QuickBooks is one of the most popularly used accounting software packages by small, medium-sized, and large businesses in Nigeria. QuickBooks software is offered by Intuit Inc, a business software company founded in California. QuickBooks offers a wide range of features that simplifies the finances of your business, this goes from its user-friendly interface, cloud and mobile accessibility, payroll processing, tax compliance, etc.
What is QuickBooks ?
QuickBooks is a classic accounting software tool designed for small to mid-sized businesses. If you’re looking to switch from manual accounting to automated accounting, QuickBooks is the best accounting software solution for your business needs. QuickBooks will assist your business with bookkeeping, accounting, payroll, and other financial activities.
Types of QuickBooks
There are several types of bookkeeping versions of QuickBooks, few of these are QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Self-Employed, QuickBooks Online Advanced, QuickBooks Accountants, QuickBooks Mac, QuickBooks Enterprise, QuickBooks Commerce and QuickBooks Point of Sale (POS), but in this article, we will explore QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop.
QuickBooks Online:
QuickBooks Online is the cloud-based software version of QuickBooks that can be accessed online and remotely using web browsers. With QuickBooks Online, you can share specific access to your employees, bookkeepers and accountants. This version is also available as an app on mobile devices.QuickBooks Online has various benefits which includes; accessibility, automatic updates on the cloud, integration with other software, and scalability. QuickBooks Online is a monthly subscription-based software, while Desktop is a one-time subscription with annual upgrades. Currently, QuickBooks Online runs on four versions which are; Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced
QuickBooks Desktop:
Unlike QuickBooks Online that can be accessed remotely, QuickBooks Desktop is an on-premise accounting and bookkeeping software that needs to be installed on your computer. QuickBooks Desktop can be used by wholesalers, retailers, non-profit organizations, accountants and even professional service providers. This software is primarily designed for mid-sized to large businesses.QuickBooks Desktop is offered in three versions namely; QuickBooks Pro, Premier, and Enterprise. While QuickBooks Online is hosted on the cloud and QuickBooks Desktop hosted on the computer, it should be noted that the latter is highly customizable with advanced features.
Key Features of QuickBooks
- Invoicing: An invoice is simply a document generated by a seller to be sent to a buyer, which entails the transactions and the description of goods and services offered by the two parties. Invoicing as a module in QuickBooks has been simplified in numerous ways to assist your business so you can focus on other tasks such as growing your business.
With QuickBooks, you can issue automated invoices to your recurring customers. These invoices can also be customized with your brand logo and a personalized message. You can also track the status of the invoices you send to your customers, send them follow-up reminders and receive your payments instantly. All of these can be done from the dashboard of the invoicing module.
- Expense Tracking: Expense tracking refers to the recording and reporting of everything your business has spent money on. QuickBooks will optimize the expense tracking process for your business by allowing you to connect your bank accounts and debit/credit cards to your QuickBooks account. Doing this will ease the automatic import of transactions, reducing the need for manual entry.
Also, you can categorize each expense to its corresponding entry such as type, vendor, or project, this to ensure an organized and meaningful financial data of your business. Additionally, QuickBooks allows you to capture receipts of transactions using your smartphone and add it to your bank statements.
- Payroll Management: A core feature of QuickBooks is its easy-to-understand payroll interface. The payroll management system in QuickBooks can be automated to pay your employees weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. This system will also calculate and deduct tax, net pay rates and bonus for each employee with consideration to the local labor laws and regulations.
- Financial Reporting: With QuickBooks, you can analyze your business’ financial health by generating accurate reports. These reports can help you make informed decisions about your business. Financial reports that QuickBooks allows you to generate include; profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements, these can be customized for specific date ranges.
QuickBooks will also display the data from these reports in a graphical format, so you can get more insights into how your business has performed over a financial year.
- Inventory Management: If your business deals with physical products, then an effective inventory management system is a requirement for your business. QuickBooks offers a robust inventory management feature in its software that allows you to track your inventory in real-time. You can track inventory levels, sales, orders and deliveries, this to ensure accurate stock levels and reduce overstocking.
QuickBooks will also notify you when you're running low on a particular stock. You can categorize items with detailed information such as description, cost, pricing and quantity. QuickBooks also allows you to assign an SKU to each item. You can as well generate an inventory report on the best-selling products from your item's categorization.
How Does QuickBooks Help Your Business ?
Whether you have background knowledge in accounting or not, you can use QuickBooks for the daily financial activities of your business.
Below are some ways QuickBooks can help grow your business.
1. Simplified Accounting and Bookkeeping: QuickBooks is designed to simplify the financial management tasks of your business. Instead of juggling between multiple spreadsheets, QuickBooks will automate the tracking of income and expenses for your business. This will save you time to focus on other business tasks and activities.
2. Steady Cash Flow: The automated process of invoicing, billing, and payment reminders of QuickBooks will ensure that your business maintains a steady cash flow which will ultimately lead to your business generating more revenue to continue its solvency.
3. Accessibility of Your Financial Data: With the introduction of QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks’ mobile app, you can perform all of your accounting tasks on the go without worrying of forgetting a financial datum. This will enable you to update your financial data wherever you are to ensure accurate profit and loss statements at the end of the financial period.
4. Scalability: QuickBooks software have been designed to grow along with your business. While QuickBooks will help your business grow, it will also meet your business needs at any stage. QuickBooks allows you to use more advanced features of its software as your business grows.
5. Data Security: Your financial data is always secured with an end-to-end encryption with QuickBooks. QuickBooks offers multi-user access to the financial data of your business, you can also limit access to each approved user. With QuickBooks Online, your data is stored in the cloud, so you won't worry about losing any important financial information. Additionally, you can always perform a manual data backup with QuickBooks Desktop.
Conclusion
There are several accounting software packages in the business software industry, but QuickBooks has become a go-to accounting and bookkeeping software for small business owners with little or no accounting knowledge.
QuickBooks boasts of its user-friendly interface and robust features, which is why we are recommending QuickBooks for your small business. QuickBooks will do a lot for your business, even more than what we have discussed in this article.
If you are new to QuickBooks or would like to understand more about how QuickBooks could help grow your business, book a demo with us, and we will give you an insight into this software solutions.
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