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Using QuickBooks®
Accounts Receivable QuickBooks Tips
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QuickBooks software training, support, and problem solving
Including strategies and information for a total small
business solution
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Click below for solutions to QuickBooks Accounts
Receivables .
Back to complete list of tips |
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How to record Customer Bounced Checks |
Most companies will eventually deal with the customer who bounces a check. To make your reconciliation an easier task, we
suggest the following procedure:
1. Leave the original "receive payment" transaction as is.
2. Record a new receivable for the amount the customer still owes to you:
From the customer menu select "enter statement charge".
Select the customer account. Enter the new transaction as follows:
Item- enter a new item "Bounced check" (set up the item as an other charge,
code the new item to the bank account "company checking account").
Enter the amount of the bounced check and in the memo enter the customers bounced check number.
3. Enter a second "statement charge" transaction on the customers account using a new item called "bounced check fee" for the
amount the bank will charge you for the bounced check bank fee. The new item will be an "other charge" and
coded to account "bank charges" or "other income" account.
4. Reduce your checking account for the amount the bank will charge for the bounced check. Use "write
checks" or enter directly into the bank account register. The payee name is up to you, but I use "bounced cust ck bank charge" (vendor).
code to account "bank service charges" and enter the customer name
5. Are you re-depositing the check? From the customer menu select
receive payments, choose the customer name, and apply to the amount
entered in step 2 above. In the memo field type "redeposit".
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Customers who are also vendors
Purchase and sell to the same company
(bartering) |
There are alternatives and preferences in reporting these transactions, but the
Internal Revenue Code requires reporting the sale. If this is what you are looking to
accomplish:
1. Set up a new bank account called Barter account in your chart of accounts.
2. Record your sale on an sales receipt, invoice, or statement
charge. Enter a "receive payment" transaction to remove the Invoice
or statement charge from the customer's account. Be sure to select
"deposit to: barter account" on the sales receipt or receive payment
transaction.
Enter a memo or description explaining the barter and the vendor name & invoice number.
3. Enter the vendor charge using enter bills or write checks. Enter in the memo "barter and your invoice
number which the adjustment is applicable to. If using an "enter bill, you will need to
use a pay bill transaction to remove from accounts payable. On the pay bill transaction, in the lower left of
the screen is the field to choose the bank account "barter account". If writing a check, change the bank
account to "barter account".
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QuickBooks
report of which payments paid which invoices |
A nifty little work around that will give you
the information you need.
Start with the Reports > Banking > Check Detail Report
Click on Modify >click on the Filter Tab >
click on the filter for transaction type and choose payment
Click on the filter for account - scroll up on the drop down and
choose all accounts
Click on the filter for detail level - select all except summary
If you only want to see one customer's payments
Click on the filter for name and select the customer name
Click on the display tab and choose your date range |
Dun & Bradstreet reports on your customers, FREE! |
Dun & Bradstreet wants to know if
your customers are paying timely and they are willing to
Barter with you. Participants get one free Business
Information Report (D&B's most popular risk management
product, retail value $119) each month they send data.
Monthly you can click to "send A/R data" when prompted
on the first of each month or by manually selecting the
“D&B Trade Exchange” option in the file menu. You can
review the outstanding A/R details before sending D&B
the monthly report to remove clients who show up as past
due because you have extended their terms. D&B
also offers participants free invoice stickers,
available physically and digitally. By leveraging the
D&B brand with free invoice stickers, participants can
let their customers know they "report to D&B to better
serve the credit community" and get their invoices paid
faster. Some companies use this as a competitive
advantage, taking the approach of "Do business with me
and pay on time, and you'll also boost your business
credit score." |
Associating an account with a vendor |
Would you like QuickBooks to recall what account/item you used the last time you booked a
transaction from that vendor or customer? To turn on this feature, from the edit menu select preferences,
from the left scroll bar click on the "general" icon. Put a checkmark next to "automatically
recall the last transaction for this name". Then click OK.
Next time you enter a transaction from a customer or vendor you use regularly, the screen with autofill for you
Modify what is necessary including the dollar amount of the transaction you may delete any lines that are
not applicable using Ctrl + Delete key.
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Do you need to enter a name for every customer that purchases from you? Class tracking may be an option
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Some businesses have customers who will buy only one time, or there may not be any receivables because
sales are paid by cash or credit card. Other businesses use another industry specific software to keep track of their
customer sales. In any of these cases, it is not necessary to enter each customer name
or customer number their
address to report the sale. Choose to have only one customer with a generic name such as "all sales"
or have a few customers and combine all like customers together for example. Set up a
customer name called "08829" which are all customers in High Bridge, NJ. Set up a customer name called
"8-11" for total sales between 8am & 11am. In this scenario, choose to set up several customers only
if the information will help you make better business decisions. By electing to enter every
customer into QuickBooks you will have the ability to print up mailing labels for future marketing efforts. Producing reports that will break sales down into zip codes or time of sale can also be accomplished by
using class tracking. Class tracking is commonly used to track expenses by sales, or to
accumulate sales and expenses by department. But you can use it for any purpose to track sales or expenses.
To turn on class tracking in QuickBooks under the edit menu, select preferences, then choose the accounting tab on the left.
Place a check next to class tracking. There are many different ways to collect important data about your sales and
expenses within QuickBooks, determining the best option, or group of options is what QBalance, LLC does best.
QBalance offers
QuickBooks help customizing the software to your needs. Whether you are located next
door or across the country (high speed internet access and a telephone is all that is needed);
for more information.
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E-mail forms to customers / vendors |
QuickBooks Online Billing (free) allows you to e-mail invoices and
statements directly from QuickBooks. If you have a QuickBooks Pro,
Premier, or Enterprise Solutions edition, you can also e-mail
estimates. Your forms are sent as PDF file attachments. You
can send an invoice, statement, or estimate at the time you create
it or mark it to be sent later in a batch with other forms. The
Online Billing feature is not available in the Healthcare
editions. The Deluxe Online Billing $14.95/month allows for
additional features:
- Receive notification when your customer
has viewed the e-mailed forms
- Send automatic payment reminders for
outstanding invoices
- Provide customers with an online Customer
Account Center for viewing their account information on the Web
To use the free service, in the activity
window (invoices,
statements,
estimates) click on the email icon
> click on send> click on send now.
For a screen shot view on how to set-up your free e-mail
service with QuickBooks Click here The first time you will
be taken to a page on QuickBooks website to register your e-mail
address. You will need to have your internet connected.
There is no option to e-mail a purchase order from QuickBooks
2003 but later versions do include this option. . See E-mail reports on our
Quickbooks Add
On webpage for other options.
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Undeposited Funds |
Problems reconciling undeposited funds?
1. Look in the Payments to deposit window, any transactions
appearing here will be part of your undeposited funds account. If
they have already been deposited, do a search on the $ amount to
see if the transaction is a duplicate. If you see that there is
only one payment and one deposit, you may have a damaged
transaction. Run a verify from the file menu to confirm. If the
transaction is damaged, delete the deposit transaction, then
re-enter the deposit (write down your your beginning bank
reconciliation balance before you delete, if it changes, you
should re-clear the re-entered bank deposit with your next
reconciliation )
2. From the chart of accounts, double click on undeposited
funds to open the register. At the lower left of this
window, click on the sort by drop down arrow and select sort by by
cleared status. Uncleared funds (those which have not yet been
matched to a deposit) will appear at the bottom of the
register. |
Write off Bad Debt |
From the receive payments window, select the
invoice to be written off, click on discount. From the discount
window enter the amount to be written off and select "bad debt
expense" as the account. This write-off method will not adjust the
liability included for sales tax on the invoice. Neither will it
reduce the sales reported on your sales by item reports. Therefore
a more comprehensive method is to use a credit memo. Plus you may
need to set up a new item called "bad debt write-off taxable " –
Item type = other charge, account = bad debt expense, tax code =
tax . To write off bad debt that did not include sales tax, set up
a second item called “bad debt write-off non taxable. First create
a
credit memo with the tax or non taxable bad debt item and save.
For versions 2005 and later, a POP-UP will ask you if you want to
link this to an invoice. For earlier versions, at the customer
payment window, highlight the invoice to offset with the credit
memo and click the Set Credits button
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Are you entitled to a bad debt deduction? If a customer does not
pay your invoice, that bad debt may or may not be deductible; it
depends on a number of factors. If your business sells goods, you
can typically deduct the cost of goods you sell but are not paid
for as a bad debt. However, before you can claim a bad debt
write-off, the IRS requires that you take reasonable steps to
collect payment. That can include giving the debtor written
warnings or going to a collection agency or small claims court.
Since a bad debt deduction can generally only be taken in the year
in which the debt becomes totally worthless, you should step up
your collection efforts (and document them) if you have some bad
debts you want to write off this year
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Whats wrong with my QuickBooks A/R? |
A good article on how to find and fix what is
wrong with the accounts receivable report
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Sync contacts with outlook
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Sync Customer, Vendor and Other names (cannot
sync Employee names) between Outlook and QuickBooks. You need a
free tool available at
http://www.quickbooks.com/contact_sync. You have the choice of
synchronizing in both directions or just one way. To start
the set-up go to the File menu > Utilities > Click Synchronize
Contacts. Before you can synchronize names with Outlook, you must
assign categories to the names listed under contact management.
QB Customer
QB Vendor
QB Other
QB Ignore (if you choose not to sync a name)
To begin Synchronizing
File menu > Utilities > Click Synchronize Contacts > Sync Now
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QuickBooks Support |
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