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In a previous blog post, we discussed how to set up and use multi-user mode in Quickbooks. It’s a pretty simple process that should only take about 5 minutes (assuming you follow the instructions). Something that we talk about, however, was how to add users to a multi-user account. If you’re still struggling to add new users to your account, keep reading for a step-by-step walkthrough.

Note: only the administrator can add new users to the account. This is a security measure put in place to prevent unwanted users from gaining access. If every user on the account could add more users, it would create a serious security issue for large companies. Before you can add new users to your account, you must log in as the administrator.

How To Add a User

To add new users to your Quickbooks account, access the Company Menu and select ‘Set Up New Users and Passwords.’ You’ll now have several new options to choose from, one of which is ‘Set Up Users.’ Select this option and proceed to the next step.

Select ‘Add User’ and enter a name for the new user. Although it’s technically optional, it’s recommended that you also add a password to each new user during this step. Under the ‘Add User’ option, you’ll be given the chance to create both a name and password for the user.

Areas of Access

After entering the name and password of the new user, Quickbooks will then prompt you for access restrictions. There are two ways to go about this step: you can give the new user full access to the account, which includes everything from changing passwords to importing and exporting data, or you can give them restricted access to certain parts of the account. Choosing the latter of the two allows you to specify exactly which areas the new user can access.

There are a couple more steps left before the new user is successfully added to your account. If you choose to restrict certain areas of Quickbooks to the new user, you’ll need to specify them now. Quickbooks offers a fast and friendly way to select the appropriate areas of access, so go through and select the appropriate ones.

You’ll then be asked whether or not to allow the new user to edit and delete transactions (note: this is different from the restrictions previously mentioned). Select the desired option followed by ‘Finish.’

Multi-user mode is a feature which allows multiple users to access and perform tasks within the same Quickbooks account. If you own or manage a large business, you may find the need for multiple users to access Quickbooks. Thankfully, Intuit has addressed this need by incorporating this feature into their accounting software. To learn more about multi-user mode and how to set it up within your Quickbooks account, keep reading.

Note: some features, such as banking, aren’t available in multi-user mode. This is a security measure which prevents unwanted users from accessing the company’s bank account. With that said, you’ll likely find most Quickbooks features are available in multi-user mode with the exception of banking.

Set Multi-User Mode as Default

Typically, Quickbooks will open a company file in single-user mode. However, you can change the settings to open files in multi-user mode by default in just a couple simple steps. If you’re tired of manually switching over to multi-user mode each time you open a new company file, you should change the settings to open them in multi-user mode by default.

To set Quickbooks to open company files in multi-user mode, click on ‘File,’ followed by ‘Open or Restore a Company File.’  Select ‘Open a Company File’ and ‘Next.’ You should now see a list of all your current company files (assuming you have multiple). Select the file you wish to open in multi-user mode and click the checkbox next to ‘Open in Multi-User Mode.’ Congratulations, you’ve just set the company file to open in multi-user mode as default! If you wish to revert back to single-user mode as default, follow the same steps but instead choose ‘Single-User Mode.’

Open a Company File In Multi-User Mode

Opening a company file in multi-user mode is similar to the steps mentioned above. Start by accessing the file menu and select ‘Open or Restore a Company File.’ Select ‘Open a Company’ to proceed to the next step. Note: company files are .QBW format. You should then see an option for ‘Open in Multi-User Mode.’ Select this option and open the file.

Following the steps outlined here will allow you to turn on multi-user mode within your Quickbooks account. Just remember that multi-user mode only works with the specified company file. If you wish to enable this feature on several different company files, you must repeat the steps using the preferred .QBW file(s)..

One of the many useful features offered with Quickbooks is direct deposit. If you have an on-going professional relationship with a client and make routine payments to them, you can set up direct deposit to automatically send it on a specified date. This hands-off approach allows you to spend more time growing your business and less time worrying about things like payment dates.

However, you may find yourself in need of canceling a direct deposit check. Perhaps the vendor is no longer available, or maybe you switched to a new vendor. Regardless of the reason, we’ll walk you through the process on how to cancel a direct deposit check.

Canceling a Direct Deposit Before Deadline

As long as the direct deposit’s deadline date is a minimum of two day away, you can cancel the check without fear of money withdrawing from your account. Please note: 5 P.M Pacific time is when direct deposits officially go through, so it’s best to cancel them at least two days before this time. Doing so will ensure the check is canceled and the funds remain in your bank account.

Tip: create a company backup file before proceeding. Although errors are rare, there have been some reports of users losing data after performing a direct deposit cancellation. The few additional minutes it takes to create a backup file could prove to be a life-saver in the event of a system crash or failure.

To cancel a direct deposit, go into the employees menu and select ‘Edit/Void Paycheck.’ This will bring up a calender format with all of the respective payments made to the given employee or client (doesn’t necessarily have to be an employee). Select the date range and click on the check once you’ve located it.

After selecting the check, click on the button titled ‘Void’ to cancel it. Quickbooks will then prompt you with a verification dialog box, asking you if you really want to cancel the check. Assuming the answer is yes, click accept to finish the cancellation. The check won’t disappear from your Quickbooks account, but instead its value will drop to $0.00. You can still go back to view the check, add memos, etc. later if necessary.

If you wish to send the data to Intuit, go back into the ‘Employees’ menu and select ‘Send Payroll Data.’ Sorry if you were expecting more, but that’s all it takes to cancel a direct deposit check in Quickbooks!

Loan Manager is a versatile tool that helps businesses manage their loans. Among other things, it’s capable of distinguishing between a ‘normal’ loan payment and an extra payment that’s made to shorten the loan’s duration. Blindly making payments to your loans without knowing the compound interest, principle interest, and payment dates is a costly mistake that business owners should avoid. Whether you have a single loan or half a dozen, you should set up Quickbooks Loan Manager to help you keep track of them.

Step #1) Create Multiple Accounts

The first step in setting up Quickbooks Loan Manager is to create all of the necessary accounts. A typical loan registered in Loan Manager requires three separate accounts: one for the loan, one for the escrow, and another for the interest expense. If you haven’t done so already, log into your Quickbooks and create an account for each of these elements.

Note: the loan lender must be assigned as a vendor in order to properly tag your Loan Manager.

Step #2) Loan Account

Once you’ve created the three accounts listed above, you’ll need to access your chart of accounts to create a ‘loan account.’ From here, you must enter the initial amount for the loan (without interest) in the window labeled ‘New Account.’ Alternatively, you can enter the loan amount as a new journal entry. Entering it as a new account is faster and easier, but opting for a journal entry allows for greater flexibility. Regardless of which method you initially choose, you can always go back later to change it.

Step #3) Enter Payments

With the loan now added to your Quickbooks, you should go back and enter any payments you’ve made. If you’ve made two payments since the initial loan date, for instance, you’ll need to enter these into your Quickbooks account. Loan payments can either be entered as checks, bills or journal entries, all of which serve the same basic purpose.

Step #4) Interest Expense

You aren’t out of the woods just yet. Unless you have an interest-free loan (which is practically unheard of), you must include the interest expense in Quickbooks. As previously stated in the first step, loan interest should have its own separate account. If your loan uses an escrow account, you should have an account set up for this as well.

Step #5) Open Loan Manager

The fifth and final step is to open Quickbooks Loan Manager, which is found under the ‘Banking’ menu. Click the ‘Add loan’ button and enter in all of the details. Your loan should now be included in your Quickbooks account!

Can’t seem to decide between Quickbooks and Quicken for your business accounting needs? Both of these Intuit-owned products offer a versatile and effective business management solution for business owners. Whether you own a small, medium or large-size business, you can’t go wrong with either Quickbooks or Quicken.  However, there are some subtle nuances between the two that owners need to be aware of.  Taking the time to identify the needs of your business and pairing it with the right accounting software will save you time and money in the long run.

Transaction Detail

Quickbooks offers a greater amount of freedom when creating transaction details. Let’s face it, not all transactions are ‘normal,’ and if you need to remember something about a sale or transaction, you can include it in the memo field. Having a larger area for transaction detail means you can include specifics like person/organization, payment method, etc. This may seem like a small and relatively insignificant feature, but it’s a huge help when trying to perform audits in the future.

Inventory

Unfortunately, there’s no inventory method available in Quicken. If you run or manage a product-based business, you’ll need some form of management system to keep track of inventory; otherwise, you’ll have to do it manually (never a good idea!). The good news is that Quickbooks does in fact offer inventory management. All versions of Quickbooks come standard with inventory management, allowing retail stores and product-based business to automatically keep track of their inventory. Each time a product is sold, Quickbooks automatically deducts it from your account. This is helpful for the obvious reason of maintaining a steady inventory of products, but it goes one step further by notifying you when your supply is running low.

Payroll

We really can’t talk about the differences between Quickbooks and Quicken without mentioning payroll. Assuming you run a business with other employees and not a one-person S-Corp or LLC, you’ll need to a payroll system in place to pay your workers. Quickbooks makes the process of paying your employees a breeze thanks to its integrated payroll system. I hate to say it, but there’s no payroll system currently offered with Quicken, which is just one more reason why so many business owners prefer Quickbooks.

Simplicity

The one area where Quicken shines over Quickbooks. If you’re looking for a simple, out-of-the-box accounting solution for your business, Quicken might be the best choice. Quickbooks is slightly more technical and requires a greater amount of time to learn. However, learning Quickbooks will prove to be well worth it in the long run.

One of the many reasons why business owners should choose Quickbooks Online as their primary accounting/management platform is because it allows customers to make payments using a credit card. Whether you are subscribed to Simple Start, Essentials or Plus, all Quickbooks Online versions offer credit card payment processing. If you’re looking to branch out your professional operations by accepting credit card payments, keep reading to learn more about enabling this feature in Quickbooks Online.

There are a couple different methods for accepting credit card payments with Quickbooks Online, one of which is by swiping the client’s card using a USB reader. Some business owners assume these USB credit card readers are expensive and difficult to use, but thankfully this isn’t true. On the contrary, they are actually relatively inexpensive and will likely save you money in the long run. You can purchase a basic USB card reader online for about $20 bucks.

Of course, you’ll also need to set up a merchant account with each of the respective credit card services whom you wish to accept from clients. Assuming you take the route of using a USB reader, you’ll benefit from lower transaction fees. Just plug the card reader into your desktop computer or laptop’s USB port and ‘swipe’ the client’s card to accept their payment. See below for a more in-depth breakdown on the process of accepting credit card payments with a USB reader in Quickbooks.

When a customer is reader to make a purchase using a credit card, fire up your Quickbooks account and select ‘Sales Receipt’ from the ‘Customers’ tab. Go ahead and fill out all of the necessary information, including client, transaction amount, product, date, etc. When you are finished, click the ‘Payment’ drop-down box and choose the credit card they wish to pay with. Next, take the client’s credit card and swipe it into the USB reader. If the reader successfully accesses the card, it will reveal the information on your Quickbooks account. Click ‘Save’ to process the transaction and save it into your Quickbooks account.

You can also accept credit card payments through the invoice page of your Quickbooks account. From the ‘Customers’ tab, select ‘Invoice’ to fill out the appropriate information related to the transaction. Next, click the ‘Payment’ button and choose the appropriate credit card from the drop-down menu. Rather than using the USB reader, you’ll need to enter in the customer’s card number and info manually.

Are you still printing out each and ever client invoice and physically mailing them through the USPS? Not only is this time-consuming, but it’s also expensive considering the fact that stamps are now at an all-time high of $0.46 cents (expected to rise to $0.49 cents in January). A smarter, faster and more cost-effective approach is to send your client invoices through email. Whether your business is small, large or anywhere in between, opting to use email over snail mail is a better all-around choice that benefits your company in a number of ways. For a step-by-step walkthrough on how to send invoices to clients using email, keep reading.

There are several different ways to send email invoices to clients, one of which is to use the built-in email service. Note: this service is only available to users subscribed to at least one of the following services:

• Payroll
• Intuit Merchant Services
• Accountant’s Copy File Transfer
• Enterprise Full Service Plan
• Billing Solutions
• Quickbooks Pro
• Quickbooks Plus
• Quickbooks Premier

Assuming you are currently subscribed to at least one of the previously mentioned services, you can use Quickbooks built-in email service to send client invoices. This is one of the perks of subscribing to some of the various Quickbooks services.

To send a client an invoice through email, open up the invoice in your Quickbooks account and click the ‘Send’ tab from the drop-down menu, followed by ‘Email Invoice.’ I know this seems like common sense, but you would be surprised at how many users overlook this feature. You can then enter in the recipient’s email address before clicking the ‘Send’ button. Like most email services, Quickbooks allows users to send invoice emails to multiple addresses. If you with to send the same invoice to multiple addresses, separate them them with either a comma or semicolon.

Quickbooks automatically creates a default message to go along with the invoice. If you wish to customize this message before sending, now’s the time to do it. You can personalize the invoice message to anything you desire. It’s recommended that you go through the email to perform a spell/grammar check before sending. Assuming everything is accurate and correct, you can choose to either send the invoice immediately or schedule it for a later time.

So, how do you send an email invoice to a client if you aren’t subscribed to one of the services mentioned above? Thankfully, Quickbooks is fully integrated with Microsoft Outlook along with online email services. The process is pretty much the same, the only difference being how it’s sent.

Here’s a scenario for business owners to consider: your business has grown to the point where its current office/building is no longer suitable, so you move to a larger complex at a different address. Not that you’ve moved, however, all of your checks, invoices, tax documents, and other forms printed through Quickbooks display the wrong address. So, how do you fix this issue? Thankfully, Quickbooks makes the process of changing your company information quick and easy. In just a couple of minutes, you can update all of your financial forms with your new information; here’s how you do it:

Log into Quickbooks as either the administrator or a user with admin privileges. Next, go the company menu and select the option labeled ‘Company Information.’ This should bring up the current company information associated with your Quickbooks account, including name, phone number, street address, and email. If any of this information has changed (or all of it), you can update it now. Simply clear out the current company information listed in the box and replace it with your new information.

Note: if your company’s legal information is different from its standard information, you’ll need to enter it under the section labeled ‘Legal Information.’  Quickbooks automatically uses the company name, address and phone number from this section on tax documents such as 1099s, W-2s, W-3s, paystubs, etc. Most companies use the same legal information as their standard information, but some may have special setups. It’s important to check and make sure this information is correct; otherwise, your tax documents could end up being invalid.

Quickbooks also allows users its users to specify a different shipping address for their company. Under the ‘Company Information’ menu, look for a tab labeled ‘Ship To Address.’  If you want products to ship to a different address than your company’s physical headquarters, you’ll need to enter it under this field. It’s not uncommon for retail businesses to have their goods shipped to a distribution center or directly to their store, while their headquarters are located elsewhere.

There are several other options available in the ‘Company Information’ menu, including Social Security and Employer Identification Number. If a small business owner wants to transition from a sole proprietorship to an LLC or S-Corp, for instance, he or she will need to update their SSN or EIN with the appropriate information.

Time Tracking is a feature offered with Quickbooks Plus. Just as the name suggests, this feature is designed to keep track of clients’ time. Time Tracking is a feature that some businesses may use on a daily basis, while others may never use it. Business owners should analyze the goals, objectives and logistics of their professional operations to determine whether or not this feature is right for them. To learn more about Quickbooks Time Tracking, keep reading.

Does Your Company Charge Based On Time?

If you answered yes to this question, then Time Tracking will likely prove useful. It’s not uncommon for contractors, lawyers, psychologists and consultants to charger their clients based on time (note: those are just a few examples). Rather than calculating time spend with each client and manually entering in the appropriate cost, Time Tracking performs these operations automatically.

Quickbooks Time Tracker allows businesses to assign a time activity to a particular client (time spent with client), and then choose whether or not to bill them for the recorded rate. It’s an otherwise simple task that makes managing time-based expenses a breeze. Business owners are no longer forced to manually multiple the hours spent with each client by their given rate before adding it into their Quickbooks account.

Of course, Time Tracker automatically adds the appropriate time-based charges to the client’s invoice. Once the feature is set up and running, all you must do is assign a time activity to the respective client. Upon adding this information, Quickbooks calculates the cost and adds it to their invoice.

Time Tracking Allows You To Hide Your Rates

Here’s a scenario to consider: perhaps you don’t want to reveal your normal hourly cost to clients. This is an all-too-common scenario that thousands of business owners find themselves in. Thankfully, Time Tracking comes with an option to hide your rates to clients. You’ll still be able to see and adjust these rates each time you log into Quickbooks, but they’ll remain hidden to clients. This is a huge benefit for businesses that offer services at different prices based on client loyalty.

The Time Tracking window is simple and straight forward to use. It features a drop-down menu where business owners/accountants can select the employee responsible for performing the service, along with several other drop-down boxes for the client and service. In addition, there’s a calender to the right-hand side where the hours are added and a clickable box for the ‘billing’ option.