by Monica Mitchell Muir, Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor on February 1, 2012
Do you find that taking a physical inventory of your store seems daunting and time consuming? If you didn’t fully appreciate just how much inventory your store actually has, counting everything at year-end (or whenever you choose) reminds you that you truly have lots! There are several reasons why the count on the floor is different than what you have on your books. Here are just a few reasons:
- Damaged goods weren’t deducted from the count when they were discovered
- Entering an incorrect number when the goods come in
- Not entering the items when they come into the store (you meant to get to it, but forgot)
- Incorrectly using units of measure
- Theft – employee or store customer
It’s important to know what you actually have on hand so you can order (or not) appropriately, you can see which products are moving well (or not) and can assess your profitability – critical to staying in business!
But counting everything at one time can be such a daunting task that it may not even be done. So try cycle counts. With cycle counts, rather than counting all of your inventory at one time, periodically work on a section of the store. Determine some logical way to section off your store – it could be by department, row, or unit of shelving, or display case – whatever makes sense for dividing your inventory. This is much more manageable, so more likely to get done in a timely fashion. Also determine a frequency – ideally you will have covered your entire store at least once in a year. You might also decide to count certain sections more often – perhaps these items turn over quickly or they may be your more valuable inventory.
You can count by hand or you can get a physical inventory scanner which lets you walk through the store, scan the items and then come back to your POS and synch the results. This can be faster than manually counting!
So, now what’s your excuse for counting inventory?! If you would like some help on updating inventory counts in your POS, or developing a system or want more information on a physical inventory scanner, let us know and we’ll be happy to assist.
by Monica Mitchell Muir, Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor on December 29, 2011
Okay as promised here’s the article for 1099-MISC using QuickBooks 2012. Let me give you the steps first then follow up with more detail and screen captures.
1. Select your 1099s vendors
2. Verify vendor information, i.e. that you have the correct address and tax ID
3. Map the accounts that you used to pay your various 1099s vendors
4. Review your vendor payments. Beginning in 2011 the IRS now requires you to EXclude any payments you made to your vendors by
a. credit card
b. debit card gift card
c. third-party payment networks such as PayPal.
5. Confirm your 1099-MISC entries
6. Choose your filing method — printing forms or E-filing
As you can see, they have given the Wizard a facelift. But don’t panic, the Wizard still walks you through. The Wizard will be a little different depending on whether this is the first time you are setting up 1099′s in QuickBooks or if you simply need to review and edit before filing. For the purposes of this article, I will be using screen captures for those who already have 1099 information setup in QuickBooks, but need to review and edit. I will admit there were a couple areas that threw me, but I will try to point those out to make it easier for you :-)
1 Review your Vendor List and select all those who need 1099′s.
Do take the time to review because most likely you have picked up some new Vendors in 2011 and you want to be sure that if they need a 1099, that you have them marked appropriately. This automatically assumes last year. Which is fine if it’s 2012 and you’re doing 2011 or it’s 2013 and you’re doing 2012. But, if you’re trying to review before year-end, then there are a couple other methods I would recommend – I’ll highlight one of them later in this article.
2 Make sure you have a Tax ID and complete address for each 1099 vendor
An Aside: If you have a large list of vendors, or you’re working on names in the current year, here’s another way to verify they are marked 1099 eligible, you have the Tax ID and address. Click on Lists>Add/Edit Multiple List Items, then select the vendor list and customize the columns so all the appropriate fields are easily seen and can be edited.
3 Map Vendor Payment Accounts
I will admit the mapping stage is what threw me the most. By default, QuickBooks shows only those accounts that are mapped for 1099′s. If you need to review or select others, then you can Show all accounts.
Another facet that threw me, but perhaps not you, is that when all the accounts are shown, they are listed alphabetically instead of the traditional accounting order in the Chart of Accounts. Some of you non- accountants may really like it, but I will admit I did not!
The next part that threw me was the statement Your settings do not match the current IRS thresholds. The fix is to click on Show IRS thresholds, then click on Reset as shown in this next screen capture.
4 IMPORTANT: This step is for the new IRS regulations
If you use credit cards or PayPal or some other third party network to pay some of your vendors on a regular basis or occasionally then you really need to pay attention to this particular step.
Click on View Included Payments and you will see the payments made by checks.
However many of you have PayPal set up as bank account in QuickBooks and when you make payments from PayPal then you may either have a PayPal transaction number for the check number or you may have left it blank. What QuickBooks is telling you to do here is to put the form of payment in the check number as shown below
Then when you click on View Excluded Payments, you’ll see your debit cards, gift cards, and PayPal. Here’s the PayPal check we “fixed” in the steps above. Credit cards don’t show in this report since QuickBooks is easily able to isolate those transactions.
5 Confirm your 1099 amounts
Notice you can look at other years, see a summary or detail report to help you verify these numbers.
6 Choose your filing method – print or e-file
For you “old-timers” like me, this process is different, but Intuit has really tried hard to make it as easy as possible. Let me know if you have any questions or problems.
by Monica Mitchell Muir, Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor on December 21, 2011
Happy Holidays!
2011 has been a challenging year for some and I’d like to help end this year on a happy note and make 2012 much better!
Those of you who need help with job costing, can now save $100 on my 4-part recorded webinar series The Keys to Mastering Job Costing in QuickBooks for Better Job Profitability – that’s more than a 30% discount!
This sale runs from Monday, December 19, 2011 through Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Click here for more details and to save
With profit margins shrinking, it’s even more important to track the true job costs and so many businesses miss out on important tools in QuickBooks. That’s why I originally developed this webinar series – to help businesses use QuickBooks effectively for job costing at an affordable price.
The sale ends Tuesday, December 27, 2011. Don’t let this savings pass you by!
Click here for more details and to save
by Monica Mitchell Muir, Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor on December 20, 2011
Greetings!
Wow – hard to believe Christmas is almost here and another year is near an end. I hope you had a good year – both business-wise and personally.
Professionally, this is the time of year when I spend some time to review all that worked, what needs improving using several different QuickBooks reports that help me look at my business from several different perspectives.
This is also the time of year when I start planning for next year. An interesting comment I once heard was that if you plan to increase business by 5, 10%, then you will probably continue doing what you’ve been doing. For some, that’s fine. But the suggestion was to plan a bigger increase in business, like doubling your sales, which means that in order to attain that higher goal, you will need to do something different – add another product/service, staffing, joint ventures with other companies, to suggest a few. But it gets the wheels turning and can add excitement in business planning. So what will you do differently next year?
And, like many of you, I will enjoy spending time with family and friends over the holiday season. My wish for you is that you have a very safe and Happy Holiday Season and a Happy New Year!
by Monica Mitchell Muir, Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor on December 19, 2011
It’s that time of year when businesses start taking a closer look at who needs a 1099 for 2011. QuickBooks has a nice wizard to help you with the process. The steps below are for versions 2011 and older. The new patch for 2012 just came out at this writing and they have completely revamped the 1099 section, so I will have a separate article on that (once I take a closer look at it.) To get started, click on Vendors, Print/E-File 1099′s.
- This first step has you review your Vendor list. You should take the time to review this list be sure you don’t miss anyone who’s eligible. Verify with your accountant the types of businesses who need 1099′s – it’s more than many people realize and you don’t want to get penalized for omitting someone). Also look to see if you have their contact information and Tax ID. If you want to review this list on a more frequent basis (perhaps monthly or quarterly), so it’s not such a big job at year-end, let me know – we can memorize a simple report and make it a click away!
If you need to make changes to several Vendors and you are using version 2010 or newer, then you can use the Add/Edit Multiple Lists, customize the fields so you see 1099 Eligible, Tax ID, and address, then you can quickly edit. If you need help with this, let me know. This feature is MUCH faster than having to go into each Vendor record.
2. What Expense (and perhaps Cost of Goods) accounts do you use to pay these Vendors? Again, worth reviewing. To select multiple accounts, you can click on Map Accounts in the Wizard, which will take you to the 1099 Company Preferences. Once you select Multiple, you can pick as many as needed.
3. There are different categories and thresholds, although most use the Nonemployee Compensation. Click on Run Report in step 3. Review the Uncategorized Expenses – perhaps some of them need to be included which means you need to revise your mapping.
4. You can file with the IRS electronically (depending on how many you have, this may be a requirement – check with your accountant). You can print 1099′s you need to mail from within QuickBooks. You might need to test a couple to be sure they align okay in the boxes on the form before printing the entire batch. If you have only a few to do, and you don’t mind doing them by hand, you can also order 1099 forms from the IRS for free.
Don’t wait until the last minute to work on these. You can get started now so January won’t be so hectic with year-end activities. Let me know if you have questions or need assistance. I hope it’s a smooth process for you this year!
by Monica Mitchell Muir, Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor on November 30, 2011
I heard a consultant once say the discount is evil and must be destroyed! That’s a little strong, I’ll admit, but I’ll bet he trains his clients not to use it. However, he was driving home a valid point which is my discussion today. This is VERY important for those of you who collect/pay sales tax.
Here’s the situation. You invoice a client and there are taxable Items on the Invoice. For whatever reason, when you receive the payment, which is less than the full amount of the Invoice, you discount the Invoice in the Receive Payment window and code the discount to your Chart of Accounts. In this window, there is no way to apply that discount for a specific line item on that Invoice.
This causes a couple problems.
- When you go to run a report based on Items such as Sales by Item Summary or the Job Profitability Summary or Detail Report, those discounted Items will NOT be reflected in those reports.
- The bigger issue may be that those discounts, which are reductions in income, do not show in your Sales Tax Revenue Summary or the Sales Tax Liability Reports either. So you could be paying more in sales tax than you need to. And in today’s economy that’s definitely something you don’t want to be doing!
The solution is to use a Credit Memo instead. (It’s easier in the newer versions of QuickBooks) and you can then apply the Credit Memo to the Invoice. When you create a Credit Memo, you get to choose the Item that’s been discounted. It will then show in your Item-based reports, including your sales tax reports. This way, you won’t overstate your taxable income or overpay your sales tax.
If you think you’ve overpaid in the past, that’s a discussion to have with your accountant. But for the future, using the Credit Memo will be your better method. I’d love to hear about any savings you find!
by Monica Mitchell Muir, Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor on November 25, 2011
Greetings!
It’s another sunny day in Frederick as I sit to write this newsletter :-) There still are a few trees with most of their leaves, but most of the trees are getting pretty bare (sigh).
And, as promised, I have recorded 2 (free) videos so far:
- What’s New in Pro and Premier
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/658431686
- Features in Premier not available in Pro. This can be helpful for those of you who have never looked at QuickBooks Premier before.
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/285816166
If you have questions I did not answer in the videos, let me know and I’ll be happy to talk with you.
I’ll be working on my Enterprise videos next, so stay tuned!
The 2012 version of QuickBooks has had 2 patches come out so be sure to update your 2012 QuickBooks.
And hard to believe, that Thanksgiving is here- this year (and month) have really flown by fast~. So I wish you a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.
by Monica Mitchell Muir, Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor on November 23, 2011
This is the time of year when many businesses evaluate their current payroll setup. So let me highlight one of the Intuit payroll services, Assisted Payroll, and explain why I like it.
You basically have 3 choices when doing payroll. You can do it all in-house, you can outsource all of it, or you can create the paychecks and let someone else (Intuit in this case) handle the payroll taxes and filings.
The benefits of processing in-house include:
- No extra fees for adding employees.
- All your payroll reports are inside of QuickBooks – you don’t need to look through a big notebook or a CD or review various downloaded reports. There’s no extra fee for your reports either. Some requested reports are extra when you outsource.
- Job/project costing (outsourced payroll charges more and you still can’t job cost at the same level QuickBooks can)
- In terms of direct dollars, this is the least expensive.
When you outsource, you free up some time and someone else worries about the setup, taxes, etc. But you still have to pay attention – they make mistakes, too.
With Assisted Payroll, you get the benefits of both
- You process inside of QuickBooks and Assisted is just a couple clicks away after you’ve created your paychecks
- You have all your payroll reports handy and inside of QuickBooks.
- You get more accurate job/project costing numbers
- You have access to Intuit payroll specialists so if you need help with a new hire, new benefit, etc., they will assist at no extra charge.
- And Intuit takes care of the tax filings (tax deposits and reports). This is usually one of the more challenging aspects of payroll – especially when you have different states and schedules. It also frees your employee to do other work. Few businesses really take a look at how much time is spent on the tax filings and how much they are paying the employee or contractor.
So as you might expect, Assisted Payroll costs more than Enhanced Payroll, but is much less than outsourcing all your payroll tasks. There are a few factors that determine the cost such as number of employees, number of states, frequency of payroll, etc. But my clients who use it are very happy. In fact one was sorry she didn’t sign up with it sooner as she made late payments when she did it all herself and had to pay penalties and interest. And you may actually become more productive because the person processing payroll will have additional time to work on some other task, which is often more cost effective for you.
If you would like to learn more, call my office or send an email. If you would like to sign up, contact me. As an Intuit Solution Provider, I have access to special pricings and offers, so you wouldn’t want to miss out on those!
by Monica Mitchell Muir, Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor on November 9, 2011
Many retailers create departments and want sub-categorized departments. For instance, the main department could be apparel and sub-departments could be men’s, women’s, children. If you have those sub-departments, then you would also like to see reports showing the totals for Men, Women and Children as well as an overall Apparel total. Getting that in POS involves some work arounds.
First, if you want to see the sub-departments listed together in a bigger report showing all the
departments, make the first word the name of the Parent department (such as Apparel). Use a colon (:) to separate the Parent name of the department from the sub-department. Then when you run a Sales by Department Summary Report, all the sub-departments will be clustered together as seen below.
Next, you can give each subcategory the same 3-digit Department Code to keep them together; the code can be numbers or letters. So for the example above, you might use APP. Notice that the same department code for each cluster.
To see totals for each main department, do the following:
- Click on Reports>Sales>Item Summary
- 2. Click on Modify
- 3. Click on Add or Remove Columns
- Select the Dept Code from the list of available columns
- Deselect fields that are item specific, such as Item Name, Vendor, Attribute, Size, Department
- Sort by Dept Code
- Check the box to Create Subtotals for this Field
- Click on Save
- Then, click on Run
If this is a report you will run frequently, then memorize it so you won’t have to go through all these steps each time.
by Monica Mitchell Muir, Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor on November 4, 2011
Today’s topic is all about the new features found in Enterprise only. If you missed my discussion on the new features for what’s new in QuickBooks Pro and QuickBooks Premier, then here are the links.
http://muirassoc.com/blog/2011/10/20/whats-new-in-2012-for-quickbooks-pro-and-above/
http://muirassoc.com/blog/2011/10/21/new-for-premier-and-above/
Last year Intuit added Advanced Inventory, which in reality was multi-location, but still a great feature for many. This year, Intuit added several new features to Advanced Inventory. Advanced Inventory is an annual subscription (and you must have the Enterprise Full Service Plan activated at the same time), but for those of you using inventory, these have been on wish lists of many for quite some time and were reasons for work-arounds.
Improved Multi-User Functionality – Now you won’t have to kick users out and switch to single user mode for these tasks: Make Deposits, Set Closing Date, Resort Lists.
Auto Sales Price Markup – When an item comes in with a different cost, you can now set a preference on how to handle the situation (e.g. always update item cost, never update, always ask about updating).
Find & Select Items faster with this new feature. For those of you with long lists, this should speed up data entry!
Enhanced Inventory Receiving – You can finally keep item receipts and bills separate! This much needed feature lets you maintain reliable inventory counts even when a single order is delivered in multiple shipments, or bills and items are received separately. No more negative inventory or sudden pending builds or workarounds. This is a setting in the company inventory preferences. As much as I like this feature, be forewarned – it will change ALL PRIOR periods, is IRREVERSIBLE and may have issues with some third party products. You may decide to start a new file if you use this.
Serial/Lot number tracking – This has been on wish lists for a long time. Now you can track serial numbers OR lot numbers right inside QuickBooks Not just when you sell the product, but you can track from receiving and/or manufacturing through your sales process. Also notice that you can list multiple numbers on one line, which can save time. You will need the Advanced Inventory subscription turned on for this feature.
FIFO Valuation – Now you have the flexibility to work in FIFO costing in addition to average costing for tracking inventory and you can choose the start date, so you can start after a closed period. You can switch if you are just interested in looking at differences between the two methods. Again, this feature is available with the Advanced Inventory subscription.
So here’s a look at the new Inventory company preference page:
If you are interested in learning more about Enterprise, contact our office. We can give you a personalized demo, answer additional questions and give you the current pricing.
