Harriet Gatter

Question: My accountant says that I should switch to QuickBooks for my accounting system. She said that QuickBooks Pro should work just fine for my business. Is that what I should use? Answer: I agree with the "QuickBooks" half of her answer, but suggest "Premier" be the other half. Using QuickBooks, because it is the…

Question: I reconcile my bank account by hand. Do I need to do it in QuickBooks too? Answer: QuickBooks does have a reconcile function on all its products. It lists all the items that you posted as bank items, and then asks you to compare these to your actual bank statements. The QB Reconcile function…

Question: Is there a way to create both a customer acknowledgement and vendor purchase order at once in QuickBooks? I used to be able to do it in ProfitMaker, but in QuickBooks, I am having to enter information twice. Answer: Yes, there is, but you need the correct QuickBooks software and know what procedure to…

Question: What is the difference between cash and accrual accounting? Answer: Cash or accrual accounting refers to the timing of when income and expense events are officially recorded. Cash basis means income is included in your income statement when you actually receive payment from your customer. Similarly, the expenses are recorded the date you actually…

Question: Have you heard about OrderMaster? Answer: I’ve been asked this question quite a bit over the last few months by distributors whom I have helped convert from OrderMaster to a QuickBooks-based solution. With their help and a fair amount of detective work, I found the owner. I learned that OrderMaster is no longer being…

Question: I have QuickBooks Premier 2015. I want to upgrade to Windows 10. Will that work? Answer: I’m so glad you asked before upgrading. Technology is both a blessing and a curse, and making changes in one program can impact older programs negatively and cause them to stop working. That would be the case in…

Question: I have online stores. Do I need to collect sales tax on web sales? Answer: It used to be that you only had to collect sales tax in other states if you had some sort of presence or “nexus” in that state. Everything changed with the Supreme Court decision South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc.…

Question: I wanted to know if I could have an employee off site do some entering of invoices without having full access to the other financial parts of QuickBooks. Answer: When you set up users in QuickBooks Premier, you can set up certain restrictions that limit the access of each user. This is a helpful…

Question: Can I have SAGE Online integrate with QuickBooks Premier if my QuickBooks is in a cloud-based storage platform? Answer: The SAGE Online system integrates with QuickBooks well—saving time and effort; recreating orders, customers, vendors and items in QB without having to reenter the data. Unfortunately, at this writing, SAGE cannot integrate with QB when…

Question: Is there a good time to convert from one accounting system to another? Answer: Actually, you can convert at any time of the year, but there is a “best time” that makes things as fast and easy as possible. If your fiscal year is Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, the best time to convert…

Question: I am new to the business and to QuickBooks. Do I have to enter all of the data each time with each order? Answer: QuickBooks runs on lists. The major lists are Customer, Vendor and Item lists. There are a few others, too. True to all QB lists, once you create a list entry,…

Question: How do I know how many QuickBooks Users I need to start? Answer: My advice is less. I prefer to err on the side of saving money and minimizing the number of users until knowing exactly how many users are needed. And it’s wise to have as few people as possible inside your accounting…

Question: I am planning to grow my business. Should I just start out in QuickBooks Enterprise? Answer: “Big” is a relative concept. I have several ad specialty distributor clients who generate $3 million in annual sales, and QB Premier serves them perfectly well. QB Enterprise does have more features than Premier, but many are not…

Question: Can I enter credit card charges as journal entries in QuickBooks Premier? Answer: QuickBooks strongly discourages making journal entries, except in a few rare instances. You should not enter credit card charges as journal entries. QuickBooks has an icon on the homepage just for that. It’s in the lower righthand corner of the homepage…

Question: I have customers that pay me by credit card, but the credit card company takes out fees. I am receiving less than the total amount on the invoice. How do I handle that in QuickBooks Premier? Answer: I am seeing this situation more often, where the credit card company takes out the fees and…