Many of our clients aren’t taking full advantage of the features QuickBooks has to offer; either they are looking to other software programs for answers or just not using the inherent features designed to take their business to the next level.
We tell our clients that QuickBooks can get you the “majority of the way” there. While there are times you’ll want to go outside of QuickBooks, they are the exception rather than the rule, and we can help guide you through these situations.
Here are a few of our favorite, built-in features.
- Inventory – You may think you’ll need additional software to do inventory; too often, we hear how clients spend valuable time researching tools to help them with this process, thinking they need Fishbowl or an Access Database. However, what they don’t realize is that QuickBooks Advanced Inventory already does this, allowing them to track VIN numbers, block numbers, serial numbers and more.
- Project reporting – While it’s true that QuickBooks doesn’t manage project costing well in terms of assigning workforce, materials and other items, QuickBooks does manage the post project reporting extremely well. Because the data is within the program, you don’t need to pay an additional $30,000 a year on software to spit it out. It’s simply a reporting function.
- Credit card payments – Say a client has an online store, needs to take credit card payments and track those payments … there is no reason to get a separate system or ERP software. It is fairly simple to integrate QuickBooks with your online store to track payments, inventory and more.
We love it when we can tell our clients that they can use QuickBooks; they are thrilled they don’t need another tool. After all, why would anyone want to recreate a tool that Intuit has already spent the time to design and make available to software you already have?
The moral of the story is, look to QuickBooks first.
If you need help, Fourlane can help you take full advantage of what you have. We work with clients in all industries using QuickBooks, so we know it inside and out. If it can’t be done using QuickBooks, we won’t hesitate to tell you and make a recommendation on how to proceed. Call us today.
