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Using QuickBooks requires the creation and maintenance of lists such as customer, vendor, chart of accounts lists. Frequently, clients come across a scenario where they find duplications within these lists. For instance, they find two slightly different versions of the same customer or vendor.

Unfortunately, this can become a data management nightmare. Applying payments to a customer's account, pulling a report to determine if a vendor should receive a 1099, or posting a transaction to a general ledger account, etc. when there are active duplications in the necessary lists will result in potentially major errors.

This issue seems to be more prevalent when more than one person has access to the QuickBooks® data. One person may not see the name already created in the list by another individual and will proceed to create another. QuickBooks has a built-in feature to prevent this. A warning message should appear indicating the name is already in use and asks would you like to merge them. However, even the slightest variable in how the names are entered will bypass this feature. It only takes one small difference in the name to create a new one. An example is putting a middle initial in a name of an individual or a comma in the name of a business.

QuickBooks® offers a module to make the process of preparing and updating a budget or forecast easy. At a time when clients are reviewing their goals and objectives, be it monthly, quarterly, or annually, the process often includes the preparation of an operating budget and/or financial forecast.

What is financial forecasting?

"Forecasting is the use of historic data to determine the direction of future trends. Businesses utilize forecasting to determine how to allocate their budgets or plan for anticipated expenses for an upcoming period of time. This is typically based on the projected demand for the goods and services they offer." - Investopedia

This is the second of multiple posts in a series on using QuickBooks. QuickBooks holds the largest market share of accounting software in the United States. Yet there are many other accounting software options available and we encourage you to explore the Best Accounting Softwares for your business.

In our first post in this series we discussed the benefits of accounting software versus manual accounting practices. 

This post discusses the benefits of accounting software versus manual accounting practices.

There are many versions of QuickBooks on the market. There are versions of QuickBooks that range from the most basic, which is like a check register, to a more sophisticated version to imitate an enterprise planning “ERP” system.

This is the first of multiple posts in a series on using QuickBooks. QuickBooks holds the largest market share of accounting software in the United States. Yet there are many other accounting software options available and we encourage you to explore the Best Accounting Softwares for your business.