Based on 20+ years of incoming requests for assistance from business owners, here are the top 7 reasons I’ve found that they call me as a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. See if any of these scenarios sound like what you may be facing in your company…
As a business owner, you learn through trial and error what makes your company run more smoothly and what needs to be tweaked. No matter what kind of product or service you provide, the key to success is knowing your business inside and out.
Luckily there are a number of valuable tools to help you manage your company’s profitability. Software programs such as QuickBooks have made accounting and reporting easier than ever before. Quickbooks is so beneficial that more than 29 million businesses have incorporated the software.
Yet even great tools can come with challenges. Sometimes the range of options and applications can overwhelm and stop a business owner in their tracks.
You may have found that just having QuickBooks software isn’t enough. You might just need some training to understand how to better use this asset.
1. You Are New to QuickBooks & Want Help From a QuickBooks ProAdvisor
You’ve started the ball rolling. You’ve kicked your shoebox of receipts to the curb and are eager to enjoy automated record reporting. Or maybe you’ve decided to bring your accounting in-house after years of using an outside service.
The switch to QuickBooks gives you a starting place, but a QuickBooks ProAdvisor can help you better navigate the initial stages.
A QuickBooks ProAdvisor can tailor your accounting system to fit your unique business needs. With training, you can sidestep mishaps that can sap your energy and your time and give you false readings about the health of your business.
2. You Want to Get More out of QuickBooks
Millions of people have software programs to make their daily lives easier but how many actually understand all the benefits they paid for? Just as using only the rudimentary elements of Microsoft Word or Excel, merely owning and installing QuickBooks won’t magically address all of your needs. For instance:
- You may not be a “natural” at accounting
- You want to understand the reasons behind your numbers
- You may need to find ways to save more time
- You discover that you could use a deeper view into your business results
When faced with challenges like these, you need to know more than the basics about your QuickBooks software.
Just like a trainer who can help you get more from a workout, a QuickBooks ProAdvisor can help you better tap into the accounting muscle at your fingertips.
3. You Need Job Cost Reporting
The truth is job costs, and profitability, go hand-in-hand. If you don’t have a program that reflects your company’s specific needs you may be missing the truth about job costs. The lack of those details can lead to lower profits.
Job costing should not be a last-minute attempt to justify why your profits at the end of the year were half of what you planned at the beginning of the year.
A QuickBooks professional can help set up job stage reporting for estimated and actual costs. They can also help you scale your reporting to track fixed-price, time & materials, and cost-plus job results accurately.
4. Your Numbers Aren’t Right and a QuickBooks ProAdvisor Can Help
Being able to see accurate numbers is essential to understanding where the leaks are happening in your business. For instance, what if you haven’t stayed current with reconciling bank accounts, credit cards, and loans?
If that’s the case you are likely seeing only a portion of the picture regarding how your company is operating – and what it’s truly worth.
A QuickBooks Pro Advisor can help you clarify numbers that may have become skewed due to a series of bookkeeping errors or a lack of understanding when it comes to reporting.
5. Your Reports Aren’t Current
Just staying ahead of the daily operational details can be daunting for a business owner. But if you don’t know exactly what’s happening as each job is underway, you won’t be able to make timely “course corrections”.
You may also be setting yourself up for a problem when it’s time to finalize your invoicing.
A QuickBooks ProAdvisor can train you, and your team, how to leverage QuickBooks to:
- Prepare weekly, bi-weekly and monthly reports
- Help supervisors stay current on their job reviews
- Keep your books clean and up-to-date. (And wouldn’t that be a great place to be?)
Staying current means that you know what your profitability picture looks like at any time of the year – not just at tax time.
6. You Have File Management Issues
Your QuickBooks software helps you collect, organize and report your data. Yet you may need to move to the next level when it comes to your QuickBooks file management. For instance:
- Do you want to add privacy and security limitations?
- Do you need to work from the office or the road?
- Is your file getting quite large and running more slowly?
A QuickBooks ProAdvisor can help you ease these kind of frustrations by providing fixes to current file management problems and by helping you avoid these issues down the road.
7. You Need to Get More Profits out of the Business
Is your company growing but profits are shrinking?
Many businesses owners struggle with the challenge of creating job profitability (gross profit) that will yield a satisfying bottom line. You need to have a clear view of how to come up with the right labor costs and profit margins for jobs while you also manage your company’s overhead, operating costs, and expansion.
A QuickBooks Pro Advisor can help you peel away the layers of data and change the way you see the numbers. Simple adjustments to how you view and manage your numbers can help you convert jobs that are potential losers into winners.
And every winner contributes to your bottom line!
In Closing…
The final, and best, reason to check with a QuickBooks ProAdvisor is that you don’t have to be an accounting whiz to figure out the QuickBooks bells and whistles. Your QuickBooks ProAdvisor can help you create the ideal program that fits your business to a T.
To learn more about how you can use Quickbooks to streamline and enhance your business, check out our online (self-study) QuickBooks Job-Cost & Management Accounting training classes.