QuickBooks accounting software is the most reliable tool for small & medium enterprises which can help businesses to simplify their finances. The software has a complete and powerful tool for bookkeeping and accounting services. It can handle customer invoices, vendor bills, and business taxes more efficiently. We have highlighted the top 15 helpful tips on how to use QuickBooks more efficiently which are as follows:

1) QuickBooks Preferences

The configuration wizard does not display all the features of QuickBooks. By clicking on Edit -> Preferences, accountants can modify the software settings. For example, they can set preferences for inventory, accounts for checks and can set preferences for tax features.

2) Navigation Shortcuts

Accountants can take advantage of using QuickBooks shortcuts and navigate from one option to another quickly. For instance, use Ctrl-I for the new invoice, Ctrl-E for editing transactions, and Ctrl-F can open a Find feature to help you easily locate transactions. There are a few more shortcut keys available that can be used for quick navigation:

  • Ctrl-I – Create an invoice
  • Ctrl-E – Edit transaction
  • Ctrl-F – Find the transaction
  • Ctrl-J – Open Customer Center
  • Ctrl-M – Memorize transaction or report
  • Ctrl-N – New invoice, bill, check, or list item in context
  • Ctrl-Q – a quick report of transactions for each item in a list
  • Ctrl-T – Open memorized transaction list
  • Ctrl-W – Write new check/open a write checks window
  • Alt + F4 = exits the QuickBooks software
  • Alt + Down Arrow Key = display list for a field

3) Stay Organized With QuickBooks

There are so many features that can help accountants stay organized with QuickBooks. QuickBooks has the option to edit reports and you can have the display of financial reports as per the desire of your company by modifying Report feature (Edit –> Preferences –> Reports & Graph option –> Prompt Me to Modify the Report).

QuickBooks also helps accountants to track profit and loss by using Classes. When Classes function is on, they have an opportunity to run a Profit & Loss by the Class report, check and fix the discrepancies by sections (Edit –> Preferences –> Accounting –> Company Preferences –> Use class tracking).

4) Use Support Features

QuickBooks offers free intuit support options available through emails, tickets, over phone calls, and through live support. One of the options is to use online Forums (Help –> Live Community). You can also search QuickBooks Knowledge Base where you can search your query in FAQs.

5) QuickMath Calculator

By using the QuickMath Calculator option in QuickBooks, you can make the calculation easy. All you need to do is to open the form where a calculation is required, press the Equal key (=), or enter a number followed by one of the following function keys:

  • Plus (+)
  • Minus (-)
  • Multiplication (*)
  • Division (/)
  • Equal (=)

Press Esc key to exit the QuickMath feature. Remember! QuickMath Calculator does not calculate percentages.

6) Define User Roles

It is not necessary to give master access to all employees of the company. It is also risky to have open access to all sorts of business-related information. This risk can be minimized with the help of QuickBooks Enterprise.

Depending on the job responsibilities of your employees, you can give them role-based access to the data. This means that being the owner of your business, you get central access in this software from where you can define user roles and grant permissions to your employees.

7) Ease of Accessibility

This is a new feature that has been recently added to QuickBooks. Through this feature, you can connect to three monitors. Just go to the menu bar in QuickBooks, select view -> switch to Multi-monitor Mode, or you can use the keyboard shortcut i.e. Ctrl+Alt+M. When this setting is enabled, each open window in QuickBooks will move the display to the next Monitor.

8) Manage Sales Revenue

Sales revenue can be easily managed in QuickBooks by creating invoices and then by tracking each customer for monitoring sales revenue. In this way, accountants can stay on top of customer account balances by examining their aging reports. This aging report shows all outstanding & overdue invoices and helps to improve the receivable management system of a company.

9) Expense Tracking

The software automatically tracks business expenses by connecting to business checking accounts and credit card accounts to QuickBooks. The software also facilitates accountants in paying bills of the company when they become due.

10) Key Reporting Insights

QuickBooks provides valuable business information about a company’s financial health and provides key reporting insights, all the time. All QuickBooks reports can be run in just a few clicks. They are updated in real-time as and when the accountant makes entry and records a financial transaction in the software.

11) Run Payroll

QuickBooks payroll subscription is needed to run the payroll. The software is capable of calculating payroll taxes for employees and employers. QuickBooks payroll has 02 most important features which are as follows:

  • Automatically calculate federal payroll taxes
  • Pay employees by check or direct deposit

12) Track Inventory

In QuickBooks, several reports are available to manage inventory. The software automatically tracks and updates inventory-related information i.e. stock quantity, average cost, and the total stock value.

13) Simplify Taxes

There is no need to put in so much effort in calculating business taxes. If your accountant has ensured that all business revenues and expenses have been properly recorded and accounted for; QuickBooks will just extract the relevant information to be used in a company’s tax returns.

14) Online Payments

With QuickBooks, accountants can use the Intuit Payment feature. Through this feature, all customers can have a "Pay Now" button in their invoices. They can click on this button and pay their bills using the credit card or by entering their bank account information to authorize the payment.

15) Scan Receipts

All receipts can be stored virtually using the QuickBooks application. Online subscribers (QBO) can download the QuickBooks app for free on their mobile device, take a picture of a receipt, and upload it to QBO in minutes. You can upload an unlimited number of receipts to QBO, which can be very useful for businesses that are tracking a lot of expenses.