Ask the Accountant…
Question: I have someone doing my bookkeeping, but I really don’t know anything about QuickBooks. What reports should I look at every month?
Answer: There are six reports that provide a practical overview of your business. First, create, or have your bookkeeper create:
1. The balance sheet
2. The profit and loss statement
They can be created on both a cash and an accrual basis regardless of which basis you use for taxes.
The cash basis shows what cash you have received and paid out for the period. The accrual basis shows the cash receipts and outflows, plus the invoices and bills created. The accrual basis will give you a good idea of the cash coming in and out in the short term.
3. The accounts receivable aging report reveals the invoices outstanding and when they are due.
4. Your accounts payable aging report reveals what bills are coming due shortly.
Finally, run No. 5, the open sales order, and No. 6, open purchase order reports. These will give you valuable order tracking information.
Open sales orders show the orders in process that you have yet to invoice.
Open purchase orders show the orders in process with suppliers not yet billed in QB. You likely have not yet received the supplier invoice for these orders and not yet invoiced the customers. You will want to follow up with the suppliers if the order is complete and you have yet to receive a supplier invoice.
Please email your questions to Harriet at Ask The Accountant.
QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise can be modified to better serve ad specialty distributors. Harriet Gatter is a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, a former accounting professor and a former ad specialty distributor. She advises ad specialty distributors to use QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise, often in conjunction with other industry-specific software, to manage the complexities of the ad specialty business, with the results being time saved, errors eliminated and an overall accurate accounting of your business. Contact her at [email protected].
