What Is a Billable Expense in Quickbooks?
When using Quickbooks to keep track of your business’s financial records, you may come across “billable expense.” Some business owners assume that billable expenses are any business-related expense, but this isn’t necessarily true. It’s a special type of expense, and recording it requires a different method. So, what is a billable expense, and how to find them using Quickbooks?
Overview of Billable Expenses
A billable expense is a product or service that you, as the business owner, purchases on behalf of a customer or client for the purpose of performing work. It’s called a “billable expense,” because it’s just that: an expense that you can bill. You initially incur the expense because you purchase it on behalf of the customer or client. Later, however, the customer should send you payment for the amount of the expense.
It’s important for business owners to use billable expenses if they purchase products or services on behalf of their customers or clients. Failure to bill customers or clients for the amount of the expense means that your business will end up paying more money, essentially giving the customer or client the purchased item for free. As a business owner, you must collect payment where payment is due, and that includes when purchasing products or services on behalf of your customers or clients — a process that’s easily checked using billable expenses.
How to Access Billable Expenses in Quickbooks
In Quickbooks, you can mark bills, expenses and even checks as billable. Once marked as billable, you’ll have the option of attaching the expense to an invoice. So, if you want to create a billable expense for a customer, simply create a bill or expense, mark it as billable, and attack it to invoice for the appropriate amount.
If you’re having trouble using billable expenses in Quickbooks, you should check to make sure this feature is turned on. This is done by logging in to your Quickbooks account and clicking “Account and Settings.” Next, click “Expenses,” followed by the pencil icon below “Bills and expenses.” You should see a small box labeled “Track billable expenses and items as income.” Click it so that it creates a check mark box, after which you can click “Save” to complete the process. Quickbooks will now allow you to create billable expenses for your customers or clients.
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How to Modify a Sales Receipt That’s Been Deposited in Quickbooks
Do you need to modify a sales receipt that you’ve already deposited into your bank account? In Quickbooks, you can’t edit or otherwise modify a sales receipt after depositing it. However, there’s a simple workaround that will allow you to make changes to it. This involves removing the sales receipt, followed by editing it, and then adding it back to your deposit. It may sound like a lot of work, but it’s actually relatively easy and painless. Here’s how to modify a sales receipt in Quickbooks that you’ve already deposited.
First and foremost, you’ll need to remove the sales receipt from the deposit. This is done by logging in to your Quickbooks account and clicking the gear icon at the top of the page, followed by “Chart of Accounts.” After locating the deposit account, click the “View register.” Next, locate the deposit with the sales receipt and click “Edit.” You can then click the check mark to remove the transaction from the deposit. Complete the process by clicking “Save,” followed by “Yes.”
After removing the sales receipt from the deposit, you’ll need to edit the payment. Go back to the home screen of your Quickbooks account and click the gear icon, followed by “Chart of Accounts” again. After locating the deposit account, click “View register.” Next, locate and open the deposit. You should see a “Received From” field, in which you can choose the customer whom paid you the money. Clicking the customer’s name will open the “Sales Receipt” window, and here you can modify the payment. When finished, click “Save” and “Yes” to complete the changes.
The final step is to replace the sales receipt in the deposit. Remember, the entire process of modifying a sales receipt that you’ve already deposited involves removing the sales receipt from the deposit, editing it, and then adding it back. With your sales receipt edited, it’s time to add it back. Go back to your “Chart of Accounts” and “View register,” and choose the deposit. From here, you can click “Edit” to add it back. When finished, click ‘Save and Yes,” after which the newly corrected deposit should now appear in your account. Keep in mind that you may see the letter “R” next to your deposit. If present, this indicates that it has been reconciled.
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What Is the Audit Log in Quickbooks?
If you use Quickbooks for your business’s accounting needs, you may come across the term “audit log” when using the software. While some business owners are familiar with this feature, others are not. And unless you know what exactly the audit log is, you won’t be able to take advantage of this Quickbooks feature. So, what is the audit log in Quickbooks, and how do you use it?
Overview of the Audit Log
The audit log is a Quickbooks feature that displays a list of all changes made to your Quickbooks account. Whenever you receive a payment from a customer, make a payment to a vendor, create a new document or perform any other change, Quickbooks creates a record of it in an audit log. You may never need to view your business’s audit log. But if a problem arises with your books, you can use this feature to see a list of all changes made to your account. As a result, the audit log is an invaluable accounting feature for business owners that can be used to find problems within a business’s financial records.
How to View the Audit Log in Quickbooks
You can view the audit log in just a few simple steps. If you use Quickbooks Online — the cloud-based version of Intuit’s accounting software — log in to your account and click the gear icon at the top of the page, followed by “Audit Log.” You can then click the drop-down menu to select the user, date and event. After choosing your desired settings for the audit log, click Apply. Quickbooks Online will then create a report containing all the changes that you or someone else made to your business’s financial records.
Audit log is also offered in the Quickbooks Desktop, but you’ll need to follow a different set of steps to access it. For Quickbooks Desktop, log in to your account and select Reports > Accountant and Taxes > Audit Trail. Quickbooks will then bring a new menu for the Audit Trail. From here, you can choose your desired settings to customize the report, followed by pressing “OK.” Quickbooks will create a report based on these settings, allowing you to see all changes made to your business’s financial records. Whether you use Quickbooks Online or Quickbooks Desktop, you can run an audit log in just a few easy steps as described here.
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Closing Your Accounting Records for the End of the Year in Quickbooks
With the year coming to a close, many business owners are scrambling to prepare their accounting records. January 1 marks the end of one tax period and the beginning of a new one. You’ll be required to pay tax on all your business’s profits, as well as any capital gains, for the previous year. If you use the Quickbooks accounting software, however, you can easily close your accounting records for the end of the year so that they don’t affect your records for the new year.
The easiest way to close your books in Quickbooks is to set a password-protected closing date. You can set the previous year as the date, meaning that neither you nor anyone else can modify the records for the previous year unless they log in using your specified password. Keep in mind that this feature is optional, and business owners aren’t required to set a password-protected closing date. Quickbooks Desktop makes automatic adjustments to records at the end of the year to prepare the business owner for the new period. But setting a password-protected closing date helps to preserve records from the previous year so that workers or accountants don’t accidentally make changes to them.
To set a password-protected closing date, log in to your Quickbooks Desktop account and access Edit > Preferences > Accounting. Next, click “Company Preferences,” followed by “Set Date/Password.” You can then choose your closing date — the date on which no more changes can be made without a password — as well as a password. After entering this information, click “OK” for “Set Closing Date and Password” and “OK” for “Preferences.”
In addition to setting a password-protected closing date, you may also want to review changes made to your business’s financial records in the previous year. Quickbooks has a built-in feature for this purpose. To view these changes, log in to your Quickbooks Desktop account and click Reports > Accountant & Taxes > Closing Data Exception Report. Choose your preferences and run the report, after which you’ll see a list of all changes made to your business’s records for the specific year or fiscal period.
Closing your books at the end of the year is important, as it preserves your business’s financial records. Assuming you use Quickbooks Desktop, you can easily close your books by setting a password-protected closing date. You can still technically modify your records from the previous year, but you’ll need to use a special password to do so.
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How to Run a Retained Earnings Report in Quickbooks
As most business owners already know, retained earnings are the profits invested back into a business. When a business generates profits, it may spend those profits on products, services or payroll to further grow and reach new customers. The money invested for this purpose is classified as retained earnings. While most business owners are familiar with the general concept of retained earnings, many don’t know how to view this financial metric in their books. Assuming you use Quickbooks, however, you can run a retained earnings report.
When viewing your business’s balance sheet in Quickbooks, you won’t see retained earnings. This is because retained earnings is considered a rollover from all your business’s past years of profit or loss. Therefore, the correct way to view your business’s retained earnings is to run a “Profit and Loss” report.
To run a “Profit and Loss” report in Quickbooks, log in to your Quickbooks account and click “Reports” from the menu on the left-hand side. In the “Go to” field, select “Profit and Loss,” followed by “Profit and Loss” report. You should see a new menu for the “Profit and Loss” report appear. Click the drop-down menu next to “Report period,” and select “All Dates.” Next, click “Run Report” so that Quickbooks will create a report for your business’s profits and losses. Once Quickbooks finishes with the report, choose “Net income” for the amount.
Assuming you followed these steps correctly, you’ll see a “Profit and Loss” report that includes all transactions that affected your business’s finances. Of course, this method shows your profits and losses from all previous years. You can run a “Profit and Loss” report by year by making a few changes. This is done by choosing “Reports” from the main main, followed by “Profit and Loss” in the “Go to” field. However, you’ll need to click “Customize” in the upper-right corner of the report menu, followed by “Rows/Columns.” Next, click the “Columns” drop-down menu and choose “Fiscal Years” or “Calendar Years.”
It’s a good idea to run a “Profit and Loss” report on a regular basis. Using this report, you’ll be able to see your business’s retained earnings, thereby giving you a better understanding of your business’s financial health. Without this information, you won’t be able to make educated decisions regarding your business’s finances and its future.
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What Is Progress Invoicing in Quickbooks?
When using Quickbooks to keep track of your business’s financial transactions, you’ll probably come across the term “Progress Invoicing.” This billing feature works like traditional invoices but with one major difference: Progress Invoicing is used to send many small invoices to a customer rather than a single invoice for 100% of the money owed. It’s called Progress Invoicing because it invoices the customer based on the progress of the work or job purchased. To learn more about Progress Invoicing and how to use this feature in Quickbooks, keep reading.
The purpose of Progress Invoicing is to bill customers incrementally rather than all at once. When a business sells a service to a customer, it may send the customer an invoice requesting payment. From landscapers and painters to advertising firms and doctors, countless businesses use invoices to bill their customers and collect payment for their services or goods sold. And while you can always use the traditional invoicing method of sending customers a single invoice, Progress Invoicing is a viable alternative that’s particularly useful for jobs that require a significant amount of time to complete.
Not all businesses need to use Progress Invoicing. While there’s no single right way to use it, Progress Invoicing is best used to bill customers for work that’s completely in incremental stages. A business-to-business (B2B) advertising company, for example, may use this feature to send its customers partial bills at different stages of their service. When one segment of the company’s advertising service has been completed, it may send the customer a partial invoice. And after the company completes the next segment of its service, it may send the customer a second partial invoice. There’s no limit to the number of partial invoices that you can send using Progress Invoicing. The most important thing, however, is that you invoice customers for the appropriate amount. In other words, don’t overbill your business’s customers by sending them too many partial invoices.
You can enable Progress Invoicing in Quickbooks Online by logging in to your account and clicking the gear icon at the top of the page. From here, click Account > Settings > Sales > Progress Invoicing. You’ll then need to click the pencil icon, followed by choosing “Create multiple partial invoices from a single estimate.” To complete the process, click “Save,” followed by “Done.” Quickbooks Online will now allow you to create an invoice using one of your saved estimates.
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What Are Projects in Quickbooks?
When using Quickbooks Online to record your business’s financial transactions, you may come across projects. Available exclusively in Quickbooks Online Plus — the premium version of Intuit’s cloud accounting solution — projects is designed to help organize your financial transactions and reports. Using it, you can curate all work-related information into a single portal, link invoices and expenses to their respective project, view open jobs to analyze costs, and much more. Projects is a versatile feature that’s sure to have a positive impact on your business’s bookkeeping efforts.
So, how do you use projects in Quickbooks? To take advantage of this feature, you’ll need to log in to your Quickbooks Online Plus account, followed by clicking the gear icon at the top of the page and choosing “Accounts and Settings.” Next, click “Advanced,” followed by “Turn on projects.” Sorry if you were expecting more, but that’s all it takes to enable projects in Quickbooks.
Of course, you won’t see this option if you’re using a different version of Quickbooks. Only Quickbooks Online Plus supports projects. All other versions of Intuit’s accounting software do not. You can upgrade your Quickbooks Online subscription to the Plus version by logging in to your account and clicking the gear icon, followed by “Account and Settings.” Next, choose “Billing and Subscription,” and then “upgrade.” From here, you can choose the version of Quickbooks that you’d like to upgrade to. After selecting “Plus,” double check the information to make sure it’s correct, followed by choosing “Done.” to complete the process. Once you’ve upgraded to Quickbooks Online Plus, you can go back into your account and proceed to enable to projects using the steps previously mentioned.
After enabling projects in your account, you should create your first project by logging in to Quickbooks and selecting “Projects” from the menu on the left-hand side. From here, choose “New project,” and then give your project a name. You’ll want to select a client for the project, and while optional, you can add a memo or note to the project. After completing this information, click “Save” to save your new project.
Keep in mind that you can add invoices to projects. This is done by choosing “Add to project,” followed by “Invoice.” Quickbooks also allows you to add transactions to projects. To add a transaction to a project, choose “Add to project,” followed by “Expense,” “Time,” “Bill” or “Purchase Order.”
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How to View History of All Transactions in Quickbooks
Want to view the history of all your business’s financial transactions? Assuming you use Quickbooks, you can pull a report of all your transactions. Known as an Audit Log report, it reveals every change that you’ve made to your Quickbooks account, including expenses, revenue and more. Running an Audit Log report on a regular basis is a great way to ensure that your business’s financial records are accurate and up to date. However, you’ll need to follow a few steps to run an Audit Log report in your Quickbooks account.
First, log in to your Quickbooks account, and then click the gear icon at the top of the page. From here, choose “Audit Log” under the “Tools” menu. This will automatically run a report containing all your transactions entered into Quickbooks. You can then save or email this report, according to your preference.
Of course, some business owners have many changes related to a single transaction. In this case, you’ll want to run an “Audit History” for the respective transaction to see a list of all changes that you’ve made to it. This is done by opening the transaction that you’d like to see the changes for, at which point you can click the “More” button at the bottom of the transaction page, followed by “Audit History.” Quickbooks will then open the “Audit Trail” for the transaction, including a breakdown for all changes associated with the transaction. You can expand the information contained in this report by clicking “Show All.” Alternatively, you can click “Compare” to compare the transaction with one or more other transactions.
It’s important to note that Quickbooks will display a maximum of 150 records in the “Audit Log.” For most businesses, 150 records is more than enough to cover any single transaction. But there are some businesses that process more than 150 records per transaction. If this sounds familiar, you’ll need to scroll to the bottom of the transaction and click “More.” This will prompt Quickbooks to display any additional records past the 150 mark.
According to Intuit, the “Audit Log” may contain a variety of information that’s created by Quickbooks. Support Representatives, for instance, denotes a change made by a Quickbooks consultant, whereas “System Administration” denotes a change that was automatically made by the Quickbooks software. Either way, you should be aware of these chances when running and analyzing an “Audit Log” for your business.
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What Is Bad Debt and How Do I Record It in Quickbooks?
It’s not uncommon for businesses to allow customers to pay after their product or service has been delivered. A landscaping company, for example, may send its customers an invoice requesting payment after their landscaping service has been finished. Unfortunately, though, customers don’t always pay. And when a customer fails to pay, it can hurt a business’s finances. As a business owner, it’s important that you understand bad debt and the process for recording it in your accounting software.
Bad Debt Explained
Bad debt is any debt that you are unable to collect from the respective customer or client. Debt becomes bad after you’ve exhausted all collection attempts to no avail. If you’ve contacted the customer a dozen or more times and haven’t been able to collect payment, it’s probably a good idea to write it off as a bad debt. Recording the unpaid invoice as bad debt helps to balance your business’s books so that it doesn’t appear as revenue when the customer never paid for it.
The Cash Basis Method
In Quickbooks, you can record bad debt using the cash basis method. According to Intuit, this is the correct way to record it if you file your business’s taxes on a cash basis. It eliminates the unpaid invoice as income, essentially lowering your taxable income and improving your business’s finances in the process.
To record bad debt using the cash basis method, you’ll need to void or delete the unpaid invoice. This is done by logging in to your Quickbooks account and choosing “Sales” or “Invoices” at the top of the menu, followed by “Customers.” From here, choose the name of the customer who didn’t pay his or her invoice. Next, click “Open Invoices” next to the drop-down menu for “Show.” You can then select a date range for “Date” to narrow down your selection of invoices. Once you’ve located the unpaid invoice, click it to select it. This will open the invoice, at which point you can choose “More,” followed by “Void.” Quickbooks will then ask you to confirm the voiding of the invoice.
While optional, many business owners prefer to add a memo to unpaid invoices recorded as bad debt. You can do this by going back into your Quickbooks account and opening the invoice, followed by adding a memo with the note “bad debt.”
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Sales Invoice or Receipt: Which Is Best for Quickbooks?
If you’re a business owner who uses Quickbooks, you might be wondering whether you should create a sales invoice or receipt. If your business sells a product or service — like virtually all businesses do — you’ll need to provide customers with either a sales receipt or invoice. Both are used as confirmations or verification of a purchase. And while they are similar in this regard, they each have their own unique purpose. As a business owner, you should familiarize yourself with the nuances between sales invoices and receipts so that you can create the right one in Quickbooks.
Consider the Customer’s Payment
To determine whether you need to create a sales invoice or receipt in Quickbooks, you’ll need to consider the customer’s payment. If the customer paid in full at the time of purchase, you’ll need to create and send him or her a sales invoice. A sales invoice differs from a receipt in the sense that it requires the customer to pay at a later date, whereas a receipt shows that the customer has already paid. You should only create a receipt for a customer if the customer has paid for his or her purchase in full. For all pending payments in which a customer can pay after he or she purchased a product or service, you should user an invoice instead.
How to Create a Sales Invoice in Quickbooks
To create a sales invoice in Quickbooks, log in to your account and click the (+) sign at the top of the page, followed by “Invoice.” You can then enter the relevant information associated with the customer’s purchase. From here, click the (+) sign and choose ” Receive Payment” to close the invoice and finish the process. Keep in mind that if you deposit a customer’s payment using the “Bank Deposit” screen, his or her payment won’t be associated with the invoice, thereby leaving the invoice marked as “unpaid.”
How to Create a Sales Receipt in Quickbooks
If a customer paid in full at the time of purchase, you should create a sales receipt in Quickbooks. This is done by logging in to Quickbooks and clicking the (+) sign at the top of the page. Next, choose “Sales Receipt,” after which you can enter all the relevant information associated with the customer’s purchase. According to Intuit, business owners should enter the payment information for a sales receipt at the time when they enter the sale.
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