Question: Do I need to make changes to my supplier’s PO to match the supplier invoice? Answer: Yes, and making this adjustment is a standard and absolute best practice in our industry. The supplier’s invoice almost always differs from the original purchase order, and it is the final invoice numbers that need to be correctly…
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Question: My accountant wants me to buy some business insurance. Is that something I should have? Answer: I, too, advise my clients to purchase business liability insurance. It can protect you and your assets in the event of a lawsuit. If you are a sole proprietor, your personal assets are at risk with a lawsuit.…
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Question: How do I record an apparel order with more than one supplier? Answer: We do have complicated orders in our business—none more so than apparel orders. In all orders, I recommend that you use your internal purchase order number to number all parts of the order in your system: customer sales order, supplier purchase…
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Question: When is the best time to buy QuickBooks Premier 2018? Answer: Premier 2018 was released in September 2017. So far, the reports are good. It works well, and bugs have been few. However, conventional QuickBooks wisdom is to wait until January to avoid as many of the inevitable early glitches, updates and fixes as…
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Question: Where should I look for QuickBooks software? Answer: My advice is to buy only from a proven source. The safest source is to buy directly from Intuit. But, there are many resellers that provide some attractive offers. I’ve heard a full range of reports from good to bad. Be careful in your selection of…
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Question: Can I print checks in QuickBooks? If so, do you have any tips for buying the checks? Answer: Yes, you can print checks in QuickBooks. When doing so, the transaction is recorded directly into your general ledger (into the account you designate). Also, when writing a check to pay a supplier purchase order, the…
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Question: In QuickBooks, do I set up my items as “non-inventory part” or “inventory part?” Answer: Most always, ad specialty transactions are of the “non-inventory part” variety. The items ordered are customized to our clients’ specifications—drop shipped directly to them, and we, the distributor, do not take physical possession. And in QuickBooks, these transactions are…
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Question: I need to change sales tax settings for a large number of my customers. Do I need to go into each customer to make the changes? Answer: No, fortunately! QuickBooks has a wonderful feature to save you time with that chore. Go to “Lists”>”Add/Edit Multiple List Entries”>”Select Customers” from the dropdown box at the…
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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 have a vendor who has become a customer. QuickBooks will not let me use the same name. What do I do? Answer: You can use a variation of the name, such as “ABC Company” for the customer and “ABC Company Inc.” for the vendor. Alternatively, you can do something as simple as adding…
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