At first glance, running a small business seems like a ton of fun. You get to set your hours, be your own boss, and work doing something you’re passionate about.
But then the accounting responsibilities set in, and it can be easy to become overwhelmed.
A good small business accounting software package can help you get your finances in hand so you can get back to running your business. Read on to learn more about some of the features small business accounting software might include.
1. Payroll
One of the trickier parts of running a small business can be managing payroll.
Writing the checks on time is one thing, but you also have to make sure you’re following all the required compliance and tax laws. QuickBooks can make handling payroll simple for you.
You can generate instant paychecks for all W-2 and 1099 employees at the push of a button. You can set up free direct deposit for those employees and electronically pay and file taxes at the end of the year. You’ll have automatic tax calculations, federal and state forms completed for you, and printed W-2s and other forms ready to go for your employees—no hassle, no fuss.
2. Inventory Management
Trying to keep up with your inventory can become of the most time-consuming tasks for business owners.
You may feel like you don’t have any option but to go through and count everything by hand, making a list of what you have and totaling up the value of your inventory. QuickBooks is here to change the game and make inventory a breeze.
With QuickBooks, you can set up mobile inventory barcode scanning. You can send sales orders to workers on the floor, they can scan the inventory within a warehouse, and that information will get transferred wirelessly.
That data will go into an advanced inventory management system that uses your same QuickBooks interface and automatically inputs data into the correct fields. If you don’t have barcodes for your products, QuickBooks can generate them!
3. Pricing
Pricing your items in an inventory system can be tricky, especially when things go on sale. You don’t want to have to set different price points for each item as it goes on sale. And trying to change stickers on every item can be time-consuming and costly.
QuickBooks makes it easy to customize and automate pricing for all of your items.
You can change your prices all from within the QuickBooks user interface, no manual changes required. Those barcodes you created will update automatically, and your customers can focus on what’s important: helping your customers.
4. Advanced Reporting
It’s important as a small business owner to have a clear picture of how your company is running.
You need to know what’s working well for you and what isn’t so you can take the steps you need to maximize your bottom line. And the trick to keeping that clear image is solid reporting.
QuickBooks provides you with advanced reporting software that puts all the data you need at your fingertips. You can build any report you need to discover untapped data on how to optimize your business. You can also combine multiple company files to create custom reports using ODBC-compliant applications
5. Different User Accounts
In many cases, you might not be the only one working in your accounting software.
Maybe you have a business partner, or maybe you’ve hired an accountant to keep track of your finances. In any case, it’s a good idea to be able to set up multiple different user accounts in your accounting software.
Depending on which version of QuickBooks you get, you may be able to set up as many as thirty different user accounts. Adding more users as you grow is easy. And all thirty users can be on QuickBooks simultaneously, making your accounting collaboration efforts easier than ever.
6. Easy Billing
Billing is another major piece of keeping your business running.
You need to be able to run invoices for people, keep up with who’s paid what, and send out reminder notices as needed. QuickBooks makes billing simple and automatic so you never have to wonder if you’re missing a payment again.
You can run all your invoices for the month with the touch of a button in QuickBooks. You can easily mark when payments come in, and QuickBooks will keep track of which payments are overdue and by how much. You can even disallow selling to a customer who gets too far behind on their payments, making sure your entire company is on the same page with collecting those payments.
7. Budgeting
Of course, you have to be able to manage your business budget well if you want to keep your bottom line in the black. But with all the things that go into running a small business and all the people who have a hand on the wheel, it can be difficult to stick to that budget.
QuickBooks makes budgeting simple and keeps your revenues high.
QuickBooks’s job costing software helps you keep track of expenses as you pay bills, employees, vendors, and subcontractors. It can let you know when you’re spending over your budget and show you areas of high spending where you might want to trim back. And setting up this budget is a matter of a few clicks, making your financial goals more approachable than ever.
Find the Best Small Business Accounting Software
The best small business accounting software should be a partner that helps you to run your business more efficiently.
With QuickBooks, you can do everything from managing your inventory to sending out invoices all at the touch of a button. Budgeting, reports, payroll, and pricing are available at your fingertips, leaving you free to focus on running your business the way you want to.
If you’d like to get started with QuickBooks, check out the rest of our site at Fourlane. We can help you get set up with any edition of QuickBooks you need, including QuickBooks Small Business and the QuickBooks POS.
Contact us today to start running your business accounting the smart way.
