snh 2018
This June, I’ll be speaking at Scaling New Heights in Atlanta, GA about all kinds of ways to automate your QuickBooks Online account using often-overlooked features.
One of my favorite QBO-specific tools saves hours over using QuickBooks Desktop – the Banking Feed and Rules. Properly used, it becomes the central hub for your entire QuickBooks Online file.
Because it relies heavily on Intuit’s Artificial Intelligence database engine, it learns as you use it, customizing your transactions to your workflow and chart of accounts.
But until you have taken the time to train it, all it can do is guess. I get calls from business owners wondering why all the deposits look like they’re from the same customer…or why their income has been doubled.
That’s why it’s important to “Tame the Machine,” right in line with the theme of the conference. In my 100-minute workshop, we’ll explore all the ins and outs that every bookkeeper needs to know so that you don’t fall in any traps.
We’ll start with setting up the Banking Feed, including connection considerations, bank export protocols, and why your starting balance will almost always be wrong when you reconcile for the first time (hint: look for a pre-reconciled Opening Balance Equity entry)!
Next, we’ll explore all the tools in the interface to speed up your data entry, especially when you’re coding a whole year at once. The Banking feed can potentially allow you to enter an entire year of data in just a few hours. Did you know you can add a column for the bank description, and sort by it? Give it a try. This way you can classify twelve transactions for one Payee in a few seconds, instead of addressing it twelve times through the year.
More importantly, we’ll discuss when NOT to rely on the Banking Feed. Deposits should almost always be matched to Invoice Payments and Sales Receipts, instead of Added. And consider this: If you are interested in profitability reports on the Products and Services you sell, you’re better off creating those expenses manually than you are categorizing them using the Banking Feed. Banking will put the payables straight to COGS, and you’ll never see the purchase of your products or subcontracted services. Instead, purchase the Items using the bottom section of the Bill, Expense or Check, then run a P&L with columns for Products and Services. Voilà! You can see if you’re losing money on any of your offerings, and which ones have the best margin.
I’m personally excited to look at Banking Rules with you. This is one of the single most powerful tools in QBO. Whereas QBDT only allows you to assign Payees and Categories to a Banking Feed transaction, QBO allows you to add full details. Automated Rules can even assign Classes, Locations, Memos, and Splits. I have created 75-100 rules for clients that almost completely automate their routine transactions, so that we only have to manually address the oddities.
At the end of our time together, we’ll spend some time troubleshooting. What do you do when you pull in a check instead of paying a bill? What do you do when you pull in a deposit instead of grouping several payments? You’ll be amazed how easy these are to fix.
So please join me in Atlanta and learn how to Tame the Banking Feed, and transform your day-to-day operations!