Quick-Look FAQ South Africa: Ask the Accountant Edition 

Meet Lauren du Plooy, a QuickBooks Proadvsisor from South Africa. Lauren is  full of localised, expert product knowledge and 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. If you would like to find a certified QuickBooks Proadvisor in your area you can do so here. 

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

Automation, wouldn't you love to save up to 60% of your processing time each month in your accounts department?

Also, accessing your books from anywhere on any device is an exceptional tool for any business owner and you will have up-to-date information at your fingertips.

No more server issues/network issues in your office. No more capital layout for new servers or data storage devices or worrying about backing up of your data file - everything is cloud bases

Cashflow is managed a lot easier with the online version especially using automatic invoice reminders to get those invoices paid on time

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

You have 2 options:

1.  QuickBooks offers free migration to online from any competitor software, speak to your accountant or Easybiz technologies to assist with this.
2. If you would like a fresh start for your new system you can import all masterfile information (lists) into QuickBooks Online and then you will need to bring in the opening balances for your year-end, this can all be imported - you can look for a migration specialist to assist you with this or even if your accountant knows QuickBooks they can assist

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?

Batch processing in the banking module. We love how clever QuickBooks becomes as it learns from your processing and will prepopulate information on these transactions so you can just approve them the next time they appear in your bank. As well as bank rules these save a huge amount of processing time each month

4. What are your favorite App integrations and why?

Dext used to be but with QuickBooks Online receipt capture that is going to be changing - We have been so excited with this new product release, clients being able to upload slips from the mobile app is a game changer. 

We also love Quotient App which is a proposal system that integrates with QuickBooks Online. 

Our Payroll of choice is Payspace with seemless integration into QuickBooks Online and for inventory we use Unleashed and MrPeasy. 

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 QBO?

• Processing customer payments to an income account instead of matching it to an invoice from the banking screen
• VAT, clients make mistakes on what expenses vat is claimable on
• They don't utilise the reconciling function, this is very problematic when they are processing manual transactions for customer & supplier payments as well as expenses. if they don't reconcile their bank accounts they are not picking up any errors and correcting them. we see a lot of incorrect bank balances due to this

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

• How to manage their cashflow - to plan for the future and make difficult decisions when the need arises 
• How to market their business - to understand their client's needs and the best way to then spend their marketing budget
• Time management - how to make sure the ball is not dropping in certain areas of their business, they need to make sure they have the correct team in place doing their jobs correctly to give the owner the space to work on the business and not get bogged down working in their businesses processes. 

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

 To have a business partner that has extensive knowledge in your industry is the most valuable tool you could need. This is how we want business owners to view their relationship with their accountant, We are here to support you every step of the way

We also to make sure the task of understanding your company's financials reports is not a daunting task but something that empowers you as a business owner to make decisions that will further your growth and success.

When it comes to managing your cash flow or looking at your annual forecasts and budgets - these are important tools that business owners need to be using daily and having an accountant on board managing these for you is extremely beneficial. 

Do you have a question or topic you would like us to cover in our next FAQ? Leave a comment below by clicking the green "Reply" button.