What is the best QuickBooks Program for Managing MY Inventory?

Many clients have inventory and struggle with how to manage the inventory effectively and easily.  Although QuickBooks does have inventory functionality in QuickBooks Pro/Premier and Enterprise, there are various add-on solutions that are also be helpful for your specific needs.  To determine the correct version and add-ons I’ve created the summary below. Retail businesses should also review the Point of Sale section. 

Quick Books Pro

Inventory functionality is very basic.

  1.  Inventory features are designed for businesses that buys and sells the same items over and over again (ie Antique Shops buy and sell different items).
  2. These businesses do not assemble items or repackage them and only have one location.

QuickBooks Premier

Inventory functionality of QuickBooks Pro and

  1. Ability to assemble items (remove raw materials from inventory and replace with finished goods or repackage in smaller quantities.)
  2. Create Sales Orders to manage partial shipments of goods and manage unfulfilled orders

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions

Inventory functionality of QuickBooks Premier and

  1. Ability to use custom fields in transaction to configure orders
  2. Ability to add-on Advanced Inventory (annual fee)
    1. Use Multiple Inventory Locations
    2. Track Lot and Serial Numbers
    3. Bar Code Tracking

QuickBooks Point of Sale (POS)

This is a separate program that integrates with the other QuickBooks programs mentioned but is designed to work in a retail environment and function as a cash register.   

  1. Ability to run daily cash register reports.
  2. Ability to track individual cashiers
  3. Bar Code Tracking
  4. Multi-Store ability
  5. Styles view to see inventory availably by 2 designated features (i.e. size, color)

Printing 1099 Forms from QuickBooks Company Files

One of the tasks that many businesses struggle with in January is issuing 1099s and completing the reports.  I advise my clients to use the QuickBooks procedure for creating 1099’s rather than the timely and costly option of sending the information to an outside service to prepare the reports.   Many clients actually work with a tax preparer the first time to set-up the company file for 1099s, which is a great idea and allows you to learn the process for the next year. Here’s a short summary of the process you’ll need to follow to process your 1099’s and 1096:

Select Vendors from the top menu – Select Print /E-File 1099 – Select 1099 Wizard

You will see a listing of the activities that you will be guided thru in order to complete the task – Select the Get Started button.

Step 1 Select your 1099 Vendors – Vendors are subject to receiving a 1099 if they meet the income and statutory requirements based on business entity.  In this step we will only consider the statutory requirements based on business entity. 

Select all vendors that qualify for 1099s. Do not consider the vendor income requirements at this point, just select individuals, sole proprietors, partnerships, and anyone else who qualifies for a 1099 reporting. If you are not familiar with the requirements, check with your Tax Preparer for more information.  When you are done select Continue.

Step 2 Verify your 1099 Vendor’s Information –You will need the address and tax ID number for each 1099 vendor who will receive a 1099.  To save time, skip this step for now and we’ll complete the process in Step 4. Select continue and we will go back to complete this process later.

Step 3 Map Vendor Payment Accounts –Not all payments to vendors will qualify for 1099s, usually accounts that qualify are Cost of Goods Sold, Expense, and Other Expense accounts and most payments will be entered on Box 7. You should consult your tax preparer if you are not sure about reporting requirements.

 Step 4 Review Payments for Exclusions – This step gives you the opportunity to review both payments included and payments excluded based on the criteria defined in the previous steps.  Also QuickBooks will exclude all payments made by credit/debit cards, gift cards or PayPal in accordance with the IRS requirements. View both reports to verify that you have completed the set-up properly. When done select Continue.

Step 5 Confirm Entries – This step gives you the opportunity to confirm entries and on this screen you will see who needs additional information such as a Social Security number or Federal ID.  I usually wait until I get to this screen to research tax ID and addresses.  Any Vendors with incomplete information, can be edited in the vendor record.  If after calling a vendor you are informed that they do not meet the requirement for a 1099. Uncheck the 1099 vendor box in their vendor record or on Screen 1 of the wizard. You can now print the 1099 and 1096 forms, if you are not confident in the process ask your tax preparer to review your work.  When done, select Continue

Step 6 Choose Filing gives you the opportunity to print forms or e-file.  Please note that if you print forms you can reprint specific vendors or all forms at any time without changing your settings in Step 2.

Making the Most of Next Year!

Grow your business next year by making wise choices based on timely and accurate information!  This information is often at your fingertips and many clients don’t take advantage of this valuable resource. 

Each year I get many calls asking me to help companies gather their data and correct their records so they can submit them to their tax preparer for use in processing their tax return.  These clients tend to view their accounting system a recordkeeping device for tax preparation and forget the advantages of using their records to help make intelligent management decisions on a timely basis.  When you wait until after year end to enter transactions you’ve lost the ability to use the information timely for management purposes and you are more likely to have errors and omissions in your records.

My advice to you is to record transactions timely and use the reports and dashboards that your accounting system provides to you!

If your accounting system does not meet your information needs you may need more training or you may need to upgrade your software.  Now is the time to determine if you have a training issue or you need to upgrade.  If you need to Upgrade, I suggest contacting your tax preparer for advice, referrals, and/or assistance so you can start the New Year getting information that will help you manage your business.

Have a prosperous and healthy New Year and if there is anything I can do to help you please contact me at Ilene.eisen@ie-solutions.biz

Should I Process My Own Payroll or Use a Payroll Service?

The best time to change payroll processing is at the beginning of the year.  Therefore it’s time to look at your payroll processing and determine if it meets your needs.

The first question is, to determine if you want to be responsible for preparing your payroll returns and paying tax payments…

  • I would suggest that only organizations with a full time Payroll or Hunan Resource specialist take on this responsibility since the fines and penalties can be substantial, if errors are made or deadlines missed.

The second question is, if you outsource your payroll, how do you choose a payroll processor or service?

  • If you are a small business and do not use accounting software, check with your Tax Preparer to see who they recommend or if they provide this service.
  • If your accounting software processes payroll ask if the accounting software company also offers full service payroll that will integrate with your software and post the payroll to your records saving you time and increasing efficiently, while handling the regulatory duties of filing payroll returns and making tax deposits.
    • Many large software vendors now provide full service options such as Intuit and Sage.
  • If you need job costing and/or you are billing customers for time it’s important to get a processor who will integrate with your accounting software.  Keep in mind that the best integration will be provided by the publisher of your accounting software as mentioned above.
  • If you need advanced Human Resources features you will probably be happier with a national payroll processor that has these options.

When making payroll decisions it’s always a good idea to check with your CPA and software consultant for additional information and insight on the issue.

 

 

Getting the Most Out of Training

Quite often clients and other CPAs ask me about good training classes for accounting and for specific software so I thought I’d share my thoughts on this topic.

Free Training

Most software publishers have free videos on their website or a link to u-tube.  QuickBooks even has an option on the help menu called “Learning Center Tutorials”.  Most videos and tutorials are short and can be viewed multiple times. You can also type the name of your software and the word video into your internet browser to search the internet for additional videos that are posted on U-Tube or other sites.

Short Classes and Webinars (Recoded & Live)

When looking for targeted information, short classes and webinars are an excellent source of training.  For example if you are interested in reports,  budgets, online features, annual updates of new features,  or other specific areas webinars or short classes at conferences or seminars are an excellent sources.  To find out about these options check with your industry groups, software publisher website, or get recommendations from colleagues.  I personally teach webinars for K2 Enterprises   but there are other venues that you can also check.

Full or Half-Day Day Live Classes

When looking for good overview, check on full or half day classes.  These classes cover a lot of material and will give you a good overview.  One  of the benefits of attending a live class in person vs online is that you get a chance to network with peers and get an insight of how they are addressing the issues you are all facing each day.  Take time to listen to their questions and network at breaks, this is a huge resource that I see is quite often overlooked.  I usually do not recommend hands-on classes since this type of class can only proceed as fast as the slowest student.  However, I would recommend that you bring you laptop to the session so you can look at specific features mentioned if desired.  I teach classes for   K2 Enterprises  and one of the benefits of this company is that you can download the practice files to follow along or work with at a later date.  When choosing a vendor, check your industry groups and the software publisher for classes.  When selecting a class be careful to take a good look at the session description of what will be taught, don’t be satisfied with words like basic, or advanced, make sure you’re interested in at least the majority of the specific topics covered.