I Hate QuickBooks and I Want To Throw It In The TRASH!

30 Apr I Hate QuickBooks and I Want To Throw It In The TRASH!

Well let’s start with you aren’t alone.  Millions of Americans use QuickBooks.  (Along with a few dozen Canadians)  QuickBooks has sold you the idea this is a program you can just install and get started.  What most people find is that not only can it be difficult to install (with error message after error message), but that for some it isn’t that easy to use.  This experience can often lead to frustration, lack of enthusiasm for bookkeeping tasks, some  postpartum like depression symptoms, and often postal episodes.  Well maybe not the depression.  But what is a small business entrepreneur to do?  

Well let’s start by talking end-game.  All entrepreneurs and business owners need some kind of financial records to help us run our businesses and file our taxes.  This idea should be a given.  If you thought we were just using the QuickBooks for those silly taxes than you probably need more help than this blog can offer.  Keep reading though maybe we can help anyway. So first things first if the end game if a set of useful and complete financials for evaluation and tax prep then maybe we need to see if we can get there without QuickBooks.  Crazy I know, but often times I see miro-businesses trying to go too big with their accounting processes and software.  Are you selling your homemade jewelry at the flea market, or maybe selling your garden vegetables at a farmers market?  Depending of the scale and complexity of these sorts of businesses you may be able to forego the $300 software.  Keeping a proper paper ledger is a perfectly acceptable alternative and can greatly simplify things.  I might suggest this form of record keeping for:

• Those with 2 or less types of income that do not need to be tracked by customer.  Cash transactions with the general public would be the majority of the income.
• The expenditures (payments out) are minimal and not complex in nature.  Not a lot of on account transactions, no credit cards, no need to bill expenses out by customer.
• Not any complex manufacturing or costing components to your business. Now if you use several ingredients to bake your pies that is fine.  You can cost that out on paper.  If you’re running a pie company with 20 varieties an you bake and manufacture 200 a day from your commercial kitchen for wholesale and retail…well then sorry back to QuickBooks you go.

Now if you have decided that paper is not a viable option for you and your business we should talk about how to get that bookkeeping done with QuickBooks without any mental breakdowns.

• Start by finding some good resources for yourself.  No not your friend who swears they are a QuickBooks guru because p.s. if they have it all wrong so will you! QuickBooks ProAdvisors are your best start.  Now not all ProAdvisors are created equal so call a few and find someone who understands your industry, can offer some good references and will be available when you need them.  They are your go to, your safety net, and your coach.  Be Nice!  These folks can often help you get your QuickBooks program set up for your specific needs, help you skip over the useless bits and be at the ready with an answer if you need one. They will also know what version is right for you, and often times are technically savvy enough to help you with any software integration issues you may run into.
• Learn what an Asset, Liability, Equity and Retained Earnings are.  (Yes those colored words are links so you can go learn NOW)
• Try it out.  You aren’t going to know what you can and can’t do on your own until you try.  I always suggest having someone check your work once a month early on.  Don’t do a years worth of work then find you you had no idea what you were doing.
• Reconcile accounts often.  This will help you catch mistakes early.
• Take a class online or in person.  There are lots of good instructors out there.  If they can’t answer questions on the fly for you during class they aren’t a good instructor.  Look for classes taught on the current version of QuickBooks by ProAdvisors and professional bookkeepers.
• Figure out what your net revenues need to be before you can hire a bookkeeper part time.  Your plan should NEVER be to do this yourself forever.  Unless you are a bookkeeper by trade you probably have other skills that can be better used to make or save you money.  Know at what point financially you can get out from under the bookkeeping and hire a qualified professional to help you out.  Let’s admit right now bookkeeping will probably bore you to tears, so the sooner you can dish that job to someone else the better.
• Don’t do the payroll on your own with the QuickBooks Program.  If you are reading this then you most likely aren’t qualified to process any payroll taxes with or without the assistance of Intuit and their products. Find a payroll company a.s.a.p.