as possible will allow you to focus on other aspects of your business, and will allow you and your accountant more time to discuss future growth and plans rather than getting stuck in the nitty-gritty.

This may seem like common sense to most folk, but it bears repeating. Create separate bank accounts for your business, get a separate business credit card, and keep your personal and business transactions separate!

For those who like the ease of using one card to pay for everything, make sure you mark any personal expenses paid with a business card separately on your business accounting software.

Create an account labeled something like “Owner’s Draws,” “Shareholder Distributions,” etc. to make tracking your personal and business expenses easier.

Do you enter the information for each of the regular payments that go out? Create a recurring transaction instead!

1. Click on the transaction you want repeated
2. Click ‘Make Recurring’
3. Create a template name
4. Choose the interval (monthly, every other month, annually, etc)
5. Enter the start and end dates
6. Save

To change a recurring transaction, click the Gear icon, then click ‘Recurring Transactions’. Choose ‘edit’ to make changes to your template.

Want to use shortcuts to make your way around QuickBooks Online? In your QBO window, press CTRL+ALT+? to bring up your company ID and a list of helpful shortcuts.

Some examples are:

CTRL+ALT+I        Invoice

CTRL+ALT+r        Receive Payment

CTRL+ALT+a       Chart of Accounts

CTRL+ALT+h       Help

CTRL+ALT+f        Search Transactions

Also, you can use date shortcuts when entering transactions. Place your cursor in a ‘date field’ and try the following:

T             Today’s date

W            First day in the week

K             Last day in the week

Y             First day in the year

R             Last day in the year

M            First day in the month

H            Last day in the month

If you have reports that you find to use frequently – use the memorize feature. After creating and customizing your report, click the memorize button on the top bar of the report. A pop up window will ask for a title and give you an option to save it.

When you are ready to retrieve your memorized report, click the word ‘Reports’ on the main tab bar and in the drop down menu choose ‘Memorize Reports’ then find and click on title of the report you created.