Muir & Associates

3 Tips to Getting Paid Faster

by Monica Mitchell Muir, Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor on February 23, 2012

Cash flow is always an important element to track in your business. There are several ways you can improve cash flow. One way is to make it easy for your customers to pay you. While the traditional method has been for people to pay by check when they receive an invoice, with the advances of the Internet and more and more people paying bills online, customers’ preferred payment methods are changing. So here are 3 ways to help you get paid faster.

Let clients pay online.
1. Intuit’s Billing Solutions – you can email (or mail) invoices to clients and they can view their account online. If you use Intuit’s merchant services, they can also pay online
2. Intuit PaymentNetwork – This lets your clients pay you online via check – you pay only a flat rate of 50 cents per check – much less than credit cards
3. Bill and Pay – another way to email invoices and receive payment by check or credit card; you can use Intuit Merchant Services or some other one. Personally, I use Bill and Pay with Intuit’s merchant services. You can read my article as to why.

All 3 integrate with QuickBooks, which is usually a criteria for me.

Accept e-checks – Intuit’s Check Solutions lets you take the routing and account numbers by phone and the funds will appear in your account in 1-4 days. That addresses the old “check is in the mail” line! (You can also scan the checks into your QuickBooks so no more trips to the bank and it streamlines the payment/deposit steps.)
Accept credit cards – I still hear businesses holding off on this one because of the fees – I was slow to accept them, too. But in the big picture, it’s a small percentage of the total invoice and statistically customers are not only able to pay faster but they often buy more products/services if they can pay by credit card, so this should more than compensate for the fees. There are lots of ways you can accept credit card. Within the Intuit line of products,
1. You can swipe the card if the customer is at your place of services via a terminal or a card reader attached to a computer,
2. On your smartphone if you are at the client site – way cool!
3. They can phone/mail their credit card number to you and you can type it into quickbooks, or
4. You can even arrange to have the credit card charged monthly within the QuickBooks/Intuit service.

You’ll see more on a couple of these methods in future newsletters. I love the ease of use and the integration with Intuit’s merchant services.

Now when I email my invoices, my clients can choose how to pay (yes, I give them a choice).

If you would like to learn more about any of the above, contact our office. As an Intuit Solution Provider, I have access to a dedicated team of reps (as in I have their name & contact info!) and I get special pricing. If you check out Bill and Pay, use MuirAssoc for your invitation code for 1 free month.

Let me know if you have any questions.

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Save Time with these 3 Workers Comp Tips

by Monica Mitchell Muir, Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor on February 8, 2012

If you have employees then you pay into workers comp. And every year you probably go through a workers comp audit which verifies whether what you paid in premiums matches what you paid employees based on the hours, dollars and type of work your employees did during the year. Usually the auditor will give you a list of what they’re looking for in the audit. If you process payroll in QuickBooks there are some tools that you can use to pull your workers comp audit information together much faster and sometimes save you additional premiums.

1. If you process payroll in QuickBooks, you can track your Workers Comp. Turn on the Workers Comp feature in the QuickBooks company preferences (I know many are unaware of that feature that “sneaked” into the preferences.) This feature will take effect from the date that you set BUT will not go retroactive. Since many of you are in the middle of your workers comp year, this will give you only some of the information that you need for this year, but next year you will have all the information that you need.

Next, enter the different workers comp codes that you have for your organization. You’ll find your list on the form from the insurance company. From the Menu Bar in QuickBooks, click on List>Workers Comp List. Then fill in the information you see below.

Enter your experience mod factor.

Then either assign a code to an employee in the employee record or, if your employee does multiple types of work for you, assign the code to the actual work they do when you enter their information in their timesheet.

Once the codes are in place and you’ve paid employees, you can run reports that will show you what has been paid under the various classifications; I’m sure the auditor will like these reports, too! QuickBooks will also track what you should be paying workers comp and then you can compare that with what you are actually paying in workers comp premium.

2. If you don’t process payroll in QuickBooks, Classes could be an option if you use Classes to represent the type of work they do (I know this is not an option for everyone). But this feature helped one of my clients actually pick up an additional code that had a lower rate.

3. Assuming your auditor comes every year, there is probably a set group of reports they request. Create a group of reports for Workers Comp so that you just have to run the group. This would be a 2-step process. First, create a group in the Memorized Reports list, then run a report and memorize it and put it in the Workers Comp group. To run the group, you can either go to Process Multiple Reports and select the Workers Comp group or to your Memorized Report list and double-click on the group name (all reports will run).

Contact our office if you need assistance or want to delve further into Workers Comp. In the meantime, I hope this saves you time and money!

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Simplify Inventory Tracking

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.

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1099′S FOR QUICKBOOKS 2012

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.

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Holiday Sale!

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

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Notes

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!

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1099-Misc

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!

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Save Money by Using a Credit Memo Instead of a Discount

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!

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2 New Videos for You

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.

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Product Spotlight – Assisted Payroll

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!

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