Category: Bookkeeping

Every business wants to cut costs, but it isn’t easy. We’re talking about clear and substantial ways to lower expenses, thereby strengthening cash flow and giving you a better shot at strong profitability.

Obvious places to slash costs (such as wages, benefits and overhead) often aren’t viable options because the very stability of your operation may depend on them. But there might be other ways to lower expenses if you dig deeply enough. Here are three possibilities.

 

1. Study Your Suppliers

Many companies find that just a few suppliers account for the bulk of their spending. By identifying these vendors and consolidating spending with them, you may be able to put yourself in a stronger position to negotiate volume discounts. This may also help to streamline the purchasing process.

On a related note, how well do you know your suppliers? It might be a good idea to conduct a supplier audit. This involves collecting key data regarding a supplier’s performance to manage quality control and ensure you’re getting an acceptable return on investment.

 

2. Go Green

Operating an environmentally friendly company is generally a good idea, and it might save you money. Instead of purchasing brand-new computers and office equipment, you may find refurbished items at substantial savings that still fully meet your business’s needs. And when you no longer need certain equipment and office furniture, consider selling it to a liquidator or dealer. You’ll not only make some money, but also free up the space you’re using to store and maintain them.

In addition, if you own the property on which you operate, research energy-efficient upgrades to the HVAC and lighting systems. Naturally, there will be an initial cost outlay, but over the long term, you may lower your energy costs. You might also qualify for tax credits for installing certain items.

 

3. Explore Outsourcing and Tech Upgrades

Many business owners try to economize by doing everything in-house, from accounting to payroll to HR. But if the staffing and expertise just aren’t there, these companies often suffer losses because of mistakes, mismanagement and wasted time. Although you’ll incur costs when outsourcing, the time and labor it saves you could end up being a net gain.

Carefully chosen and implemented technology upgrades can serve a similar purpose. Many products on the market today are so robust and fully featured that upgrading to them may be almost comparable to outsourcing. The same may be true with a customer relationship management system that can help generate sales leads and allow you to focus on your most profitable existing customers. Again, there will be an initial cost that could eventually lower your cost of doing business.

 

Snip, Snip, Snip

Lowering expenses is difficult, but keeping an eye out for ways to do it is important, especially now that inflation is a major factor in the economic landscape. Please contact the office for help identifying and lowering your company’s most “cuttable” costs.

 

Most businesses store sensitive information about employees and customers, such as names, addresses, Social Security numbers (SSNs), banking information and more. If lost or stolen, this data could put individuals at risk for identity theft and other types of damage.

What should you do if this happens to your business? The IRS recommends these steps to take:

1. If a breach could pose harm to a person or business, notify local police and report the potential risk of identity theft.
2. If a breach includes names and SSNs or could affect other businesses, contact the major credit bureaus and notify the businesses.
3. If the breach puts individuals at risk, notify those individuals so they can take steps to mitigate the misuse of their data, including checking out the IRS Taxpayer Guide to Identity Theft.

For that Guide and more, click here: https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/has-your-business-become-the-victim-of-a-data-security-breach

Creating comprehensive, accurate customer profiles in QuickBooks Online takes time. So it’s tempting to enter just the minimum information required to process transactions. But there are numerous benefits to including every possible detail that QuickBooks Online allows, and making sure those details are correct. For example:

• You can do deeper, more insightful searches.
• Your reports can be filtered by more criteria, making them more focused.
• Your marketing efforts can be more targeted.
• Your communication with customers will be more informed.

 

Importing Customer Files

If you have customer files in CSV, Excel, or Google Sheets format, you should be able to import them directly into QuickBooks Online. Click Sales in the toolbar, then Customers. In the upper right corner, click the down arrow next to New customer and select Import customers.

You can look at a sample file before you import CSV or Excel files. Your file must contain a header title for each column in the top row. Customer Name is the only required field, so don’t worry if your database isn’t completely filled in.

After you’ve browsed for and selected your data file, click Next to open the “mapping” page, where you’ll match the fields in your own file to QuickBooks Online fields, as shown in the image below:

Click Next again to see your customer data in a table. If it looks OK, click Import to bring the file into QuickBooks Online.

You’ll connect directly to Google Sheets to import a customer file.

And you can import your email contacts from Outlook or Gmail after you’ve exported them from those applications as Excel or Google Sheets files.

 

Creating Customer Records Manually

If you don’t have an existing database of customers (or you don’t want to deal with the import process), you can enter the information manually using QuickBooks Online’s customer record templates. Return to Sales | Customers and click New customer in the upper right. A vertical panel slides out from the right side of the page containing labeled blank field for your customer data.

The only field that’s required to create and save a customer record is Customer display name. But you’re going to want to complete more fields. If you’re not sure about some things, or you get additional information later, you can always come back and edit the record. The icons in the upper right help you navigate quickly to other sections of the record.

Some of these fields are to be used for information that will appear automatically on invoices. If you specify, for example, what the customer’s default Primary payment method, Terms, and Sales form delivery options are, they will be automatically selected when you create a sales form, though you can change them on the fly.

You don’t have to complete every field. There are some, though, that must be filled out, such as:

• Tax rate,
• Tax exempt status, and
• Opening balance.

 

Viewing Your Completed Customer Records

Once you’ve completed and saved a record, it will show up in the Customers list, which appears as a table. The last column on this page, the Action column, provides links to all the actions you can take related to that customer, like Create sales receipt and Send reminder.

Click anywhere in the row to open the customer’s “homepage.” This contains the information you just entered plus related QuickBooks Online data that is displayed automatically. You click tabs to see lists of things like the customer’s Transactions, Statements and Customer Details. You can create new transactions from this page, too.

 

Designating Sub-Customers

You may have noticed a line at the bottom of the Name and contact section that reads Is a sub-customer. You’ll create sub-customer records if you want to “nest” a customer or job under a “parent” customer. If you’re a contractor, for example, you might want to set up different properties (like “Guest House”) as sub-customers and assign billable products and services to them. You can choose to have the billing go to the parent customer, of course, as pictured in the image below:

 

Answering Customers’ Questions

If you’re conscientious about creating comprehensive customer records, it will be easier to answer customers’ questions quickly. In fact, these pages will be helpful to you anytime you have to look up customer details. And as stated earlier, your search results and your reports will be more focused and insightful because of the filters you can apply.

Contact the office with questions about customer records or about any other elements of QuickBooks.