Ask the Accountant… Question: What is equity in my business and how is that different from assets? Answer: In accounting, equity is assets minus liabilities. Equity is the portion of your business that is yours after debts or liabilities are considered. As an example, if you purchased a house for $300,000 and took a mortgage…
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Ask the Accountant… Question: Can I use the QuickBooks Online Plus Chart of Accounts that is included in the program? Answer: Yes, but it is a poor format for our industry. QuickBooks is a wonderful product and is the No. 1 accounting software for a small-to-medium-sized businesses. It is used by a wide range of…
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Ask the Accountant… Question: In QuickBooks Online, I have gotten used to the options on the left side of the screen that included things like Dashboard, Banking, Sales, and Expenses. Now an entirely different list of options is showing with things like “Get things done,” “Business Overview,” “Bookkeeping,” and “Commerce.” What happened? Answer: QBO offers…
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Ask the Accountant… Question: My QB Premier is having problems. Can you suggest anything to try to fix this? Answer: The problem might be that you are missing an update. Go to Help > UPDATE QuickBooks Desktop > Update Now. This will download and install any updates you don’t yet have, provided your QB Premier…
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Ask the Accountant… Question: I get frequent requests for names of accounting or legal professionals “who know our industry.” They are few and far between. I was recently introduced to an attorney who indeed “knows our industry,” and you might want to meet her. Answer: Amy Williams is an attorney who is also an ad…
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Ask the Accountant… Question: Can I still purchase QB Premier? Answer: I recently received a copy of The Woodard Report, which addresses this very question. Intuit has announced that, as of July 31, 2024, no new subscriptions for QB Pro Plus or Premier Plus will be sold. This will not impact current subscribers of QB Pro Plus…
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Ask the Accountant… Question: My QBO is doing odd, glitchy kind of things. Is there anything I can do for it? Answer: QuickBooks Online (QBO) can have issues. You can try the universal fix of shutting the program and your computer down and restarting it. When you reopen QBO, do so with the Chrome or…
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Ask the Accountant… Question: How do I see a list of entries in QuickBooks? Answer: You didn’t say which QuickBooks you use, but these reports are available in both QB Desktop (Pro, Premier, and Enterprise) and QuickBooks Online (QBO). In QBO, go to “Reports” (on left side of screen), select the “Standard” Tab, scroll down…
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Ask the Accountant… Question: I just got off the phone with QuickBooks/Intuit. They told me that QB has filled all the gaps between QBO and QuickBooks Desktop so the switch into QBO would be easy. Is that true? Answer: Be very careful when analyzing software. The standard answer from a salesperson with software is that…
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Ask the Accountant… Question: I feel like each order is different with its own problems. Am I the only one? Answer: No, you are not alone. Every distributor I work with has a slightly different business with their own unique challenges. Since we custom decorate our orders, they can involve different and complex processes. The…
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