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Online Bookkeeping Solutions Blog

The Online Bookkeeping Solutions Blog is an timely collection of interesting and helpful information for those companies who want to outsource their bookkeeping solution and utilize bookkeeping services by subscription. Outsource your bookkeeping to a cloud based solution backed by experienced CPA's.

Accounting Solutions – Is It Time For The Cloud?

Ray Kirschner - Thursday, December 8, 2011

I recently attended a conference that dealt exclusively with electronic accounting solutions and the future vision of bookkeeping processes. Intuit, Sage, and the AICPA sent representatives to the conference. Each had a unique approach regarding the implementation of cloud-based accounting solutions.

By far taking the most aggressive approach, Intuit is already promoting the cloud computing side of their business in deference to desktop solutions. This is based on their belief that most businesses will be in the cloud within the next five years.

Sage and the AICPA are not being quite as aggressive in their approach towards migrating to the cloud. While the cloud is certainly in their future, Sage is still maintaining their desktop software and working towards a softer transition, believing that businesses cannot just “flip a switch” and be in the cloud. The monthly costs of cloud computing are certainly better than investing in more servers and data storage. However, Sage is taking the stance that asset costs already expended cannot be overlooked. As time goes by, rather than replacing hardware and software, Sage plans on transitioning users to the cloud.

The AICPA’s small business division, CPA2Biz, summed up their vision of the future by showing the many ways social media and the advent of lighter and faster netbooks can be used, along with dashboards prepared by accounting and bookkeeping professionals. CPA2Biz believes this will keep business owners highly in touch with their business, even when they’re not in the office.

As this issue is in a state of flux, I advise consulting your professional to review cost benefits and detriments as they pertain to your business.  As to the speed and accuracy of getting relevant data, I say: BRING ON THE CLOUD!
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Salesforce for QuickBooks 2012

Ray Kirschner - Wednesday, October 19, 2011

It’s hard work to maintain customer relationships, but it can become much easier with Salesforce for Quickbooks 2012. The capabilities of this new feature can drastically improve the way client relationships are developed, managed, and grown.

One of several new QuickBooks 2012 features, Salesforce for QuickBooks allows you to share financial data with your sales reps by providing them with up-to-date accounting information in the cloud for any customer they are working with. This streamlined flow of financial information means your sales reps have a more holistic picture of your customers, and can therefore provide better client service. And, better client service results in happier customers, which results in more business for you!

In addition to being able to view financial information, sales reps can also use Salesforce for Quickbooks to see any customer’s transaction history and patterns of behavior, allowing them to analyze what information is relevant to the customer. This empowers your sales reps to find more opportunities to offer up relevant services and products to your clients. By allowing sales reps to see the gaps within a client’s history, they are able to pitch better targeted solutions that result in your business closing more sales.

Salesforce for Quickbooks automatically creates a transaction in QuickBooks when a deal is closed in Salesforce. This benefit prevents users from having to enter data into two separate systems. This speeds order processing and reduces double data entry. This ultimately leads to increased efficiency and thus lower overhead costs for your business.
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3 QuickBooks Accounting Mobile Apps

Ray Kirschner - Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Mobile apps are extremely popular today. Some are geared at pure entertainment, but many are geared at supporting simple task we do everyday. Intuit has developed several apps that do just that for Quickbooks. They work seamlessly with your QuickBooks accounting software to help facilitate financial transactions from a wide-range of touch points between you, your employees, your customers & vendors, and your financial institutions. Plus, each mobile feature offers the data security that the Intuit name is known for. Below is an overview of three of Intuit’s QuickBooks accounting apps.

ViewMyPaycheck for Mobile

ViewMyPaycheck for Mobile gives all of your employees instant access to their paystub information from their mobile phones. You no longer need to print paystubs for employees, saving you time and paper. You also don’t need to mail or email paystubs to your employees. Plus, this takes the burden off you, should your employee lose or ruin his/her physical paystub.

To sign in to ViewMyPaycheck for Mobile, an employee needs to open a web browser on his/her mobile phone, and go to https://m.vmp.intuit.com/, and sign in using the same user ID and password he/she would use to sign in to the ViewMyPaycheck web application on an actual computer.

ViewMyPaycheck for Mobile is available on any mobile device with a web browser.

GoPayment



With the GoPayment app, you can accept credit card payments on your mobile phone in just seconds. The app comes with a free credit card reader so you can swipe credit cards right on your mobile phone and get paid anytime, anywhere. Integrated with QuickBooks, this app eliminates the need to track and process credit card transactions, issue invoices, and make deposit runs to the bank. Payment information is encrypted securely, and not stored to your phone.

The app accepts Visa, Mastercard, Discover Card, and American Express. For more information and to view compatible devices, click HERE.

Quickbooks Mobile



The QuickBooks Mobile app gives you on-the-go access to all of your customer information and work history. You can manage both customers and sales from your mobile phone. The app lets you add, view, and edit customer information. It also allows you to create and view estimates, sales receipts, and invoices. Information added to QuickBooks Mobile is automatically synced with QuickBooks.

Currently, QuickBooks Mobile is available on iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch) and Android devices. It is not available to users of the recently released QuickBooks for Macs 2012.
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QuickBooks 2012 Calendar: A Better View

Ray Kirschner - Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Earlier in this blog, I discussed the importance of using a financial dashboard to help manage your day and to get a clear picture of your business’s overall health. The new calendar feature on QuickBooks 2012 offers the benefits of a financial dashboard by providing you an overview of your day’s to-do’s, while giving you access to the status of your current financial data – all in one place.

The default view of the QuickBooks 2012 calendar, available in Pro, Premier and Enterprise, has three sections:

1) The actual calendar gives you access to an automated view of your day’s to-do’s, appointments, and invoice and billing deadlines. This provides you with stronger, faster insights to help propel your business forward.  You can access the calendar from the Icon bar or from the Company menu. You can change the calendar view to weekly, daily or monthly by clicking on the calendar view.

2) The Transaction Detail Pane, located below the calendar, provides a summary of all transactions entered on a specified date. Transactions for that date are listed by transaction type. You are also able to see the amount, number, due date, and other specific information associated with each transaction. You can select the date and filter the calendar to show specific types of transactions by choosing the Transaction Type from the Show drop down list.

3) The Past Due Pane, located on the right side of the calendar, shows your past due transactions as of today, plus your to-do’s for that day. You can use the QuickBooks 2012 Calendar to add To Do activities in QuickBooks using the Add to Do icon.

The benefits of the new calendar feature in Quickbooks 2012 are multiple. Not only will it help manage your schedule on both a daily and weekly basis, but also it will help you more clearly identify know any overdue payments you need to track down, as well as keep you up-to-date on all your business’s pending transactions. Hopefully the QuickBooks 2012 new calendar feature will help you save time, be more organized, and revert focus from accounting details to overall business growth decisions.
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Quickbooks 2012 For Mac – New Features

Ray Kirschner - Wednesday, September 14, 2011

If your small business runs on Macs, you’ll save time managing your finances with  QuickBooks 2012 for Mac. This new version, compatible with Lion, contains a new interface that integrates the elegance and simplicity of the Mac with the powerful features of QuickBooks. QuickBooks for Mac 2012 also has more than 50 new features that simplify multi-step tasks and give you faster access to your financial data. Here are some highlights of the new features that will undoubtedly improve accounting processes for small business Mac users:

Redesigned Forms
A newly designed interface for estimates, invoices, and other data forms gives QuickBooks 2012 users up-to-date customer information all in one place.Furthermore, a number of new buttons provide easy access to features to print, print-preview, and email the particular form you’re viewing. Two new sidebars display 1) a list of your invoices or estimates and 2) the account information for the customer’s invoice or estimate being viewed in the main window.

Improved Search
QuickBooks 2012 contain fine-tuned search features that allow you to use keywords to locate transactions, customer or vendor contracts, and other financial data. Also, once a query has been created, you can apply filters to further refine the search or to save searches for future use.

Progress Invoicing
Progress invoicing in QuickBooks 2012 eliminates the need to use third-party applications for tracking partial invoices. Now, you can easily create multiple invoices from one estimate to bill for a project over time. You can bill for the percentage of the work that’s completed by choosing only those items you want to invoice for.

Simplified Banking
With QuickBooks 2012, you can now import multiple transactions from bank and credit card accounts to QuickBooks in bulk. QuickBooks 2012 can figure out where and with what institution the transaction took place and then automatically categorize the transaction in a logical way. With very little interaction from the user, this is bound to be a huge time saver.

Says Dan Wernikoff, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intuit’s Financial Management Solutions division: “As more and more small businesses adopt Macs, we see increased adoption of QuickBooks for Mac. In response, we’ve recommitted ourselves to making the product even better.”

QuickBooks for Mac 2012 requires Mac OS X v10.6.7 or v10.7 and will be available for purchase on September 26 directly from Intuit. It will also be available at the Apple Store and other retailers on October 9.
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What’s IN With Outsourcing – How This Trend Can Help Your Business

Ray Kirschner - Monday, November 1, 2010

If you want your business to reach its full potential for success, then outsourcing some of its components may be critical. Outsourcing is the practice of using outside firms to handle work traditionally performed within the company. As we emerge from the recession, entire industries are popping up as outsourcing experts, including human resources, payroll processing, accounting, marketing, distribution, IT– and more.

Many businesses lack a thorough understanding of the true benefits outsourcing can offer them. However, when implemented strategically, outsourcing offers many benefits that, when sustained over time, prove to be beneficial for the longterm growth and health of the business. Some of these benefits are as follows:

Cut costs. When you outsource, you save money and reduce overhead costs. Further, outsourcing converts fixed costs into variable costs, releases capital for investment elsewhere in your business, and helps control operating costs.

Increase efficiency. No matter how extensive one?s strengths are as an entrepreneur, no one is an expert at every area involved in running a business. By outsourcing such tasks as HR, research & development, marketing, payroll, etc., you allow experts in those areas to manage those functions, thereby streamlining operations and reducing time spent inefficiently.

Reduce labor costs. Outsourcing lets you focus your human resources where you need them most. It also allows you to save on costs associated with employees, such as benefits, office space, etc.

Focus on your core business. Every business has limited resources and time. By outsourcing functions that are not within your area of expertise, you gain time to focus on client-facing work and other tasks that will grow your business and profit margin.

Gain Competitive Edge. Small to mid-sized businesses simply lack the resources and capital to be on a level playing field with the in-house support services that larger companies can afford. By outsourcing, small firms can act “big” by having access to the same expertise that larger companies can afford.

Reduce risk. Every business involves some risk. Markets, government regulations, financial conditions, and technologies can change very quickly. Outsourcing providers not only assume this risk for you, but also are generally much better at risk management in their areas of expertise.

For companies who choose to outsource products and services, they must choose carefully among the many providers out there. One that has been in the business for a good number of years can definitely set itself apart from the competition. The outsourcing provider?s certifications and memberships should be confirmed as well before making any final decisions.

Have you outsourced any components of your business? If so, what has your experience been like? Do you have any advice to offer to someone new to outsourcing?
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