QuickBooks® Solutions for Your Business
“Thinking Beyond the Ledger”
“QuickBooks Self-Quiz –
How Are You Doing?”
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Contents:
A note from Scott. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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QuickBooks Users Like You . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Self-Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5
How Did You Do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Need to Know. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Background Info on the Questions . . . . . .
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QuickBooks Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Software that works with QuickBooks. . . .
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Contact Scott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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“What makes Scott Gregory unique amongst the QuickBooks Experts we have hired is his very
practical approach to tailoring QuickBooks to our needs. His very in-depth knowledge of the “inner
workings” of QuickBooks has transformed our operation in a very short time.
He may appear a bit more expensive than other QuickBooks experts until you realize that he covers
in an hour what takes others many, and has made our operation smooth and stress-free through
clever short-cuts so few know of.
I highly recommend him for setting up QuickBooks right. My employees know much more about
QuickBooks now, as he has made it simple to use, and has showed us how to avoid issues in the
future. In just a short time with Scott, he has made something which appeared daunting and difficult
to use, simple and effective.
I now can sleep at night knowing that my business is under control, and I can accurately view the
state of my business at any moment by simply opening QuickBooks. Scott has not only made this
possible, but did so in a very cost-effective manner. “
David Marcarian
President
Precision Biometrics, Inc. / MyoVision
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Put Scott’s
30 Years of Experience
to Work For You
Don’t let QuickBooks be a pain in the asset…
 Find QuickBooks confusing?
 Not sure if you are using QuickBooks correctly?
 Wish you had a professional QuickBooks resource that speaks
in your language and NOT accountant-speak?
Help is here!
This guide makes it easy for you to find the QuickBooks, accounting,
and technology solutions that are so elusive and confusing to many
businesses. Delivered on-site or via the Internet, count on me to provide
the advice and insight you’ve been looking for.
About Scott
My clients benefit from having a trusted, professional advisor on their team at a fraction of the
cost of full-time staff. They enjoy our working relationship for the main reason that I don’t talk
“accounting or technology speak” – I can discuss your problems and offer solutions in plain
English. See what my clients are saying about the help and insight I have provided for them.
What QuickBooks, accounting or technology problems are on your mind? Let’s talk about them
today. Please call me at (440) 527-5696, e-mail me at Scott@BetterBottomLine.com, or visit my
web site at www.BetterBottomLine.com to put a problem-solving plan in motion for your
business.
“Your training has literally revolutionized the way we run things here. Everyone in our entire
company- from Customer Service, Purchasing, Marketing, Shipping to Management has benefitted
greatly from what you have taught us! I couldn’t recommend your expertise more- I would tell any
Quickbooks user that a session with you is mandatory. The ROI is literally 50 fold for our
company.”
Victoria Marquard-Schultz, Esq.
General Counsel & Regulatory Director
Applied Home Healthcare Equipment, LLC
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QuickBooks Users Like You
FRUSTRATED? I’m often asked by frustrated QuickBooks users like you –
“how do I know if I’m using it correctly?
A good question indeed!
This self-quiz will help you determine how well you are taking advantage of the power of
QuickBooks accounting software to help run your business. It will provide some critical insight
and may also lead you to understand areas of QuickBooks that haven’t been clear in the past.
This is NOT an all-inclusive quiz by any means. Rather, it is a compilation of field visits and
observations with QuickBooks users in various types of businesses and with various skill levels. It
also includes some “best practices” from the world of accounting.
Dig in to the quiz
and see just how well YOU are doing
with QuickBooks
Detailed insight on each question follows the scoring section below…
no fair looking that far ahead!
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About Your QuickBooks Issues
4
QUICKBOOKS SELF QUIZ
1. I run a Profit and Loss report for the business
every month
Yes = 1 pt
No = 0 pts
Bonus question – I know how to include a column on
my Profit and Loss report that shows “% of Income”
2. I backup my QuickBooks data file every day that I
use it
ADD 1 pt if your answer is Yes!
Bonus question – I use QuickBooks online backup or
other online data backup solution to keep my data safe.
3. I run an Accounts Receivable Aging Summary at
least once per month (if your business sells on
credit terms to customers)
ADD 1 pt if your answer is Yes!
Yes = 1 pt
No = 0 pts
Yes = 1 pt
No = 0 pts
Penalty – If your Accounts Receivable Aging
Summary report contains any $0.00 values in it.
4. I run a Balance Sheet report at least once per
quarter.
SUBTRACT 1 pt if your answer is Yes!
Penalty – I have no idea what a Balance Sheet report
is or why it is important to my business
5. I know how to export a QuickBooks report to
Excel for further analysis
6. I know how to customize the icon bar to make oneclick easy access to common QuickBooks tasks
SUBTRACT 1 pt if your answer is Yes!
Yes = 1 pt
No = 0 pts
Yes = 1 pt
No = 0 pts
Yes = 1 pt
No = 0 pts
7. I reconcile my bank account on a monthly basis
Yes = 1 pt
No = 0 pts
Penalty – You haven’t reconciled your bank account
in QuickBooks for over three (3) months.
8. I know how to make customers and vendors
inactive if I am not doing business with them any
longer
9. I use the Closing Date feature in QuickBooks to
prevent posting data to closed accounting periods.
SUBTRACT 1 pt if your answer is Yes!
Yes = 1 pt
No = 0 pts
Yes = 1 pt
No = 0 pts
Penalty – You don’t have any idea what the Closing
Date is
10. I use the “Notes” section in either customer and/or
vendor accounts to keep track of important details
about transactions or conversations with them
SUBTRACT 1 pt if your answer is Yes!
Yes = 1 pt
No = 0 pts
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HOW DID YOU DO? (don’t be afraid to add up your score!)
SCORING
Less than 0 to 2 points. Dude, we need to talk. Maybe a career in something other than
bookkeeping is in the cards? Yeah, that’s the ticket.
3 points – 6 points.
OK, you’re getting there. You have some of the QuickBooks
basics down, and are ready to kick it to the next level. How about an hour or two of oneto-one QuickBooks conversation about your business to help you get there quickly and
easily? Contact me to get a session on the calendar.
More than 6 points You are doing well so far with QuickBooks. At this level, you are ahead
of many of the 4 million QuickBooks users out there. There is still some room for optimizing
QuickBooks even more. If you like a challenge, the investment to continue optimizing will pay
for itself in no time. Contact me today for some personalized training on QuickBooks.
NEED TO KNOW!
Scott Gregory is a QuickBooks Specialist that provides the personalized attention and
insight into QuickBooks you’ve been looking for. He won’t talk down to you in
“accountant-speak” – just friendly, patient instruction.
His goal for you is simply this:
Less QuickBooks clicks = More vacation time!
“ I really appreciate your attention to detail, your detailed explanations for customers and
their options, and keeping me in the loop. I have confidence when I recommend you to
folks that you will provide a quality level of service and competency worthy of my referral.
Thanks Scott. I appreciate having you as a resource for my QuickBooks customers.”
Geoff Dolan, MCSE, A+ Technician, MCP
Malachi Computer Consultants
Contact Scott Today
About Your QuickBooks Issues
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Background Information on the Self-Quiz Questions
1) I run a Profit and Loss report for the business every month – The Profit and Loss report is
one of the critical scorecards that will explain how the business is doing. Did you have a good
month? Bad month? You’ll never know until you run this report. It summarizes your income
and expenses – and the difference between the two is either your net profit or net loss.
If you modify your Profit and Loss report to include the % of income column (use the
“Modify Report” button in the upper left hand corner of the report to get there), your report
will be even more meaningful. At a glance, you will see that your advertising expense is x%
of your income, your rent expense is y% of your income, etc. These are critical benchmarks
businesses track to ensure their expenses are in line with their income.
2) I backup my QuickBooks data file every day that I use it – It is very easy to get another
copy of the QuickBooks software. However, we can’t simply place a call and order a copy
your QuickBooks data – it has to be backed up and protected on a regular basis.
You can back up your QuickBooks data to a CD/DVD, flash drive, external drive or other
device. But do you? Probably not, since it is something else you “have” to do (trip to the
dentist anyone?). Why not take advantage of Carbonite automated backup to automate,
simplify and get a copy of your critical QuickBooks data off-site every business day?
Carbonite can also back up your other important files (word processing documents,
spreadsheets, pictures, music and more). It is a tremendous insurance policy for your business
(and inexpensive too).
3) I run an Accounts Receivable Aging Summary at least once per month (if your business
sells on credit terms to customers) – Every dollar you have tied up in customer accounts
receivables is a dollar that is not available for other expenses of the business. For optimum
financial management, you want to have a laser-like focus on this report, and have a system in
place for dealing with customers that are late. In addition, you should investigate the
“Collections Report” found under the Customers and Receivables section of the Report Center
– it is an excellent report for customer tracking purposes.
If your Accounts Receivable Aging Summary report has $0.00 entries, it means two things:
• Your customer account is paid in full (a good thing)
• Your posting of invoices and credits has resulted in this “ghost” entry appearing in your
report (a bad thing). If the customer account is paid in full, you should not see their
name at all in this report. Double click the $0.00 in the total column of the report, and
you will see entries that net out to $0.00. You can receive a $0 payment for this
customer in the “Receive Payment” screen to clear out the positive and negative
amounts that are displayed.
4) I run a Balance Sheet report at least once per quarter – The Balance Sheet is another critical
scorecard, just like the Profit and Loss report. The Balance Sheet keeps track of what you own
(assets), what you owe (liabilities) and what you have left over in the business (equity).
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These benchmarks are important to the financial management of your business. Ask your CPA
to review this information with you to help you gain a better understanding of what the
information is telling you.
Find that your accountant can’t relate to you in anything other than “accountant-speak”?
Contact me – I can.
5) I know how to export a QuickBooks report to Excel for further analysis – At the top of
each and every report in QuickBooks, there is an Export button. Even though QuickBooks
provides the ability to customize reports, there are some limits to those capabilities.
By exporting your report to Excel, you don’t have to re-type any of the data again plus you
get all of the tools within Excel to customize and work with the report data to meet your
needs!
6) I know how to customize the icon bar to make one-click easy access to common
QuickBooks tasks – The icon bar allows you to customize your workspace in QuickBooks
and set up icons for quick one-click access to common tasks, reports, and windows.
To customize the icon bar, simply click “View” in the menu bar, then “Customize Icon
Bar” and either add, delete or move icons that YOU want to see.
SPECIAL BONUS – simply click “Add [window name] to icon bar” when you have a
window or report open that you use frequently. Doesn’t get any faster than that!
7) I reconcile my bank account on a monthly basis – Accountants can evoke images of
horror and pain when reconciling your bank account. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Reconciling is simply the process of comparing the transactions that have been posted to
your bank account to those that have been posted into QuickBooks. Ideally, the bank knows
about everything you have posted in QuickBooks, and QuickBooks knows about everything
that has cleared the bank.
Under the Banking menu, you will find the option to Reconcile. Simply choose the account
to reconcile, fill in the blanks and check the transactions that have cleared the bank. The
ultimate goal of this process is to get to a $0 difference between your bank balance and your
QuickBooks balance for the bank account in the lower right hand corner of the reconcile
screen.**
Reconciling is a very important process within any business to ensure that the books are up
to date and that they agree with the bank. You’ll want to make sure you get in the habit of
reconciling soon.
** - Sounds easy doesn’t it? Many businesses fail miserably at this.
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About Your QuickBooks Issues
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8) I know how to make customers and vendors inactive if I am not doing business with
them any longer - There is no need to plow through a list of customer or vendor names you
no longer use each time you create an invoice or write a check.
Go to either the Customer Center or the Vendor Center and RIGHT click on the name and
select “Make Inactive”. Don’t worry – any history with that customer or vendor will remain
in QuickBooks as it should. The name just goes to the back of the list and out of your way to
make it even faster to create invoices or write checks in the future.
BONUS TIP: By design, QuickBooks will not let you delete any customer or vendor
account that has any type of transaction history related to it. This is exactly how it should be
– if you could randomly delete this information, your accountant would literally go into
cardiac arrest – we don’t want that!
9) I use the Closing Date feature in QuickBooks to prevent posting data to closed
accounting periods. QuickBooks is extremely user-friendly. There is not a lot of time
wasted “closing out the month” like there is in other accounting software packages. In fact,
since all the QuickBooks reports are date driven, there aren’t any special steps to take to
close the month.
Except for…
Click on Company in the menu bar, then Set Closing Date. This feature allows you to enter
a date in the “Closing Date” box. By doing that, you can prevent yourself from accidentally
posting transactions into a month that is already closed. For example, if you finished the
accounting for November 2011 on December 15, 2011, you would go in at that time and
enter a closing date of 11/30/11. This one small step at the end of each month can save you
hours of aggravation!
10) I use the “Notes” section in customer and/or vendor accounts to keep track of
important details about transactions or conversations with them – Why keep post it
notes jammed all around your computer monitor reminding you of things to do? Centralize
all of that knowledge within QuickBooks so you can keep track of who said what to the
customers or vendors as part of their history. No more guesswork about what was said three
months down the road.
Bonus – While creating a note, take advantage of the “To Do” button within the note
for even greater power and functionality! QuickBooks can be set to remind you of all
your “To Do” items with ease. Never miss an important call back to a customer to
follow-up on an overdue payment again!
I hope you have found this QuickBooks self-quiz to be informative and insightful!
For ongoing QuickBooks insight, visit Scott’s QuickBooks blog at
http://blog.betterbottomline.com
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Scott’s QuickBooks Services
"I would definitely recommend Scott Gregory to
anyone looking for a QuickBooks specialist."
~ Margo Strunk, Office Manager, AllCraft Wellman, Inc.
Take the guesswork out of using QuickBooks
for your financial needs – get the help of a
trusted QuickBooks expert that has been
helping businesses for years:
 ONE-TO-ONE CONSULTATION
Let me help resolve areas of confusion and ensure you are using QuickBooks the right way- don’t waste time
sitting in a “QuickBooks class” and then discover the class doesn’t answer your specific questions! We can
meet on-site or over the Internet for as little as an hour, or as long as it takes to get things right!
 INITIAL QUICKBOOKS SETUP
Just starting with QuickBooks? If your company data file is not set up correctly, you will be paying for it
over and over again in higher accounting fees and troubleshooting expenses. Ensure you start your
QuickBooks journey with a solid foundation! Don’t blow this critical step in your QuickBooks journey.
 TRAINING – INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP
Put my QuickBooks expertise to work with your staff and adapt QuickBooks to the specific needs of
your business – I make QuickBooks training easy, and you don’t have to leave the office! Don’t guess at
how to use QuickBooks to meet your specific needs!
 TROUBLESHOOTING/PROBLEM RESOLUTION
Working together, we can determine the extent of your QuickBooks problems and put a solution in place to
prevent them from happening again. Let’s talk before you toss your computer out the window!
 CONVERSION FROM AN EXISTING SYSTEM
Tap into my expertise to help minimize the pains of converting to QuickBooks and ensure success for
you and your team! Moving from your existing accounting software to QuickBooks doesn’t have to be a
scary or budget-busting event.
 HELP SELECTING THE RIGHT QUICKBOOKS ADD-ON SOFTWARE
Trying to extend the functionality of QuickBooks? Avoid the classic mistakes many businesses do when
looking for new software, especially packages that integrate with QuickBooks. Work with a QuickBooks
expert to ensure your success.
Contact Scott Today
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CONTACT INFO
440-527-5696
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QuickBooks Upgrade!
440-527-5701
Scott@BetterBottomLine.com
Bottom Line Accounting Solutions
2786 SOM Center Rd. #200
Willoughby Hills, OH 44094
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