The Magic of Three

Three is a magic number: there were three little pigs, three blind mice, and of course, three stooges (shuffle-on Curly!)! Today I offer you my three favorite business tips.

1  Don’t get personal

Commingling may be a great thing when you are making margaritas, but when it comes to your business books it can be the equivalent of a really bad morning after a few too many. Let me take this opportunity to offer you this sober advice – if you do not already have a separate checking account for your business – run, don’t walk to your friendly neighborhood bank and open one. This is the easiest way to keep all the financial aspects of your business separate from your personal ones.

2. Keep good records of your business transactions

Shoeboxes are overrated – at least as a place to keep your business records although they will often reveal fabulous wonders if you are anywhere near a Nordies.

Consider investing in inexpensive accounting software such as QuickBooks or use a spreadsheet such as Excel to keep track of your bookkeeping. The accounting software has the added benefit of providing you with financial reports, assisting you with reconciling your bank account, and generating customer invoices.

It is also a good idea to keep paper (or scanned) copies of the original documents for your expenses including bank statements, copies of checks and expense receipts.

3. Keep a mileage log

Many personal expenses are reimbursable such as driving your personal car to a convention or from customer to customer and yes, even to Starbucks if you are meeting a client or networking with one of your fab wibbie sisters. It is important to keep track of the dates of your trips, your mileage, and the purpose of the trip. This log and your notes can come in to play if you need to prove your mileage reimbursement in the event of an audit.

Let’s make sure that our business records reflect the professional business women that we all are!!

Keyboard Shortcuts

Using keyboard shortcuts can significantly speed up your data entry. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Ctrl + W opens the Write Checks form
• Ctrl + Q will create a Quick Report when an account or item is selected
• Ctrl + E allows you to edit the transaction or record
• Ctrl + P prints transaction
• Ctrl + Ins inserts a line in a transaction
• Ctrl + Del deletes a line in a transaction
• Ctrl + Enter records the current entry

Preferences

Welcome backstage! This is where you can customize QuickBooks to make it more user friendly for YOU! Here is your VIP pass: Go to Edit > Preferences. It is necessary to be logged in as the administrator to make some of the choices. My favorites are under the General tab: check “Pressing Enter moves between fields”; uncheck “Beep when recording a transaction” to stop that annoying sound each time you complete a transaction; and check “Turn off pop-up messages for products and services” to stop most of the sales ads.

General Suggestions

• Let QuickBooks do the math! Built into the software is a calculator which can be accessed in any number field. Use the + – * / keys to add, subtract, multiply and divide.
• When reconciling the bank statement (you are doing this, right?) check the box on the top right of the reconciliation window that says “Hide transactions after the statement’s end date.”  This will only show you transactions that are within your statement period.
• Change dates on a form by pressing T for Today, + to increase the date, – to decrease the date, W for the first day of the Week, K for the last day of the weeK (this first and last letter also works for MontH and YeaR).
• Looking for a transaction? Use the Find feature to quickly track the little guy down. Access the Find feature with Ctrl + F or Edit > Find

Make your QuickBooks zoom!

Are you now in love with your QuickBooks? Okay, relationship building takes time. Hopefully this has helped you to become a little more acquanted with your accounting program and to get done with your data input a little faster so you can go have some fun!