QuickBooks Asia

Blank, Asterisk and a tick

Software: QuickBooks accounting software

In the Bank register, user often see blank, asterisk or sometime a tick in the column between the Payment and Deposit column. What are those asterisk and tick mean?

When transactions were being entered via Deposit, Received Payment, Pay Bill, Write Cheque or Journals that involved Bank account will be consolidated in the Bank register.

An asterisk means you had highlighted this transaction in the Bank Reconciliation, you can consider that as a Pending item to reconcile.

A tick means this transaction had already been reconciled.

A blank means nothing had been done to this transaction. It neither marked as pending item in reconciliation nor reconciled.

 

Capturing Surcharge from Credit Card

Software: QuickBooks

Some users who use QuickBooks in retail business, having difficulty in capturing the surcharge from the credit card company when customer made payment to you via credit card. To simplify the process, I use undeposited fund account in QuickBooks to resolve the surcharge issue.

I use the Sales Receipt to capture the sales and set the “deposited to” account to “Undeposited Funds” account. The double entry for this transaction will be debiting Undeposited Funds account and crediting Sales account. Undeposited Funds account is a system account, when you create a new company file, this account will be automatically created in your chart of account list.

Next, from the Banking menu, select Make Deposit. You will see the amount received from Sales Receipt shown in the Payments to Deposit window. Highlight the deposit and click the OK button to move your deposit into the Make Deposit window.

Ensure the Date and the Bank account in the Deposit To field is correct. Add the surcharge expenses account into the From Account field; and enter the surcharge amount (negative value). 

In my case, the original sales amount is $2,750.00, less out the surcharge of $55.00 and the actual deposited amount into the Bank is $2,695.00. The double entry for this transaction will be debiting Bank account $2,695.00, debiting Surcharge expense account $55.00 and crediting Undeposited Funds account $2,750.00. 

From the Profit & Loss report, you can see the Surcharge amount, $55.00, showed in the Expenses section and bank account will show just $2,695.00 instead of the original deposited amount of $2,750.00 collected in the Sales Receipt. So, it will be easier when doing Bank Reconciliation.

 

QuickBooks Online

Software: QuickBooks Online (QBO)

Here are few questions asked by the user who attended the QuickBooks Online  (QBO) Seminar:

• Where to get a Trial for QuickBooks Online?
• Must I migrate from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online version?
• What so good about QuickBooks Online comparing to QuickBooks Desktop version?
• How to migrate from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online version?

 

Where to get a Trial for QuickBooks Online?

Unlike QuickBooks Desktop version, which you can download and install onto your computer, QuickBooks Online needs you to create an account first before trying out the software (as it is a Cloud solution, no software will be installed onto your computer). You can create a trial account from http://quickbooks.intuit.sg/

 

Must I migrate from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online?

No. It is not a must for QuickBooks (Asia) user to migrate over to QuickBooks Online.  QuickBooks Asia user can still upgrade to the latest QuickBooks 2011/12 (Australia) version. User can contactSolarsys (www.qb.sg) for an upgrade detail.

 

What so good about QuickBooks Online comparing to QuickBooks Desktop version?

QuickBooks Online is a Cloud solution, which uses a browser to access your software. Cloud solution is great as you can access your software and data anywhere, anytime as long as you have an Internet connection.  You don’t need to install your software onto your computer nor require spending money on a server to manage your data file for multi-user access. This solution looks ideal for SOHO, as initial investment is low.

However, being on the web, QuickBooks Online (Singapore version) at this moment does not have features, which was on the Desktop version, such as Payroll, Product, Jobs and Advance Template Design (Online version only have basic design feature).  I believe, QuickBooks Online will improve, they are here to stay, but it will not be instant as what some of the user may think. If you like the concept of being in the Cloud, then, be patient … wait.

The biggest obstacle a user had, which I believe, is hosting your data on the web. Most of the users still prefer to host the accounting data in-house. Although, Singtel and Intuit reassure the security concern, this still not addressing the user needs. Besides, being told that your data will be deleted if you stop paying makes the user uncomfortable. You have to continue paying in order to access (even read only), if you decided to stop using QuickBooks Online and move on to a higher end accounting software have make the user think twice. Maybe, Intuit should consider charging user just a minimum amount (maybe just fraction of the normal price) to keep your data “dormant”.

 

How to migrate from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online version?

No, you cannot migrate your QuickBooks Desktop data into QuickBooks Online.  Unless the market is big enough, or else, I don’t think Intuit or third party developers will consider developing a tool for migration.

 

Closing Date

Software: QuickBooks

One of the worry, which an Accountant had, was the user can change the QuickBooks transactions anytime (if he/she has the access right) even the account had already been closed.

A method to prevent changes is to set a Closing Date in your QuickBooks data file. Example: In the month of Oct 2008, you can set a Closing Date as of 30 Sep 2008. This will prevent user to enter data on or before 30 Sep 2008.

To set a closing date, simply go to Edit menu | Preferences | Accounting | Company Preferences tab | click  on “Set Date/Password” button and set the closing date and password accordingly.

QuickBooks will prompt for password when user try to save a transaction that is fall on or before the closing date.

To further control the security, QuickBooks Administrator can set the user don’t have the ability to edit or delete transactions that were recorded before the closing date in the user profile.