Simplify Your File Search

Instead of a question today, I'm going to pass along a tip from a client.

I’m always interested in new ideas to simplify the accounting, bookkeeping and order management systems for ad specialty distributors. And recently, my client, Bruce Cunningham of Great Ideas in Santa Fe, N.M., shared an idea that reduces paper usage and makes finding documents fast and easy.

Bruce introduced me to a tool called "Search Everything" to help keep his orders straight and at his fingertips. It is a free download from www.voidtools.com.

During the download, click the box to have an icon for "Search Everything" added to your desktop for easy access. When opened, you can type in any phrase, and the tool will find and list all of the files with that word or phrase—no more searching through computer folders or file cabinets to find something.

As an example, with a new order, various documents are created and saved. In QuickBooks, this would include a customer sales order, a supplier purchase order and an invoice. To save these, click on "print" and then "save as PDF." Name the files after the customer, purchase order number and type of file for easy recognition.

For Instance:

• ABC Company PO 1000 Sales Order (or SO)
• ABC Company PO 1000 Purchase Order (or PO)
• ABC Company PO 1000 Invoice

You may want to keep a folder for each of the sales orders, purchase orders and invoices for another form of reference.

And the art file could be named "ABC Company PO 1000 Artwork."

You also can scan the supplier invoice for later reference, cutting down on paper use: BIC Graphic PO 1000 Invoice.

Later, if you want to see all the documents related to this order, open the Search Everything tool and type in "PO 1000," and it will show all of the files with this phrase in it. Voila!

It's a pretty neat way to see all the forms and files related to this order, and avoid some of those voluminous paper files we all keep.

QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise can be modified to better serve ad specialty distributors. Harriet Gatter is a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, a former accounting professor and a former ad specialty distributor. She advises ad specialty distributors to use QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise, often in conjunction with other industry-specific software, to manage the complexities of the ad specialty business, with the results being time saved, errors eliminated and an overall accurate accounting of your business. Contact her at hgatter@accountingsupportllc.com

Please email accounting questions you would like considered for the column to hgatter@accountingsupportllc.com with the subject line of “Ask the Accountant”