Quick-Look FAQ Ireland: Ask the Accountant

Quick-Look FAQ Ireland - Ask The Accountant 

Meet Clive Hand, a QuickBooks Accountant from Bluestone Accounting in Ireland. Clive is full of localised, expert product knowledge and is here to answer your top-of-mind accounting questions. As a small business owner using QuickBooks Online, an accountant can be the perfect pairing to make sure your books stay clean and up-to-date.

1. What are the biggest benefits of moving from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online?

I think the biggest benefits of moving to QuickBooks online is the ability to build an ecosystem of apps that work with QuickBooks Online to increase your level of productivity and efficiencies for your the practise or bookkeeper but also for the business owners. Digital transformation is the new buzzword for 2022 so by moving to QuickBooks Online, it makes it possible for even micro-businesses to lean on technology and software and have QuickBooks Online at the centre of this transformation. 

2. How do I go about migrating my data from desktop or another software to Quickbooks Online?

Migrating any data from another platform to QuickBooks Online requires a level of experience and expertise in the area of project management and data analysis to ensure that you bring across the data correctly into QuickBooks Online, and ensuring that the setup is also completed correctly.  While there is a lot of work involved in this type of project, the benefits greatly outweigh the investment required to spend on this type of Project. 

Quick-Tip: Check out our article on Importing Data into QuickBooks Online, and make sure you work with an accountant to make sure you keep your books clean. 

3. What is your favorite QuickBooks Online trick or workaround?

There are good QuickBooks Online tricks and workarounds that I like but my favorite is receipt capture and using my client’s inbox rules to automatically forward their supplier invoices from their inbox straight into QuickBooks Online.

Another excellent feature in QuickBooks online is the bank feeds and the ability to create bank rules within the bank feeds. This saves a lot of time from inputting payments and receipts from within the bank. I like that QuickBooks Online learns over time your frequent tasks and suggests these auto bank rules for you too. 

QuickBooks Online Accountant has some excellent features that I really like, this includes the ability to manage your teams, your clients and create tasks and work schedules and assign them to your team members. You can also create a checklist within each client under their books review for your team to complete on a monthly basis, you get a 360-degree view of the progress that your team is making on your clients bookkeeping each month so you can keep on top of the workload within the practice. 

4. What are your favorite App integrations and why?

I'm constantly trying out new apps and integrations for QuickBooks online then, especially for my own business. My favorite app currently is called Crezco which allows you to create payment links on your QuickBooks online invoices that you sent your clients or customers and this allows them to do a payment for that invoice straight away, even from their own mobile phone and those funds are deposited into your account straight away, so you don't have to wait on them to be cleared and it's free to use which is the extra benefit. 

Quick-Tip: For specific app support, you will need to reach out directly to that app for help. QuickBooks itself cannot advise or offer support with any 3rd party integrations.

5. What are the top 3 most common mistakes your client makes in QuickBooks Online?

The first mistake most clients make when starting to use QuickBooks Online is they don't go through the QuickBooks Online settings and switch on the options, features, and functions that are applicable to their business. So I always recommend spending some time with the client in the settings section to ensure you're getting the most out of QuickBooks Online and it's been used to the best of its abilities. 

Another likely mistake by clients is to post expenses into the wrong category type. Thankfully in QuickBooks Online as their QBO Accountant, you have an additional function to reclassify transactions that have been missed posted and the nice thing is you can do it in bulk as well rather than having to do every transaction individually. 

Another common mistake you see from clients who have multiple bank accounts and those bank accounts are connected via Bank feed is the duplication of bank transfers in QuickBooks Online. Remember you only need to post a bank transfer once. But you need to exclude that transaction from the bank feed in the other bank feed. Otherwise you end up with a posting from each bank feed leading to a duplicated posting which throws out your bank reconciliation. 

6. What is the biggest challenge(s) your client faces as a new business owner?

There are a number of challenges for new business owners but the common ones I see is not invoicing their own clients or customers on a timely basis, not receiving payment for those invoices on a timely basis and not being able to get a view of their cash flow in the short term.  QuickBooks Online makes it is easy for clients to create and send their own sales invoices, especially from the mobile app,  you can create email payment reminders from within the settings to automatically email those customers for payment,  you can integrate apps like Cresco to create payment links on the invoice making it easier for your client to get paid. With QuickBooks Online cashflow planner, it is now possible to provide clients with a cash flow projection for the next 3 months based on the Sales and Purchases entered into QuickBooks Online which provides some comfort and ease about their short-term ability to meet with commitments. 

7. What is the biggest advantage to having an accountant help manage your books and Quickbooks account?       

The biggest advantage to having an accountant to help you manage your books and have a QuickBooks online profile is that you have an advocate in your corner supporting your business and helping the business owner achieve your financial objectives and goals through the review of real-time financial information from QuickBooks Online and helping to introduce processes into the business on fronts such as cash flow, customer invoicing, managing your suppliers all through QuickBooks online in real-time thus providing that peace of mind of the client that their business and books are under control. 

8. What is the top of your wishlist for QuickBooks Ireland?

Haha I have a long wish list

I was delighted to see mixed-mode VAT (Cash Receipts) accounting updated and added on QuickBooks Online last year. I would like to see some additional reporting abilities around reconciling a VAT on a cash receipts basis. This would be a huge help. 

Other areas I'd like to see upgraded are additional features to Receipt Capture where the supplier invoice number is automatically captured, as well as the ability to split a VAT rate and expense categories. 

I would also like to have the ability to add more users. Currently QuickBooks Online Plus only allows up to 5 users at a time,  so for those businesses who need more than 5 users on QuickBooks Online creates a barrier. Having the ability to add additional users would be excellent. 

I would also like to see the Irish ProAdvisor Listing rolled out for Irish accountants and bookkeepers so potential clients wanting to use QuickBooks Online have a go-to place to find their nearest QuickBooks Online specialist who can help them with their books. 

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