Ask the Accountant… Question: I’ve heard about something called FinCEN. What is it? Answer: In 2021, Congress enacted the Corporate Transparency Act. As a result of this, beginning on Jan. 1, 2024, many companies in the U.S. are required to file a report with information about their beneficial owners (Beneficial Ownership Information). It is known…
Harriet Gatter
Ask the Accountant… Question: In QuickBooks Online, I have gotten used to the options on the left side of the screen that included things like Dashboard, Banking, Sales, and Expenses. Now an entirely different list of options is showing with things like "Get things done," "Business Overview," "Bookkeeping," and "Commerce." What happened? Answer: QBO offers…
Ask the Accountant… Question: My QB Premier is having problems. Can you suggest anything to try to fix this? Answer: The problem might be that you are missing an update. Go to Help > UPDATE QuickBooks Desktop > Update Now. This will download and install any updates you don’t yet have, provided your QB Premier…
Ask the Accountant… Question: I get frequent requests for names of accounting or legal professionals “who know our industry.” They are few and far between. I was recently introduced to an attorney who indeed “knows our industry,” and you might want to meet her. Answer: Amy Williams is an attorney who is also an ad…
Ask the Accountant… Question: Can I still purchase QB Premier? Answer: I recently received a copy of The Woodard Report, which addresses this very question. Intuit has announced that, as of July 31, 2024, no new subscriptions for QB Pro Plus or Premier Plus will be sold. This will not impact current subscribers of QB Pro Plus…
Ask the Accountant… Question: My QBO is doing odd, glitchy kind of things. Is there anything I can do for it? Answer: QuickBooks Online (QBO) can have issues. You can try the universal fix of shutting the program and your computer down and restarting it. When you reopen QBO, do so with the Chrome or…
Ask the Accountant… Question: I am looking at QuickBooks Online, but I don’t know which version to get. Can you help? Answer: QB Online (QBO) has four products: Simple Start, Essentials, QBO Plus, and Advanced. The products are listed in order of the number of features, with Simple Start having the least features and Advanced…
Ask the Accountant… Question: Do you have any experience with QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping? Answer: I have not personally worked with QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping, but I have had a couple of distributors come to me after trying to use this service. In one instance, a distributor had a QuickBooks file that he had not kept up…
Ask the Accountant… Question: I’ve seen an offer from QuickBooks to set up QuickBooks Online for free. Should I use that? Answer: QuickBooks wants as many businesses as possible to be in QB Online (QBO), and they are using many means to convince businesses to switch from QB Desktop or to start their business in…
Ask the Accountant… Question: Can I save changes to field widths that I have made to screens in QuickBooks Premier? Answer: Yes! Make the changes to the field widths on your screen. Leave the screen open, and go to: Edit > Preferences > Desktop View > Click “Save Current Desktop.” That should save your field…
Ask the Accountant… Question: How do I see a list of entries in QuickBooks? Answer: You didn’t say which QuickBooks you use, but these reports are available in both QB Desktop (Pro, Premier, and Enterprise) and QuickBooks Online (QBO). In QBO, go to "Reports" (on left side of screen), select the “Standard” Tab, scroll down…
Ask the Accountant… Question: If I use SAGE for my presentations and orders, why do I need QuickBooks? Answer: SAGE Online has a comprehensive system with search, presentation, CRM, project, and order management system capabilities, to name a few. They are not, nor do they want to be, an accounting system. You will not be…
Ask the Accountant… Question: I just got off the phone with QuickBooks/Intuit. They told me that QB has filled all the gaps between QBO and QuickBooks Desktop so the switch into QBO would be easy. Is that true? Answer: Be very careful when analyzing software. The standard answer from a salesperson with software is that…
Ask the Accountant… Question: I feel like each order is different with its own problems. Am I the only one? Answer: No, you are not alone. Every distributor I work with has a slightly different business with their own unique challenges. Since we custom decorate our orders, they can involve different and complex processes. The…
Ask the Accountant… Question: How can I see what the total amount of sales I have made to a customer last year? Answer: QuickBooks has a great deal of information available to you in report form if you just know where to look. In QB Premier, go to: "Reports" (at top) > "Sales" > "Sales…