QuickBooks in Your Own Office Best Practices for Increasing Efficiency Managing Your Practice & Invoicing Your Clients
Copyright Copyright 2008 Intuit, Inc. Intuit, Inc. All rights reserved. PO Box 7850, MS 2475 Mountain View, CA 94039-7850 Trademarks Intuit, the Intuit logo, QuickBooks, QuickBooks: Pro, Quicken, TurboTax, ProSeries, Lacerte, and QuickZoom, among others, are registered trademarks and/or registered service marks of Intuit, Inc. or one of its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Other parties trademarks or service marks are the property of their respective owners and should be treated as such. Notice To Readers The publications distributed by Intuit, Inc. are intended to assist accounting professionals in their practices by providing current and accurate information. However, no assurance is given that the information is comprehensive in its coverage or that it is suitable in dealing with a client s particular situation. Accordingly, the information provided should not be relied upon as a substitute for independent research. Intuit, Inc. does not render any accounting, legal, or other professional advice nor does it have any responsibility for updating or revising any information presented herein. Intuit, Inc. cannot warrant that the material contained herein will continue to be accurate nor that it is completely free of errors when published. Readers should verify statements before relying on them.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Danny Allday, CPA Danny is a native of New Orleans, LA and has been practicing public accounting since 1977 when he graduated from the University of New Orleans. He started his own consulting firm in 1981, the Allday Consulting Group, which focuses primarily on helping small businesses become more successful. Over the years, he has developed a niche for assisting small businesses by automating their accounting and reporting functions. After working with several accounting software programs over the years, the firm now focuses primarily on installing, training and supporting clients that use QuickBooks and Peachtree Accounting. Danny has been a QuickBooks ProAdvisor since 1998 and has served two terms on the Intuit Customer Advisory Council. 1
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TABLE OF CONTENTS About the Author... 1 Preface... 5 Implementing QuickBooks Time & Expense Billing Features in Your Practice... 7 Setup... 7 Setting Up Time Tracking Preferences in QuickBooks... 7 Setting Up Billable Services, Reimbursable Expenses and Other Charges in QuickBooks (Using the Items List)... 8 Setting Up Billable Service Items... 8 Setting Up Items for Other Billable Charges... 9 Setting Up Billing Rates and Assigning them to Specific Employees/Subcontractors... 9 Creating or Editing Billing Rate Level... 10 Setting Up and Applying Price Levels to Specific Clients... 11 Creating Price Levels... 12 How Standard Rates, Billing Rate Levels and Price Levels Work Together... 13 Time Tracking... 14 An Overview... 14 Entering Time Directly into QuickBooks... 15 Entering Time Remotely Using the QuickBooks Timer Program Importing Time from the QuickBooks Timer Program... 16 Entering Time Remotely Using the Online Time Tracker... 17 Billing for Time and Expenses... 18 An Overview... 18 Customizing Client Invoices... 19 Recurring Invoices... 21 Creating and Using Memorized Groups... 22 Working With Estimates... 23 Creating Sales Orders & Work Orders (Staff Assignments)... 24 Assigning In-Charges and Staff People to Clients... 25 Tracking Tax Return Due Dates Using Client Information... 25 Reporting... 26 Mileage Tracking and Reporting... 26 Work in Process Reporting... 28 Revenue Reporting... 30 Tools to Manage Accounts Receivable... 31 Accounts Receivable Reports... 31 Producing Client Statements... 32 Assessing Finance Charges... 33 Using Collection Letters... 33 Customer Notes... 34 QuickBooks Merchant Services... 34 3
Using QuickBooks Letters... 37 Using QuickBooks to Create Client Letters and Forms... 37 Accessing QuickBooks Customer Letters... 38 Creating a New Letter From Scratch... 39 Converting an Existing Microsoft Word Document to a Letter Template... 40 Viewing or Editing an Existing QuickBooks Letter... 41 Organizing Existing QuickBooks Letter Templates (Delete, Rename, Duplicate, or Move)... 42 Inserting Data Fields into QuickBooks Letters... 43 QuickBooks Backup Options... 45 4
PREFACE By the end of this presentation, you will have a better understanding of how QuickBooks: Premier Accountant Edition 2008 can help you manage your practice by showing you how to: Better manage your billable and non-billable time allowing you to increase profits and achieve a more balanced workload among your professional staff. Perform time and expense billing Produce profitability reports by type of services and by service providers in your office Produce other key financial reports to help manage your practice Learn about tools that will help you manage your accounts receivable Produce reports that will help you keep track of due dates Learn the features and benefits of implementing merchant services Learn how to use QuickBooks Letters to improve communications and new business development Learn about your different backup options 5
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IMPLEMENTING QUICKBOOKS TIME & EXPENSE BILLING FEATURES IN YOUR PRACTICE SETUP The most important asset in an accounting practice is the time that it has to sell. Accurate time tracking and reporting is vital to the success of any practice. QuickBooks time tracking can be used to perform the following crucial functions: Entering employees time for processing payroll through QuickBooks Capturing billable and non-billable time to be used for billing and reporting purposes Producing important management reports Billing for time and expenses Perform job-costing to see how profitable your engagements are Pay vendors for subcontractor services Tracking and reporting on worker s compensation In order to use the time and expense billing features in QuickBooks, the time tracking feature must first be turned on. Setting Up Time Tracking Preferences in QuickBooks Time tracking is turned on by editing the QuickBooks preferences: 1. Click on the Edit drop-down menu and select Preferences. 2. Scroll down to the bottom of the Preference items and click on Time Tracking. 3. Click on the Company Preferences tab and select Yes to the question Do You Track Time? 4. Then select the First Day of Your Work Week from the drop down list. 7
Setting Up Billable Services, Reimbursable Expenses and Other Charges in QuickBooks (Using the Items List) To take advantage of the billing and reporting features in QuickBooks, the next step is to set up your billable services and other charges that will be billed to the client. To do this, you will create Items in the QuickBooks Items List. Items are used for the following purposes: Capturing time and other billable charges by Item to be used for billing and reporting purposes Producing important management reports by Item Assist in producing client invoices Assigning costs incurred and client invoice amounts to general ledger accounts You can create a service item for each type of service you provide, regardless of whether the service is performed by a partner, manager, staff accountant, clerical staff, or by subcontractors. You can use the same item across all employees we ll show you how to assign different billing rates later on. Setting Up Billable Service Items 1. From the Lists menu, choose Item List. 2. From the Item Menu button, choose New. 3. In the Type field of the New Item window, choose Service. 4. Enter an item name or number. 5. If this item is a subitem of an existing service item, select the Subitem of checkbox and specify the parent item's name. 6. Enter a description. 7. This description will display on the sales and purchase forms. 8. Enter a rate for the service. The amount can be either a flat fee or an hourly rate. Leave the field blank if this rate varies. 9. In the Account field, enter the income GL (i.e., income) account that you want these services to post to. 8
Setting Up Items for Other Billable Charges If you bill clients for other expenses, you can set these Items up as an Other Charge type in the Items List. Follow the same steps as above, except choose Other Charge in the Type field. The Other Charge type is commonly used for: Travel related expenses Copying costs Postage, overnight delivery and shipping Other miscellaneous costs to be billed to the client Setting Up Billing Rates and Assigning them to Specific Employees/Subcontractors When setting up Items for services, you either enter a standard rate for the service or leave the rate at zero. More than likely, you may need to set up multiple billing rates depending on the billing rate of the service provider. Also, you may have different billing rates established for different clients. Therefore, after you have set up your items, you can then set up custom rates or prices for particular employees or clients. Billing Rate Levels are used to set up multiple billing rates for similar services that are performed by different people. An example is an item called Client Meeting. You will set up just one item call Client Meeting for all your staff to use anytime they had a meeting with a client. You might set your standard rate at $75/hr. But if a partner was conducting the meeting you might charge $150/hr. Setting up Billing Rates allows you to use the same item company-wide and have the right rate charged to the client depending on who in your company is doing the work. Once you create billing rate levels and associate them with employees and vendors, each time you create an invoice with billable time, QuickBooks automatically fills in the correct rate for each service item based on who did the work. You can also charge different rates for the same person based on the difficulty of the task being performed. 9
Creating or Editing Billing Rate Level 1. From the Lists menu, choose Billing Rate Level List. 2. From the Billing Rate Level menu, choose New or Edit. 3. In the New or Edit Billing Rate Level window, enter the name for the billing rate level. For example, you might name the billing rate level based on the person or people who will be billed out at those rates (i.e. Partner #1 or Staff Level 1). 4. Choose the Billing Rate Level Type. o Select Fixed Hourly Rate if you want to use the same rate for all services performed by people with this billing rate level. Then enter an amount in the Hourly Rate box, or o Select Custom Hourly Rate per Service Item to use a different hourly rate for each service item performed by people with this billing rate level. When you choose this option, all of your service items are displayed. Enter the custom hourly rate for each service item in the Billing Rate column. When invoicing clients, the rates you set up here will override the rates that are set up for the Items in the Items List. 10
NOTE: If you select Custom Hourly Rate per Service Item, you will also have the ability to adjust a billing rate level to be a set percentage lower or higher than your standard billing rates. For example, you can have a billing rate level that increases your standard billing rate by a fixed percentage that allows you to charge more for your more experienced or highly paid professionals. To do this, check the desired service items in the table (or choose Select All), then click the Adjust Selected Rates button. After setting up your Billing Rate Levels, you then assign them to Employees and/or Subcontractors. From the List menu select Employees (or Vendors), then go to the Additional Info tab. Once you create billing rate levels and associate them with employees and vendors, each time you create an invoice with billable time, QuickBooks automatically fills in the correct rate for each service item based on who did the work. In the example below, we are instructing QuickBooks to bill anything Tom Jones does, at the Staff Level 1 billing rate. NOTE: In order for a billing rate level to be used on a client invoice, in addition to assigning it to employees and vendors, you will also need to use Time Tracking features as described later in the manual. Setting Up and Applying Price Levels to Specific Clients Price Levels are used to apply client-specific pricing to client invoices. You can use price levels in QuickBooks to set different rates (or item prices) for different clients. You can set up price levels in two ways: Fixed percentage price levels lets you increase or decrease billing rates by a set percentage. For example, you might use this price level for a client who gets a 10% discount on all (or specific) services you provide. Per item price levels allows you to assign specific rates for specific services. For example, you might have a client that gets a special rate of $75 an hour for tax research time and $35 an hour for client write up services. 11
Creating Price Levels 1. From the Lists menu, choose Price Level List. 2. From the Price Level menu, choose New or Edit. 3. In the Price Level window, enter a name for the price level. 4. Choose the Price Level Type, o Select Fixed % if you want to apply a fixed percent increase or decrease to the default price set up for all services set up on the Items List, or o Select Per Item to use a custom price for each service item. When you choose this option, all service items are displayed. Enter the rate for each service item in the Custom Price column. When invoicing clients, the rates you set up here will override the rates that are set up for the Items in the Items List. NOTE: If you select Per Item in the Price Level Type, you will also have the ability to create clientspecific pricing to be a set percentage more than or less than any of the following: Standard Price, Cost, or Current Custom Price. 12
Once you have set up the Price Levels, the next step is to assign them to the clients. From the Lists menu select Customers:Jobs, then go to the Additional Info Tab and select the appropriate price level from the Price Level drop-down list. In this example, we are instructing QuickBooks to bill Audit Services for Client ABC, at 10% higher than standard rate (using the example shown on the previous page). Client Write Up would be billed at $50/hr. and tax preparation at $80/hr. for this client. How Standard Rates, Billing Rate Levels and Price Levels Work Together When setting up or editing a Service Item in QuickBooks, by entering an amount in the Rate field, you are creating a Standard Billing rate for this item. Billing Rate Levels and Price Levels can also be used to bill for Service Items, and there is a hierarchy involved. If you use the Time Tracking feature in QuickBooks to capture and bill services, whenever a service item is added to an invoice via the Time/Costs window, the rate that will be used on the invoice for that service item will be determined as follows: If the client has a Fixed Percentage Price Level set up on their Additional Info tab, QuickBooks computes a Price Level adjustment based on the Billing Rate Level that is entered on the Additional Info tab for that employee/subcontractor, if one exists. If there is no Billing Rate Level set up on the employee/subcontractor s Additional Info screen, then QuickBooks computes a Price Level adjustment based on the Standard Rate entered for the Service Item. If the client is set up with a Per Item Price Level on their Additional Info tab, then QuickBooks uses the specific price setup in the Price-Level screen for that Service Item. A Per Item Price Level always overrides both the Billing Rate Level and the standard rates set up for the Service Item. If the client does not have a Price Level assigned on the Additional Info screen, and if there is a Billing Rate Level entered on the Additional Info tab of the employee/subcontractor work, then QuickBooks assigns the Billing Rate Level to the Service Item on the invoice. If there is no Price Level set up for the client and there is no Billing Rate Level set up for the employee/subcontractor that did the work, then QuickBooks uses the Standard Rate that is entered on the Service Item screen. If there is no Price Level assigned to the client, no Billing Rate assigned to the employee/subcontractor, and no Standard Rate entered on the Service Item screen, QuickBooks defaults to a zero billing rate on the invoice. A billing rate will then have to be manually entered in QuickBooks by the person doing the invoice. 13
In any case, you can always modify the default billing rates that are computed by QuickBooks by selecting a different rate from the drop-down list in the rate column or by just typing over the default rate directly on the invoice. See below example: TIME TRACKING An Overview Time entered in QuickBooks Time Tracking can be used to compute hours worked, but it also assists in other important functions as well. Time Tracking interfaces with other areas of QuickBooks in the following ways: Payroll To pay employees for time worked. Accounts Payable To pay subcontractors for time worked. Accounts Receivable To bill clients for time worked by owners, employees and subcontractors. Reporting Billable versus Non-billable Time Reports o o o By client By employee/subcontractor By service items 14
Entering Time Directly into QuickBooks There are four ways to enter time into QuickBooks. Using the Time/Enter Single Activity entry screen. Using the Weekly Timesheet entry screen. Enter the time using the QuickBooks Timer Program. Enter the time using the Internet-based Online Time Tracker. The following example shows the Time/Enter Single Activity screen. The following is an example of how to enter the time manually using a Weekly Timesheet entry screen. NOTE - When you make a Single Activity entry, QuickBooks automatically records the entry on that person's Weekly Timesheet. Likewise, if you make an entry on the Weekly Timesheet, QuickBooks also saves it as a single activity entry. You can switch from one method to the other at any time. 15
Entering Time Remotely Using the QuickBooks Timer Program Importing Time from the QuickBooks Timer Program. The QuickBooks Timer is a stand-alone time tracking program that comes with QuickBooks at no extra charge. It can be also be installed as a stand-alone program. You can give a copy of the Timer program to people whose work you want to track in QuickBooks (for example: owners, partners, employees, or subcontractors). For example, you can install a copy of the QuickBooks Timer program on each staff person s computer. This lets employees track their time at their desks as they work. After activities have been timed or entered in the Timer and your workers have sent you their Timer files, you can transfer the time to your QuickBooks company file. You can then invoice your clients for the time or pay employees for the time worked. 16
Entering Time Remotely Using the Online Time Tracker The QuickBooks Time Tracker is a subscription-based service that works with QuickBooks so your employees and vendors can track their own time online. The timesheets can then be downloaded and added to your QuickBooks timesheets. The process to use Time Tracker is simple: Online Time Tracker collects timesheet information from employees and contractors over the Web and allows you to review and download the timesheets into QuickBooks for invoicing, reporting, and other tasks. The timesheets can then be reviewed and downloaded into your QuickBooks timesheets. Here are the steps to implement and use the Online Time Tracker 1. Transfer QuickBooks information such as employees and/or vendors, customer:jobs, and service items (tasks) to the secure Time Tracker Web site. 2. Your time trackers will complete their timesheets online. They will use the customer, job, and service information you uploaded from QuickBooks to track time spent on different activities. 3. You can view your time trackers' progress anytime by viewing timesheets online. 4. When you are ready, you can download the timesheets into QuickBooks. 5. Once you've reviewed the timesheets, you can use them for invoicing and payroll just as you would any timesheets created in QuickBooks. You can also set up automatic email reminders to remind timekeepers to enter their time. Intuit offers a 60 Day Free trial after which a monthly fee per remote timekeeper applies. (Price subject to change without notice check out www.acountant.intuit.com for most current pricing.) 17
BILLING FOR TIME AND EXPENSES An Overview If you ve been keeping up with the time entry in QuickBooks, billing your clients is easy. You can generate many different types of invoices. Here are some of the most common invoices that are used in QuickBooks: Progress Invoices Flat Fee Invoices, with Write Ups or Write Downs Invoices Based on Hourly Rates (service rates, staff rates of client rates) Monthly Retainer Invoices To include time and expenses on an invoice, simply open the Invoice Entry screen, select the client you want to invoice and then click on the Time/Costs button on the invoice to bring up the Choose Billable Time and Costs selection screen. Click on the Time tab to select the items that you want to invoice. You can also use this screen to invoice the client for: Items that were purchased for the client. Expenses incurred on behalf of the client. Mileage incurred on behalf of the client. On the Choose Billable Time and Costs screen, you can: 18
Select all or only some of the time entries Hide charges that will not be billed to the client so they will no longer appear on the selection screen in the future Include a separate line for each time entry appearing on the invoice, or you can Group time entries to be included in a lump-sum total when the invoice is printed, by clicking the print selected time and costs as one Invoice item checkbox. Additional options when transferring timesheet notes and descriptions include: Transferring activity notes only on the invoice Transferring item descriptions only on the invoice Transferring both notes and descriptions Transferring only the totals of activities by item These options are very useful when you have some clients for whom you want detail displayed on their invoices, while other clients opt a cleaner less detailed invoice. Customizing Client Invoices Client invoices can be customized by changing the appearance and layout in the following ways: Selecting from the several professional-looking custom invoices located in the Forms Folder on the QuickBooks CD or on the QuickBooks website Adding your logo by importing it from a BMP or JPEG file You can elect to include or exclude any of the following items: The date that the services were rendered Service item descriptions and/or detail notes entered in the time entry screens Hourly rates charged for the services rendered Classes that can either be applied to the entire invoice or to each line item on the invoice Charges for each line item on the invoice or invoice total only Charges for reimbursable expenses such as mileage, travel, copying, etc. Subtotals for one or more line items 19
Line item discount amounts or discounts computed as a percent of a subtotal Payments applied to invoices Total balance due for all outstanding invoices for that client 20
Recurring Invoices To assist you in preparing repetitive invoices, QuickBooks allows you to: Create memorized invoices for future use. Assign memorized invoices to groups so they can be easily generated in batches at specific intervals, such as weekly or biweekly (for payroll processing clients, as an example), monthly, quarterly or annually for retainer-type clients. To create a Memorized Invoice: 1. Enter the information you want to memorize on a client invoice. 2. Select Edit from the drop-down list, then click on Memorize Invoice. 3. Give the memorized invoice a name. 4. Select the reminder options. 5. If the memorized invoice will not be assigned to a group, enter the frequency, next date, number of transactions remaining and days in advance to enter. 6. If the invoice will be generated as one of a group of memorized transactions, then select With Transactions in Group and choose the Group Name from the drop-down list. 21
Creating and Using Memorized Groups To create a Memorized Group for which to assign invoices: 1. From the Lists menu, select Memorized Transactions List. 2. Select New Group from the Memorized Transaction Button. 3. Give the Memorized Group a name. 4. Select the reminder options. 5. Enter the frequency, the next date, the number of transactions remaining and days in advance to enter. Invoices that are assigned to a Memorized Group will take on the frequency, next date, and number of days remaining characteristics of the group to which it is assigned. This makes it easier to produce memorized invoices in batches at specific intervals, such as weekly or biweekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually for retainer-type clients. 22
Working With Estimates You can do proposals (called Estimates) from within QuickBooks. Proposals can be memorized as templates for future use. Using memorized proposals saves a lot of time and allows for more consistency and fewer mistakes. 23
Creating Sales Orders & Work Orders (Staff Assignments) When a client accepts your proposal, you can create either an invoice or a sales order (work order) directly from the proposal. Creating a Sales Order provides you with a way to create a work order (or staff assignment, so to speak). This then allows you to keep track of the work in process by running an Open Sales Order report. You can rename the Sales Order template to be more meaningful to your practice, such as Staff Assignment, Work Assignment or Budget. 24
Assigning In-Charges and Staff People to Clients You can use the Rep Field on the Additional Info tab of the client screen to identify the Partner in Charge of the client or engagement. By setting up Custom Fields in QuickBooks, you can also designate staff people that are assigned to the clients/engagement. Doing this allows you to print a client list by partner and or staff. In the example below, we have edited Customer 14C Corporation to assign DA as the rep, and input some client-specific information on the Custom Fields we created when we first set up the QuickBooks company file. (For more information on setting up Custom Fields, click Help and type in Custom Fields for a step by step tutorial.) Tracking Tax Return Due Dates Using Client Information By setting up Custom Fields for the type of tax returns and the due dates on the Additional Info tab of the Customer, you can track entity types and due dates. You can then create and print reports based on tax return types and due dates. 25
REPORTING Mileage Tracking and Reporting QuickBooks Premier has a mileage tracking and reporting feature that allows you to setup vehicles and enter mileage for those vehicles. The mileage tracker ties into the Time and Expense module, thereby allowing you to invoice clients for mileage. You can also use the mileage reports to reimburse your employees for their mileage. You can set up mileage rates based on certain date intervals. For instance, you might want to enter various rates based on the IRS mileage rate tables. To access this feature choose Enter Vehicle Mileage under the Company menu. You can assign a Customer or Job, mark it Billable or Non-billable, as well as entering an optional note. You and/or your employees can enter mileage as shown below. 26
Once time is entered, you can produce several mileage reports, such as: Mileage by Vehicles Both in Summary and Detail Formats, and Mileage by Client Both in Summary and Detail Formats 27
These reports are found under the Reports menu, under Jobs, Time & Mileage. Work in Process Reporting A successful practice needs good time and expense reporting. As you can see below, QuickBooks comes with several built-in work in process reports. To assist you in knowing how much time has been spent on a client engagement, or to help you determine which clients need to be billed, you can generate the following reports: Unbilled Cost by Job Report Time by Job Reports - Both Summary and Detail Reports Time by Name Reports Time by Service Item Reports 28
To access these work in process reports, you select Reports, then Jobs, Time and Mileage. If you need to change the totaling or sorting of the reports, you can easily send the reports to Excel and further customize them there. 29
Revenue Reporting QuickBooks allows you to produce both summary and detailed revenue reports. The following reports are available in QuickBooks: Sales by Customer (or client) Sales by Item (or type of service) Sales by Rep (or by person in charge) Pending Sales and Open Sales Orders (or work-in-progress reports) As seen in the above illustration, you can also produce bar graphs and pie charts for Sales by Customer, Item or Rep. 30
TOOLS TO MANAGE ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE The following tools in QuickBooks help you get paid faster: A/R Aging Reports and Graphs Client Statements Finance Charges Past Due Reminder Letters Emailing Invoices and Statements Accepting Credit Card Payments in QuickBooks Accounts Receivable Reports As you can see from the screenshot below, there are many different accounts receivable reports and graphs in QuickBooks. 31
Producing Client Statements You can remind clients of their unpaid balance by producing client statements. Statements can be produced either on a Balance Forward or on an Open Invoice basis. You can select All Customers, Multiple Customers or One Customer. You have several filtering options. For example, you can exclude statements with a zero balance, with a balance less than a specific amount, or statements with no current activity. You can preview, print and/or email statements. To print Statements go to the Customer menu and click Create Statements. 32
Assessing Finance Charges You can assess finance charges on past due balances. Set up the finance charge option, the annual rate to charge, the minimum finance charge, the grace period, and other finance charge preferences under Edit Preferences. Using Collection Letters QuickBooks has the ability to generate collection letters based on various filtering options that you choose. You can prepare a collection letter for one particular client or you can select clients based on balances that are over 1, 31, 61 or 91 or more days past due. You can select from six predefined collection letter templates or you can customize and save your own collection letter templates. 33
Customer Notes The Customer Notepad comes in handy for keeping track of client notes. But most of all, it comes in handy for keeping track of communications with clients regarding your collections efforts. To access the Customer Notepad first choose the Customer Center from Customers menu. Your list of customers will appear. Select the desired customer and click Edit Note. Enter your note as shown below. By clicking on the date stamp button, QuickBooks will automatically place a date in the notepad allowing you to type text right behind it. You can use the New To Do button to setup reminders to follow up on things. QUICKBOOKS MERCHANT SERVICES Offering your clients the option to pay by credit card can help you get paid faster while giving your client more time to pay for your services. Credit card information is stored confidentially in QuickBooks. And because Innovative Merchant Solutions (the credit card processing company) is an Intuit owned company, there is very tight integration between QuickBooks and the merchant service processing. The online credit card authorization and processing takes place in seconds while simultaneously posting the payment in QuickBooks. On the Make Deposits screen, you can see which credit card amounts have settled so they can automatically be added to your checking account balance. This makes the bank reconciliation process smooth. 34
You can even set up the QuickBooks Merchant Services to automatically charge a client s credit card on a monthly basis. After setting up the recurring charge, you will receive an email each month reminding you that the amount has been deposited into your bank account. To learn more about the services and special pricing for accountants, please visit www.accountant.intuit.com, or call 800-966-0869. 35
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USING QUICKBOOKS LETTERS USING QUICKBOOKS TO CREATE CLIENT LETTERS AND FORMS Time management and client communications play a very important role in a successful accounting practice. The QuickBooks Letter mail-merge functionality can help you produce standard client letters and forms, as well as creating custom letters, in a very time-efficient manner. QuickBooks comes with some preformatted QuickBooks Letters for customers, vendors, employees and other names. Customer letters include collection letters, thank you notes and transmittal letters that can be used for many occasions. You can also create letters from scratch or use your previously written MS-Word letters with QuickBooks. If you are using QuickBooks to manage your firm s accounting, you will want to use the QuickBooks mail-merge functionality to create many of the letters and forms commonly used in your practice. These forms and letters can be prepared for a single client or for several clients using the Review and Edit Recipients selection screen. Here are just a few examples of the types of letters and forms you might use in your practice: Client Engagement Letters Client Representation Letters Payroll Tax Return Transmittal Letters Sales Tax Transmittal Letters Thank You for the Referral Letters Tax Election Letters Tax Planning & Recommendation Letters Compilation, Review and Audit Reports Notice of Fee Increase Letters Annual Notice of Privacy Statement Letters Invitation to a special Company event letters 37
ACCESSING QUICKBOOKS CUSTOMER LETTERS From the Company menu, select Prepare Letters with Envelopes. Selecting Customize Letter Template from the menu brings you to the Choose What You Want To Do screen. From here you can: Create A New Letter From Scratch Convert an Existing Microsoft Word Document to a QuickBooks Letter View or Edit Existing Letters Organize Existing Letters (Delete, Rename, Duplicate, or Move) NOTE: MS-Word version 2000 or later is required in order to use this feature with QuickBooks: Premier Accountant Edition 2008. NOTE: MS-WORD VERSION 2000 OR LATER IS REQUIRED IN ORDER TO USE THIS FEATURE WITH QUICKBOOKS: PREMIER ACCOUNTANT EDITION. 38
CREATING A NEW LETTER FROM SCRATCH After you choose to Create a New Letter From Scratch and click Next, you ll need to name the letter and select the type of letter that you will be creating for the recipients. Clicking Next will open up MS-Word with a blank document and a QuickBooks Fields Toolbox that you can use to insert fields into your new letter. QuickBooks fields acts as placeholders for the QuickBooks data extracted from your names lists, so you don t have to manually type this information in. 39
CONVERTING AN EXISTING MICROSOFT WORD DOCUMENT TO A LETTER TEMPLATE When making this selection from the Choose What You Want To Do screen, you re prompted to enter a File Name for the MS-Word document that you want to convert to a QuickBooks Letter. Click on Browse to search for the file. Once you ve located the file to open, QuickBooks asks you to name the letter. After naming the letter, MS-Word opens. The QuickBooks Fields Toolbox appears, allowing you to insert QuickBooks fields. QuickBooks fields act as placeholders for the QuickBooks data extracted from your names lists. Make your changes to the letter and save. QuickBooks saves the letter in the QuickBooks Letter folder. 40
VIEWING OR EDITING AN EXISTING QUICKBOOKS LETTER You can view, edit or even create a new QuickBooks letter based on an existing one. 1. Select View or Edit Existing Letter Templates from the Choose What To Do screen and click Next. 2. From the Choose a Letter Template to View or Edit, select the letter you want to work with and click Next. 3. In MS-Word, you can edit the text and add or remove fields 4. If editing an existing letter, save the document. 5. If creating a new QuickBooks Letter, save the letter using a new name (from the File menu, Save As and enter a unique name). 6. Be sure to save the edited letter in the same folder as the original letter. This process will provide you with a revised QuickBooks Letter, or a new QuickBooks Letter, depending on how you saved the letter. 41
ORGANIZING EXISTING QUICKBOOKS LETTER TEMPLATES (DELETE, RENAME, DUPLICATE, OR MOVE) To organize existing letter templates, select Organize Existing Letter Templates and click Next. Choose the type of letter templates you want to work with, select a letter template from the list, and click one of the buttons to Move, Rename, Duplicate, or Delete the selected letter template. Then click Finish. Delete removes the letter from the list and from the QuickBooks Letters folder. Duplicate creates an identical copy and asks you to provide a new name for the letter. Rename allows you to change the name of the letter as it appears on the list. Move allows you to move the letter to the QuickBooks Letter list of another type. TIP: If you have a letter that you want to preserve, you can use the Duplicate feature. If someone modifies or deletes the letter, you can always revert to the duplicate letter as a backup. 42
INSERTING DATA FIELDS INTO QUICKBOOKS LETTERS Predefined QuickBooks Letter fields are available for inserting into letters from the QuickBooks Letter Fields Toolbar. When viewing, editing or creating QuickBooks Letters in MS-Word, the QuickBooks Letter Fields toolbar becomes visible near the top of the window. The QuickBooks Letter Fields Toolbar consists of: Insert My Company Fields - This toolbar option allows you to insert fields for data that comes from the information that is on the Company Information screen in QuickBooks. Insert xxxxx Name Fields (where xxxxx represents the type of letter that you chose to work with) - This toolbar option allows you to insert fields from customer, vendor, employee, or other name lists. The QuickBooks toolbar and related QuickBooks fields available to insert in the letter are relative to the type of letter selected. For example, if you selected an employee letter, then you will see a toolbar for employee name fields. Insert Collection Info Fields - This toolbar option allows you to insert customer balance information into letters. Insert Invoice Fields - This toolbar option allows you to insert customer invoice information into letters. If you have closed the QuickBooks Fields Toolbar and want to redisplay it: 1. Display the View menu, and then choose Toolbars. 2. Select the QuickBooks toolbar for the type of letter you re using. The above illustration shows the fields available when working with employee letters. 43
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QUICKBOOKS BACKUP OPTIONS You have the following built-in backup options in QuickBooks: 1. Backup to a local hard drive. This option is recommended only as a temporary backup option and should not be relied on as a secure, long term solution. 2. Backup to an external device, such as an external hard drive, compact disk, zip drive, etc. 3. Using the QuickBooks Online Backup Service, you can have a secure offsite backup running overnight on a daily basis. Prices range from $4.95 to $14.95 per month depending on the amount of storage space needed. The QuickBooks Enterprise Edition Version 7.0 includes the online backup service at no additional charge. 4. You can run a data verification process as part of the backup routine. 5. You can schedule backups to occur automatically when closing QuickBooks, or 6. You can schedule backups to run at a frequency and specific time determined by you. 45
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