Harriet Gatter

Ask the Accountant… Question: I have a credit from a supplier for a mistake in an order. How do I enter that in QuickBooks? Answer: To enter a credit from a supplier in QuickBooks Premier to be used at a later time, follow these instructions. Go to "Enter Bills" Click "Credit" at the top of…

Ask the Accountant… Question: If I do my taxes based on when I get paid for orders, does that mean I pay my sales taxes the same way? Answer: Not necessarily. The basis with which you calculate your income taxes does not have to be the same as your sales tax basis. There are two…

Ask the Accountant... Question: Can I run more than one company when I buy QuickBooks? Answer: Yes and yes, but.... Yes: QuickBooks Pro and Premier allow multiple company files for one flat fee, which makes these two versions of QB an even more cost-effective accounting software for those running multiple business entities. One word of…

Ask the accountant... Question: There is a paperclip icon in QuickBooks for attachments. Can I attach all the paperwork for an order there? Answer: There is an attachment function in QB for several screens including, but not limited to, sales orders, purchase orders, invoices, bills and customers. You can attach documents here, such as a…

Question: I want to switch to QuickBooks, but I don’t know which one to pick. I spoke to Intuit, and they say I should purchase QuickBooks Online, and it will do everything I need. Is that true? Answer: Our business is complex and unique and requires a software that can handle our complicated orders. While…

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…