As Bookkeeping Virtual Assistants, we’re continually honing our QuickBooks skills to support our business clients.

Recently, we completed our recertification as QuickBooks Pro Advisors and became more familiar with some of the major updates to the accounting software.

Additionally, the QuickBooks course provided some helpful tips we’d like to pass on to our readers.

What’s QuickBooks Updating?

We get pretty excited when QuickBooks updates its features (consider it an accounting obsession). These four caught our attention:

  1. New Sales Tax Center

For businesses that collect Sales Tax, it can be a pain to keep up and update data as tax rates change. QuickBooks can now manage your Sales Tax calculations with updated information from across the nation.

Sales Tax information will be automatically updated on all new QuickBooks Online accounts & we are hoping this will be rolled out to existing accounts soon as well. All you need to do is list the state and tax agencies you need to work with.

The information QuickBooks accesses is impressive. Proper tax rates are applied to your invoices based on:

  • Your address
  • Your customer’s address
  • Type of item sold
  • Date item was sold

Additionally, QuickBooks will provide reminders to you to pay your accrued Sales Tax to the appropriate state tax agencies.

  1. New Projects Tab

This handy feature provides a central location to view all of your jobs along with associated transactions, notes and reports. You can view the status of your projects:

  • In Progress
  • Completed
  • Canceled

Not only can you view, but you can add transactions directly to your project from this location.

  1. 24-Hour Direct Deposit for Payroll

For busy employers, this feature could be a life-saver. Previously, employers need to approve direct deposits 2-business days prior to payday.

Now, you can approve your direct deposits by 5 pm PT and still make payday the next business day.

This feature gives you:

  • Greater flexibility to run payroll
  • Faster time to pay employees
  • Ability to hold on to your cash an extra day
  1. QuickBooks Capital

Small business lending moves forward with this new service from Intuit—QuickBooks Capital.

Now, small businesses can use the data compiled in their QuickBooks account to get full credit for their business performance.

The application process is embedded within QuickBooks and can be part of your daily workflow. This gives you the ability to request a loan when you need it.

Here Are Some Useful QuickBooks Tips

The following tips would be helpful for many of our business clients.

Merchant Service – ACH Bank Transfer is Free

Have you used QuickBooks to process ACH transfers? As a QuickBooks user, you can get paid quickly through ACH transfers without a fee from QuickBooks.

If you’re finding your merchant service fees adding up or taking a toll on your bottom line, this could be a valuable feature to explore.

We’d be happy to help you set up this feature.

Change Order of Your Bank Account

If you have a long list of bank accounts, it can be frustrating scrolling to find the one you want to view.

Many small businesses have accounts they need to keep an eye on more frequently than others. If that’s your case, consider reordering the list to place those important accounts at the top.

Reordering is as simple as clicking the pencil icon next to the account you want to move and dragging it where you want it. Then, click save.

Close Your Books After Each Year

It’s customary for businesses to “close the book” at the end of the year. QuickBooks automatically closes out your Income and Expense accounts and rolls up your net profit or loss into your Retained Earnings account.

However, to protect your business from changing transactions from previous accounting periods, you should consider “closing the books” with a closing date and password. This ability to set closing dates and passwords is available to both the Master and Company Administrators.

How to Get QuickBooks Assistance

It’s challenging for many small businesses to keep up with the changes and best practices of QuickBooks. That’s why our Virtual Assistants continually stay on top of the skills needed to assist our clients.

Feel free to give us a call at (904) 429-4588 to discuss how we can help you with your books.