debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Nov 30, 2018 15:31:35 GMT -5
Long story short (for those who do not post on WIR) my DH has asked me to do the bookkeeping for his new company. I did it in an old-fashioned ledger for Oct and Nov, because he couldn't decide on which software to use. DH finally decided on online Quickbooks. We plan to set that up this weekend, at which point I will put all the numbers in. I have been very nervous about this, because it is TOTALLY new for me. At the same time, on some level, using the ledger is simpler than I imagined. X comes in, Y goes out. I track DH's invoices, expenses, and bank statements.
I am absolutely NOT an accountant. DH already has an accountant. DH just wants me to track the company's income/expenses/bank charges. I am fine with mathematical operations. We have an appointment with the accountant next week to clarify what I need to do and make sure I'm on the right track, which is why I want to get Quickbooks set up this weekend. DH's accountant is also our family accountant, so we know each other, and he knows very well what I can or cannot do. He also knows that *I've* been the one meeting with him every year for the last 15 years for the household accounts LOL.
DH is paying me (going rate). This will allow me to give up 3 classes per year. This is HUGE for me. So I REALLY want to do a good job.
Any comments or advice? Is Quickbooks easy to use? Is it intuitive? Is there anything I should know?
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Nov 30, 2018 15:36:33 GMT -5
I have quickbooks online for the office.
It's idiotproof. I can use it.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Nov 30, 2018 15:39:51 GMT -5
OMG THANK YOU swamp ! You give me hope that I will be able to use it too LOL.
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bookkeeper
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Post by bookkeeper on Nov 30, 2018 15:49:35 GMT -5
Quicken and QuickBooks are both user friendly. I think many software manufacturers are going to annual subscriptions rather than the customer owning the program disk. The mechanics should work the same. You will like the report capabilities in Quick Books. Easy to spit out profit and loss reports, financial statements and invoicing.
Also easy to take a class to become proficient, either online or in person. Be sure to enter both customer and vendor addresses with the names as you go. Makes check writing, invoicing and mailing super easy once you have entered the information.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Nov 30, 2018 15:58:34 GMT -5
Thank you bookkeeper that's great info! I just relayed that to DH.
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Nov 30, 2018 16:09:36 GMT -5
I do have an accounting degree but it sounds like you are using it more like a checkbook for income and expenses. The accountant will figure out the taxes, etc. Is that correct? Invoicing is also easy.
If it is, either Quickbooks or Quicken is easy to learn. That are a lot of online tutorials and QB's help function does answer a lot.
The reports you can do will give you a lot of information.
You can do this!
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Bonny
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Post by Bonny on Nov 30, 2018 16:13:36 GMT -5
I've used Quicken for years. I like it but you do need to pay attention to the down-loads and the auto-fill for the categories for accuracy. If one vendor sells you stuff that needs to be in separate categories you will need to manually input/correct. As an example, say my vendor "Safeway" is usually categorized as groceries (in my personal account) it will normally down load and Quicken will automatically categorize it as groceries. But let's say I'm working on a rental house and I actually bought cleaning supplies at Safeway (which of course are tax deductible) then I need to manually input "supplies". You can also split categories, say if I bought a bunch of stuff at Costco but one was a TV for the cabin, I can break that out of the total. I really love, love the reports feature. Good luck in your "new" job!
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msventoux
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Post by msventoux on Nov 30, 2018 16:18:37 GMT -5
From an average users point of view, it’s user-friendly and easy to access. From my view as an accountant, it’s a miserable piece of crap. Not easy to quickly navigate around in, restricts access to certain features and is just unpleasant. All the accountants I’ve personally discussed it with agree. All of the clients I’ve discussed it with love it. You’ll probably love it. 😁
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Nov 30, 2018 16:28:27 GMT -5
TheOtherMe I AM keeping track of VAT too, although my job (per DH) is just to keep track of it, and not figure out what is owed. Thank you all! You have reassured me (and msventoux made me laugh too LOL).
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2018 16:41:08 GMT -5
While working I used both Quicken and Quickbooks to maintain my employer's personal and corporate accounts, including multiple payrolls in several states. We had more than 10 companies set up in Quickbooks with their separate bank accounts, etc. In Quicken I maintained and reconciled multiple bank and brokerage accounts. Both were used to generate reports for the accountant's use in personal and corporate tax filings.
I've used Quicken to manage our personal finances since 1993 or so and couldn't live without it. After Jan 1 I'll run all my tax prep reports and throw them in a folder to which I'll add 1099's etc as received. When the last document is received, the folder goes off to the accountant. Someone asked me why I do all that work and I told them that I have way more time than $$. Every year our accountant has clients who bring in bags and boxes of paper. He charges them $75 per hour to have his clerk sort it out and pull it together.
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bean29
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Post by bean29 on Nov 30, 2018 16:41:37 GMT -5
Yeah, I am an accountant. I use quick books only for my personal stuff. Our accounting firm tried to get us to use QuickBooks for business, but it really is not capable of doing what Sage Timberline does for us. But my "job" is way bigger that what you need QuickBooks for.
I also stuggle sometimes to get quickbooks to do some things I want it to do, that I expect it should do based on the program I use for work. They had me set up with the QuickBooks Accountant version to do what I wanted.
I actually use QuickBooks pull my expenses in from the Checking account. Add CC expenses and stuff that got run through our personal accounts, and run the GL to get my expenses to deduct.
I really have no need to run financials.
If your accountant has clients using quickbooks - he/she will probably help you set up your chart of accounts. I am not 100% sure you want to set it up without their direction. They will probably give you categories based on the tax deductibility of stuff. If you go ahead and set it up without discussing with them first, you might do more work than you need to. To that end though, I would take notes as to what the typical expenses for the business are.
Of course, if you have been meeting with him for years re: your taxes, you might already know how the expenses relate to your tax return.
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bean29
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Post by bean29 on Nov 30, 2018 16:45:15 GMT -5
While working I used both Quicken and Quickbooks to maintain my employer's personal and corporate accounts, including multiple payrolls in several states. We had more than 10 companies set up in Quickbooks with their separate bank accounts, etc. In Quicken I maintained and reconciled multiple bank and brokerage accounts. Both were used to generate reports for the accountant's use in personal and corporate tax filings. I've used Quicken to manage our personal finances since 1993 or so and couldn't live without it. After Jan 1 I'll run all my tax prep reports and throw them in a folder to which I'll add 1099's etc as received. When the last document is received, the folder goes off to the accountant. Someone asked me why I do all that work and I told them that I have way more time than $$. Every year our accountant has clients who bring in bags and boxes of paper. He charges them $75 per hour to have his clerk sort it out and pull it together. I do my own taxes, but years ago I took our tax return to a CPA for review. She charged me a pittance. She said she never got taxes as organized as I had them. I actually even did the tax return, then gave her all my backup. She said she could charge me so little b/c I had done most of the work.
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Nov 30, 2018 17:16:42 GMT -5
Quickbooks wasn't being used when I retired. By the time my friends started retiring from the IRS, they hated taxpayers who gave them a QBs printout. Uh, much more is needed to audit a tax return.
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Bonny
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Post by Bonny on Nov 30, 2018 17:20:44 GMT -5
While working I used both Quicken and Quickbooks to maintain my employer's personal and corporate accounts, including multiple payrolls in several states. We had more than 10 companies set up in Quickbooks with their separate bank accounts, etc. In Quicken I maintained and reconciled multiple bank and brokerage accounts. Both were used to generate reports for the accountant's use in personal and corporate tax filings. I've used Quicken to manage our personal finances since 1993 or so and couldn't live without it. After Jan 1 I'll run all my tax prep reports and throw them in a folder to which I'll add 1099's etc as received. When the last document is received, the folder goes off to the accountant. Someone asked me why I do all that work and I told them that I have way more time than $$. Every year our accountant has clients who bring in bags and boxes of paper. He charges them $75 per hour to have his clerk sort it out and pull it together. I do my own taxes, but years ago I took our tax return to a CPA for review. She charged me a pittance. She said she never got taxes as organized as I had them. I actually even did the tax return, then gave her all my backup. She said she could charge me so little b/c I had done most of the work. Lol, my account loves me too.
It's also been really helpful in our retirement years to run the Quicken reports to track our spending via quarterly and annual reports. And no way is DH getting his hands on this stuff. He has no patience to follow the guidelines!
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plugginaway22
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Post by plugginaway22 on Nov 30, 2018 17:22:26 GMT -5
I have used Quickbooks at the office for the past 12 years and yes I agree that it is very user friendly. Love all the reports you can set up as memorized transactions for routine entries of payroll, etc.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Dec 1, 2018 8:47:57 GMT -5
Well I'm off to a great start.
I didn't realize that I was plugging the numbers into "bank CARD" instead of "bank ACCOUNT". The hotline here is closed on weekends.
Would anyone be able to tell me how to move those transactions from "bank CARD" to "bank ACCOUNT"? I'm not sure this is going to work out.
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taz157
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Post by taz157 on Dec 1, 2018 9:36:36 GMT -5
How many transactions is it? It’s been a little since I’ve used it, but I don’t think you can change the account associated with it. If you’ve tried that and it didn’t work. You may be able to delete the incorrect transactions and renter them. I know incertain desktop versions, you can import an Excel file with the infoemation. I’m not sure if you can with the online version.
FWIW, we had many clients use the online version of QuickBooks when I worked in public accounting. I prefer the desktop version better as I’m much more familiar with it and liked the features better. But for those that would rather be able to access their financial info anywhere, the online version is much better.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Dec 1, 2018 10:19:09 GMT -5
It's a whole bunch, and I didn't find a way to delete them.
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taz157
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Post by taz157 on Dec 1, 2018 10:25:24 GMT -5
Bummer.
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taz157
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Post by taz157 on Dec 1, 2018 10:29:01 GMT -5
Unfortunately, I don't have access to QuickBooks Online anymore (I no longer work in public accounting) so I can't play around to see if there's something else I could recommend. I would recommend reaching out to your accountant to see if s/he has any ideas.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Dec 1, 2018 11:12:33 GMT -5
I spoke to the US helpline ... she said she couldn't do anything for me because I'm not in the US, so I have to wait till Mon to call the French number. Oh well.
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Dec 1, 2018 11:35:06 GMT -5
Have you tried Google? It's been too long since I used QB to feel like I can give you good advice.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Dec 1, 2018 13:02:55 GMT -5
That's exactly what I did TheOtherMe ! I found an online book and a youtube tutorial, and I fixed it! There is hope for me yet! PS swamp . Apparently not.
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Dec 1, 2018 14:12:10 GMT -5
I used to find online QB forums, too. I'm glad you found what you needed debthaven
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Bonny
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Post by Bonny on Dec 1, 2018 14:22:34 GMT -5
It's a whole bunch, and I didn't find a way to delete them. Are there two separate accounts, one for the bank account and another for the bank card?
If so, in Quicken you can simply do the cut and past (control <x> and control <v>.
Yes, I've made that mistake once or twice myself.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Dec 1, 2018 15:00:25 GMT -5
Not clear Bonny... I disabled the bank card info for now so I could redo the account info (because that was the lion's share of the entries). DH or I will call their helpline on Mon. At this point it's all done except for 2 months' of CC info. I have spent about 10 hours on this today. I've sorted out the bank account, but I can't manage to get the bank card back up. No tutorials on that, and trying to reverse what I did to hide it doesn't work. I am praying I won't have to start all over again. I set aside this weekend for this because I have 200 finals/reports coming in starting next week.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Dec 7, 2018 12:06:22 GMT -5
Update: They called today. I wasn't at home but I have an appt for Mon morning to do a screen share so they can try to undo what I did. I'm impressed.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Dec 7, 2018 21:10:27 GMT -5
Also, we met with DH's accountant today (BEFORE Quickbooks called, they actually called as DH and I were on our way home from seeing the accountant). The accountant said he's never used QB but he's been curious about it, so worst-case scenario, he will set up a new account for me, and then tell me what to do.
He was DH's old company's accountant for over 30 years, and ours for 15-20, so he knows what I can and cannot do. Obviously that would cost more, so DH was not thrilled, but hearing that was a HUGE relief to me. I'm hoping I can get it sorted with QB with the screenshare on Monday. But if not, at least there is another solution. The WORST worst-case scenario is that the accountant does EVERYTHING, but he told me he's sure that won't happen. I'm stubborn, I REALLY want to make this work, because it means I can give up 3 classes/year, and learn a new skill.
If we cancel our subscription (to start from scratch) apparently we CANNOT take out another one. But the accountant can, so hey. Worst-case scenario, that is what will happen. I told DH, it's still cheaper to pay G to set it up for me than to have him do everything. DH agreed.
Like I said, a great relief! Also, the accountant told us we have till the end of March to get it all straightened out, not the end of December like DH thought. That too was great news! I'm obviously NOT going to wait till the last minute (like I said, I have an appt w QB on Mon for a screenshare). But that takes the pressure off.
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Dec 8, 2018 11:23:11 GMT -5
I think the screen share with QB will work.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Dec 8, 2018 11:33:19 GMT -5
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