Question: What do you know about buying groups? Answer: There are variations of buying groups in our industry—from a couple of distributors banding together loosely to companies that offer other services and approaches. To answer this question fully, I went to Jamie Coggeshall, president of AIMastermind (AIM), a group that purely is a buying group.…
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Question: I use QuickBooks Premier. I have orders where copy or instructions are frequently the same. When I create these sales orders, is there a way to get these words onto the order without retyping them every time? Answer: Yes. You can save and reuse words or phrases that you use often by creating a…
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Question: How should I set up items for blank goods in QuickBooks? Answer: “Blank goods,” or orders that are then screen printed or embroidered by other vendors, are one of the most complex of orders in our industry. I recommend setting up a blank wearable by its item number and description only—not including color or…
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Question: Last year, I called QuickBooks to ask which program I should buy. They told me QuickBooks Online, and switched me from QuickBooks Premier to Online, but it doesn’t do what I need it to do. Can I convert back to QuickBooks Premier? Answer: Yes, but it’s not easy. Intuit sells QuickBooks Online as a…
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Question: Is there an easy way to keep art files so I can find them later? Answer: While this technically is not an accounting question, cataloging your art files is important for keeping your order management organized. During my distributor days, I kept a folder in my documents called “Art.” I would keep all my…
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Question: How can I set up QuickBooks to control what information users have access to? Answer: QuickBooks allows you to set up users and passwords under the “company” tab. When setting up a user, you can specify which information you want that particular user to see or not see, and edit or not edit. You…
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Answer: The safe and easy answer is “nothing.” Some states prohibit surcharges for credit card use, period. Some states permit it but with some complicated qualifiers, like no surcharge on debit cards, surcharge limited to what you actually paid and other such language buried in your merchant service agreement. The regulations are too many, making…
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