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QuickBooks 2013 Gives You A Reason To Upgrade

December 13, 2023 By sbagroup Leave a Comment

Tired of QuickBooks’ cramped, claustrophobic screens and uneven interface? You’ll be pleased to see the 2013 version.
You chose QuickBooks for a variety of reasons, a major one being its simplicity and usability.
But the software is more than 20 years old now, and hundreds of features have been added over the years. QuickBooks looks old, tired and in need of a makeover.
Not anymore. Intuit has totally redesigned the program’s interface and navigational tools, providing a more consistent, streamlined, state-of-the-art look and feel. For the first time in a few years, there’s a compelling reason to consider moving up.

Figure 1: The QuickBooks 2013 home page.
Clean, Efficient, Customizable
What Intuit heard from customers was that they wanted a clean, simple experience. They wanted QuickBooks optimized for efficiency, and they wanted to be able to customize quickly.

So Intuit built a brand new interface, one that offers:
• An across-the-board, consistent look and feel
• A minimal learning curve, aided by familiar software conventions
• A clearer, more obvious workflow.
QuickBooks’ 2013′s dramatic changes are evident from its first screen. The home page has been cleaned up, and many icons removed (with their functions available elsewhere). But the interactive flowchart graphic is still there, along with icons for other commonly-used features.
You can still use the software’s standard drop-down menus. But you now have a choice between the old horizontal Icon Toolbar and a new vertical navigational panel (or neither of the latter two). You can customize the new panel to give you quick access to the functions and reports you use most often, saving time and unnecessary clicking.

Figure 2: The new vertical navigational panel can be customized to display the icons you want.
Familiarity, and Clear Signals
Whether you just handle a subset of your company’s financial data or you’re the only one working with QuickBooks, your workflow will be faster and more intuitive.
QuickBooks 2013 uses colors and other visual cues to provide helpful hints and speed up your work. If the same option occurs within more than one screen, it’s always the identical color. When you’re completing an invoice, for example, the Save & New button is a bright blue color, as it is on many other screens. The Save & Close and OK icons are the same shade within the forms and records where they occur.
Color is also used to signify related actions in the new navigational Ribbon, a familiar interface convention that replaces the mismatched icons that used to be displayed at the top of transaction forms. In QuickBooks 2013, the icons for related tasks are the same color, and the graphics themselves are much cleaner and well-positioned.

Figure 3: QuickBooks 2013′s new navigational Ribbon is designed to accelerate workflow.
A Pleasure to Use
No area of QuickBooks remained untouched in this massive overhaul. Every screen has been modified to enhance readability and speed. Fonts look larger and clearer, and the overall design is more aesthetically pleasing.
So besides making your accounting chores zip along faster, the new look and navigation have a positive psychological effect: It’s simply more enjoyable and less frustrating to interact with QuickBooks 2013. Its more modern, attractive look has a lot of appeal.
There are a few new things under the hood in this new version – it’s not just an interface update. For example, customer and vendor records are more flexible and thorough. You can attach to-do’s to them, assign multiple contacts and store more contact options, like Facebook addresses and Twitter handles.

Figure 4: Contact records in QuickBooks 2013 are more readable and thorough.
Starting Fresh
There are other changes that will make your work life easier, like one-click access to both the Intuit App Center (where you’ll find hundreds of integrated QuickBooks add-ons) and your most often-accessed reports.
The last few versions of QuickBooks have been rather ho-hum in terms of new usability and functionality. But we encourage you to seriously consider upgrading to QuickBooks 2013. We’d be happy to help you get up and running with it. Together, we can take a fresh look at your workflow to see if you and QuickBooks can build a better accounting experience.

Filed Under: Basic Bookkeeping, Blog, Intuit QuickBooks, QuickBooks Premier, QuickBooks Software, Small Business Accounting Software, Small Business Bookkeeping, Upgrade Accounting Software

Six Quick Productivity Tricks So You Can Go Home Early

December 13, 2023 By sbagroup Leave a Comment

If you have an endless to-do list, you’re not alone these days. Most of us are constantly looking for ways to work smarter and get more done. Here are six quick tips to help your productivity so you can go home early.

1. Group tasks

If you have lots of errands to run during the week, why not set aside one day or a part of a day to get them knocked out all at once? It saves start/stop time and may also save gas and time getting dressed up (if you work at home).

You can also try grouping tasks such as personal care appointments, doctor’s appointments, sales calls, and client visits. Your schedule will be freed up in big blocks of time so you can focus on creative projects without having to constantly watch the clock.

2. Use checklists

Checklists are best when you have a task you need to repeat. They’re great when you’re stressed and don’t want to forget a step (such as in packing your suitcase for a trip). They’re also great for tasks that repeat infrequently (Now how did I do that last time?)

Stop and take a minute to create your checklist the next time you perform a routine task that you will repeat in the future. You’ll thank yourself the next time.
3. Organize your email

If you are using Microsoft Outlook for email, consider getting it to work as hard as you do. As your email comes in, you can have Outlook sort the low-priority emails that come from lists, Google alerts, social media notifications, and subscriptions into folders. Create a subfolder in your inbox called “lists.” Then set a Rule to have that type of email go into the “lists” folder. This one step will substantially de-clutter your inbox.

4. Delegate more

If you’re a little wary about delegating, try this exercise: Look at your to-do list and put an hourly rate next to each task that you are doing. If someone paid you to do that job, what would you get on the market? Then look at the tasks with the lowest dollar value next to them.

If you feel your time is worth more than the lowest rated tasks on your lists, it’s time to help someone else out who is unemployed so you can be freed up to use your more valuable skills.

5. Order online

When is the last time you’ve been to the office supply or pharmacy when you know they deliver? (Yeah, me, too. Enough said.)

6. Avoid long learning curves

Whenever you realize a task will have a really long learning curve, then it’s a red flag that it’s time to find someone to hire to do it for you. Here are several examples:

• Doing your taxes and researching all the tax law changes
• Installing a new accounting system and customizing it
• Learning about every new social media platform out there
• Writing a legal contract
• Creating a report
• Troubleshooting a computer problem

The cost of going through the learning curve can be dozens of hours of your precious time lost compared to bringing an expert on board who can perform that task in a matter of hours or minutes.

How did these six ideas compare to your favorites? I hope you picked up an idea or two so you can get home earlier.

Filed Under: Basic Bookkeeping, Blog, Group Tasks, Small Business Bookkeeping

Five Favorite Freebies You Can Steal

September 4, 2023 By sbagroup Leave a Comment

If you’re looking for ways to boost your productivity, technology is a great place to start. The good news is there are many free options available. Here are five favorites you might not know about.

1. Bridge lines.

If you need teleconference lines, you’re in luck: there are many high-quality options that are completely free. You can have several people, even hundreds, dial into a line and conduct a meeting or training session via the phone. You can record the session and download the recording as an MP3 file that can be played on an iPod.

Some of the more creative ways to use these free teleconferencing services include:

Staff meetings when someone is absent so they can listen later.
Free teleconference, providing tips to all your clients.
Free teleconference, allowing prospects to call in and sample what you offer or find out what you’re like to work with.
When you need to record anything. (You often need 2 people on the line to be able to record, but not always.)
To record a quick training session or how-to that can be distributed later.
To have a client record a testimonial you could put on your web site.
To record a meditation or therapeutic session you can listen to over and over again.
If you’re a coach or trainer, you can record the client training session and give the download as a service perk.

Our favorite: http://www.freeconferencecallhd.com.

2. FileZilla.

The FileZilla client version allows you to transfer large files between computers that are connected to the Internet using FTP (File Transfer Protocol). It’s handy for many reasons:

When you need to load large files such as videos or audios to your website
When you need to upload something to an artist, a transcriptionist, a warehouse, or other supplier
When you have documents such as white papers that you want people to have access to but don’t want to have to keep contacting your webmaster

Download the FileZilla client and find out more here: http://filezilla-project.org/

3. Gmail.

It’s just a great idea to have a backup email address in addition to the primary email address you use. Gmail is perfect for this.

Go one productivity-boosting step further, and make your gmail account the one you use for all that email you don’t need to read as frequently. This could include notifications from social media like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, blog notifications, list posts, Google alerts, and any other nonproductive email, you don’t need to respond to.

Open your Gmail account less often than your primary email (even once a week if you dare) and gain that productivity boost. You’ll have freed your inbox from a bunch of clutter and can focus on your clients’ and employees’ emails instead.

Visit this site to find out more: https://mail.google.com

4. WordPress.

WordPress is free blog software that you can install on your web site or blog site. Once installed, it’s super-easy to use for both blogging and a website. You can add photos, graphics, white papers, videos, and audios to the library to put on your blog or your site.

It’s also great for search engine optimization; the search engines love it and will rank you higher when you blog and post fresh content.

Visit http://wordpress.org/ to find out more.

5. Ning.

Ning is a community platform where people can come together and post a profile, participate in discussions, join a group, and interact. Not all business models will benefit from Ning, but many of you are involved in a club, church group, nonprofit organization, or community where Ning could be very helpful.

Ning is almost free, at $19.95 per year or $2.95 per month, but it’s such an amazing platform, I include it here. Whenever you’d like to have a private (or public) community of people who are joined by a common interest, Ning can provide that extra online community connection that can help you group interact and bond even more.

Find out more about Ning at http://www.ning.com.

What are your favorite freebies?

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Filed Under: Blog, Boost Productivity, FileZilla, GMail, Group Tasks, Small Business Bookkeeping, WordPress

Create an Easy, Head-Turning Elevator Speech

August 20, 2024 By sbagroup Leave a Comment

You’re sitting in a room with 30 other business entrepreneurs. Each of you has one minute to introduce themselves to the group. You are number 25 to speak. Will anyone listen? What can you do or say to catch your peers’ attention, be memorable, and have them approach you for business? Most importantly, what can you do to get every business card in the room wanting what you have (so you can go to fewer networking meetings and get back to running your business)?

The good news is you don’t have to be a poet, a writer, or a great speaker in order to attract attention and desire. All you need to do is put yourself in your potential customer’s shoes for a minute. What is it about your business, your products and services, and you that would interest a potential buyer? Why should they care? Why should they stop what they’re doing from their busy life and listen to you? It’s easier to answer than it sounds. Here’s a formula to help you along.

“I help “my ideal client” “get a certain result” through “my products or services.”

Let’s fill in these three blanks by using some examples:

• I help “young families” “find their first house” by “providing mortgage lending services.”

• I help “people with broken pipes” “keep their homes dry” through my “plumbing services.”

• I “protect families from financial disaster in times of crises” by providing “insurance services.”

• I help “women who want to have beautiful hair” “keep their hair healthy and vibrant” with “my all-natural, organic hair salon services.”

Now fill in the blanks for your business. You may have to try a couple of variations until you hit on the perfect one for you. But this formula beats saying “I’m a hairdresser,” “I’m a plumber,” or “I’m a mortgage lender.”

This is a great start to your elevator speech, but just a start. Now add a second sentence that describes a project you just completed with another client similar to the one you’re talking with.

“For example, I just closed on a home last week with a mom, dad, the cutest 4-year-old twins, and a yorkie. They got a great rate, and their payment is low enough so they can afford to start saving for the kids’ college right away.”

One more sentence and you’re done. This one’s your call to action. What do you want interested prospects to do, and how can they sample your product at a low risk to them?

“I have a free report, “10 Mistakes to Avoid When Buying Your First House.” If you’d like a copy, please hand me your business card and I will email you the details.”

“I offer a free risk analysis so you can see if you have any major risk exposures. To set up an appointment, hand me your business card, and I will get you setup free of charge.”

Put all three parts together and you have a very nice elevator speech.

“I help young families find their first house by providing mortgage lending services. For example, I just closed on a home last week with a mom, dad, the cutest 4-year-old twins, and a yorkie. They got a great rate, and their payment is low enough so they can afford to start saving for the kids’ college right away. I have a free report, 10 Mistakes to Avoid When Buying Your First House. If you’d like a copy, please hand me your business card and I will email you the details.”

Don’t be surprised at the flood of business cards that will come your way when you put this in action at your future networking meetings.

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Filed Under: Blog, Elevator Speech, Outsourcing Bookkeeping, Small Business Bookkeeping

QuickBooks Payroll Runs: Easy, Fast, Accurate

August 15, 2024 By sbagroup Leave a Comment

If you’ve already set up your QuickBooks employee and company payroll files, the hard part’s over.
It’s not just a catchy ad slogan: It’s true. Unless you have dozens of employees or numerous exceptions each payday, you can literally process a payroll run in just a few minutes using the employee compensation tools in QuickBooks.
No matter which version of desktop QuickBooks you’re using, payday chores are similar. Even if you’ve subscribed to Full Service Payroll and are having most of the work done by Intuit, you still have to enter the number and type of hours worked for each pay period.
If you’re doing payroll manually or through a payroll service, you might be surprised at how quickly and easily your payroll tasks can be completed once you’ve finished entering information about your company and its employees, taxes and deductions.
A Simple Process
When you get a reminder that it’s time to run payroll, go to Employees | Pay Employees and choose Scheduled Payroll to get to this window:

Figure 1: No matter how many payrolls you’ve run, it’s important to verify that these dates are correct.

When you click Start Scheduled Payroll, a new screen displays your employee list in a spreadsheet grid. By default, QuickBooks displays several columns, including Employee, Regular Pay and Sick Hourly; you can opt to include others, like Employee Number. If you hide columns that contain information, that data will still be used in paycheck calculation. Then:
• Verify that the information at the top of the screen is correct (Payroll Schedule, Bank Account, etc.).
• Make sure that all employees to be paid have check marks next to their names.
• Enter the number of hours worked for each hourly employee, placing them in the correct pay type column.
Select one and click Open Paycheck Detail to see a complete breakdown of compensation and withholding — all calculated automatically by QuickBooks based on your setup data — within the Preview Paycheck screen. Close the window when finished.

Figure 2: The Preview Paycheck screen shows the numbers behind the check amount.
Checking Your Work
If you’re satisfied that everything is correct, click Continue. In the next screen, you’ll verify Payroll Information again and check a box to indicate whether checks will be printed or handwritten (you can assign a starting check number to the latter). QuickBooks displays a grid containing each employee’s total gross pay, total taxes and deductions, net pay, employer taxes, contributions and total hours. The Direct Deposit field will be checked if the individual is signed up.
If you’re at all unsure that your payroll information is correct, you can click Finish Later. Otherwise, select Create Paychecks.
The Final Step
QuickBooks will then display your results:

Figure 3: Once you’ve previewed and approved a payroll, you can simply click to print any paper checks and pay stubs.
Check the box at the bottom of this window next to Do not advance the dates of this payroll schedule in the Payroll Center if you still have employees to process for this run. If the box isn’t checked, QuickBooks will change the dates in the Pay Employees window to reflect your next pay period.
When you select Print Paychecks or Print Pay Stubs, the selection window opens. You can toggle among views of Paychecks, Direct Deposit or Both. Select the ones you want to dispatch and click Print or E-Mail. You’ll have the option to reprint any checks if you need to; otherwise, click OK.

Figure 4: Click Preferences in the print selection window to customize paycheck vouchers and pay stubs.
No Room for Errors
Sounds simple, and it is – as long as your setup was error-free. As you well know, you can’t make mistakes running payroll or you’ll initiate a whole series of incorrect numbers, making employees, benefits providers and government agencies unhappy.
So do not proceed if something doesn’t look right; QuickBooks always gives you an out. And let us know how we can help with setup, taxes or payroll runs – or anything in between.

Filed Under: Basic Bookkeeping, Blog, Boost Productivity, Intuit Payroll, Intuit QuickBooks, Online Payroll Service, Outsourcing Bookkeeping, Outsourcing Payroll, Payroll Accounting, Payroll Processing, QuickBooks Reports, Small Business Bookkeeping

Recognizing a Job Well Done

August 8, 2024 By sbagroup Leave a Comment

When was the last time you praised your employees or contractors? Hopefully, you’ve developed the good habit of frequently praising your team members, and if you haven’t, you’re certainly not alone. Most of us do not get enough praise, so there’s a strong likelihood there’s room for improvement when it comes to recognition of a job well done in just about every workplace. Here are some tips to praise more and help your workers flourish.

A Bias for Negativity and Criticism

Our brains are designed by evolution to feel the emotions from negative interactions, including criticism and especially threats, in an exaggerated fashion when compared to feeling the emotions from positive interactions. When we spotted a saber-toothed tiger, the brain that noticed and overreacted to the tiger by running away was rewarded with surviving.

That evolutionary trait doesn’t translate very well in the work environment we are in. It takes a larger quantity of positive interactions versus negative interaction to just keep us at a neutral baseline of emotions. And studies show we perform better when we are happy and positive. So that’s why recognition is so important in a thriving workplace.

Dos and Don’ts

Here are some guidelines to help you deliver the most effective recognition in your workplace:

1. Be as specific as possible.

Praise a specific task or interaction when possible rather than generalizing.

2. Direct the praise to a task or effort without listing personality characteristics, especially when you’re giving negative feedback.

For example, saying “The report was creased and had ink blotches on it” is better than saying “You are sloppy.”

3. Be timely in your praise.

Don’t wait a whole year to unload praises and criticisms on an employee. Let them know where they stand on a frequent basis, and if possible, praise them right after they do something great.

4. If you need to give negative feedback, sandwich it.

The sandwich refers to feedback that is first positive, second negative, and last positive. It’s important not to end on a negative note. A sandwich would go like this:

“Jim, I appreciate how hard you worked on the Cole case. You put in a lot of hours and showed dedication. In the restructuring section, I would have liked to see you ask for help earlier in the project. It would have avoided the delay we have now. The section on asset disposition was terrific; you really know your stuff in that area.”

5. Always give feedback in private.

It’s important to honor a worker’s privacy when it comes to performance appraisals and even daily or weekly feedback. If your employee is in a cubicle or other non-private area, you may need to find a place that is more private before you give feedback.

6. Never send negative feedback via email.

It can be really hurtful and is not appropriate at any time. If a face-to-face meeting is not possible and it just has to be handled right away, then pick up the phone.

7. Use examples.

When giving positive or negative feedback, give several examples of what’s right and wrong so the employee will learn faster and understand better what is expected.

8. Be supportive.

You are on the same team; to grow the company. The relationship should be supportive and not adversarial.

9. Explain the impact of actions.

Help the employee understand the downstream ramifications of their actions.

10. Encourage future behavior.

Use phrases like “I’d love to see you do more of that.”

Praise your team more often, and when you do, try these tips to watch your employees shine even more.

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Filed Under: Basic Bookkeeping, Blog, Boost Productivity, Small Business Bookkeeping

5 Bottlenecks to Avoid that Stump Your Business Growth

July 13, 2024 By sbagroup Leave a Comment

As a business owner, you have likely acquired many skills and are wearing many hats in your business. Although admirable, your versatility can often lead to slower growth for your company. This happens when you become the bottleneck. Here are five places to check to make sure you haven’t become the bottleneck in your own business.

Managing everything.

It’s definitely good to keep tabs on everything that’s going on in your company, but once your company grows, you may find yourself inundated with information. Instead, try managing by exception.

You don’t really need to know everything that’s going on in your company; you really only need to know when things do not go smoothly, or when there are exceptions. Design a set of management reports that allow you to see these exceptions easily without having to wade through a bunch of information. This will save you time and help you focus where your expertise and skills are needed most.

Doing too much production.

Probably the most common small business mistake is working in your business instead of on your business. If you’re still generating billable work or working too much in production, it should be work that no one on your staff can do and work that requires a very high skill set. Otherwise, it should be delegated to staff. And if you don’t have staff, then they need to be hired.

Not doing enough marketing.

As a business owner, you are the key person that will be bringing in business, forging partnerships, and creating new opportunities for revenue. If you spend your limited time doing other things, marketing often goes undone. Not marketing enough can dry up the pipeline, cause cash flow problems, and get a company in trouble really fast.

Being the only one who knows how to do something.

When employees have to wait on you to show them how to do something, you can easily become the bottleneck in the process. As you train each employee, do it only once by writing procedures for the task as you train. That way, you never have to train anyone on that task again. The newly trained employee can show others, and you can be out of the loop, freed up for more important things.

Having to review and approve everything your employees do.

A great employee is one who is empowered to make as many decisions as possible without further layers of supervisions getting involved. Often, a decision can be “cookbooked” so that the decisions can be pushed down the lower layers of management. Take a look to see if any of the decisions that you are making can be documented and pushed down so that you don’t have to get involved. That way, your employees will have the right balance of authority in order to do their jobs.

How did you measure up on these five high-bottleneck areas? When you can clear up the bottlenecks in your business, your firm will be able to grow even faster.

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Filed Under: Blog, Boost Productivity, Business Balance Sheet, Group Tasks, Marketing, Modifying QuickBooks, Small Business Bookkeeping