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Archive for February, 2012
Neat Promotion Features of QuickBooks POS Pro v10
Feb 19th
Do you use QuickBooks POS Pro version 10? There may be some advertising features that would be useful to implement to help you increase sales.
Printing Coupons on Receipts – with this feature you can print a coupon on receipts you print. For example, on the receipt it could say 10% off your next purchase of $25 or more on non-sale items. You can even dictate when a coupon prints on a receipt: always, randomly (such as every 10th receipt printed), or if the sale is greater than a certain amount (such as $45). If you already have a customer set-up to receive customer rewards, you can exclude coupons for that customer.
Email Marketing – with this feature you can automatically add customers to Constant Contact. Maybe you have a new sale this weekend and want to alert your customers. Send an email to your customer base through Constant Contact!
Email Documents – you can email receipts to your customers in several formats: .PDF, Text, HTML, & Excel.
Reward Manager – if you turn on this preference, you can give rewards to loyal customers. For example, you can say that if a customer spends $100 in merchandise, the customer can receive $10 or 10% off a future purchase. You can set rewards to occur during specific time frames. For example, if you want to set-up rewards only for purchases made for a specific weekend, you can do that. In addition, you can make rewards expire, which may entice the customer to come in sooner versus later to use the rewards and purchase more items from your store. In addition, you can exclude some items from earning rewards. For example, if you have a rare expensive item that you do not want a customer to earn rewards on, you can exclude that item.
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Remote Access Options for QuickBooks
Feb 19th
Let us say that you do not use QuickBooks Online but you want to be able to access your QuickBooks program remotely. Below are a couple of options you can use.
Intuit QuickBooks Remote Access – there are two levels of service provided by this company. For $3.95 per month you get access only to your QuickBooks program and transferring files. For $7.95 per month you get access to your entire computer. If you are a QuickBooks ProAdvisor you get this service for free for QuickBooks only access for up to two computers.
I tried this service on my father’s companies as a test. At first I got a green screen and nothing happened, but I was able to use the transfer file feature so I knew there was definitely a connection. I had to wait until the next day to access online chat support to find out how to resolve the issue. The steps did not work. Later, when someone was in the office, I was able to see the QuickBooks program. I think the computer went to sleep and that is why I could not access QuickBooks. When I could use the QuickBooks, I made a bunch of memorized reports for the companies for his employee to send to his tax accountant. I talked the employee through exporting the memorized reports to Excel, password protecting them, and emailing them to the tax accountant.
The service states that it is possible to print locally, but with my ProAdvisor access I could not figure out how to print locally. Perhaps it is only possible with the full access subscription.
For more information on this service, visit http://quickbooks.intuit.com/product/add_ons/remote_access.jsp.
LogMeIn – this is a service that was highly recommended on the Intuit Community website to access QuickBooks files remotely. I tried this program and like it a lot. The best part is that it is free!
With this program, you can access your computer wherever you are. The program allows access to the entire computer and prints locally. In fact, as soon as you log in, the program finds the local printer and shows a message that it can print there. The interface is easy to use and it worked the first time!
Another neat feature of LogMeIn, for iPhone/iPad users, is a free app that allows you to access your computer. I have used that and it works!
For more information on this service, visit https://secure.logmein.com/products/free/#RemoteControl.
Comparison – for both programs, it seems that if the computer is set to fall asleep after x amount of time the programs do not work. LogMeIn has the ability to wake up a sleeping computer, but only if Wake on LAN is enabled from the BIOS. You can change the settings on your computer to never fall asleep if the computer is plugged in.
LogMeIn worked right away and I did not need to contact customer support, but with QuickBooks remote access I had to wait until the next day to contact support and the steps that were recommended did not work.
LogMeIn allowed me to print locally from my printer and the program found the printer when I logged in, but with QuickBooks remote access I could not figure out how to print locally. It did not appear that I could, so maybe I would need the full access to do this.
I liked the security features of LogMeIn. First, you have to log into the program online with a username and password. Second, you have to log into your computer with a username and password. You could set-up users on your computer to only have access to certain programs and not allow someone to transfer files. Third, someone most likely would have to log into QuickBooks with a username and password. However, with QuickBooks remote access you just have to log into the website once and cannot have multiple users. Although QuickBooks might have multiple users, the person with remote access can transfer files from your computer.
If you need to use remote access, I recommend using LogMeIn over QuickBooks remote access.
If you are a QuickBooks ProAdvisor that needs to walk a client through an issue, I recommend using QuickBooks remote access.
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Using Estimates in QuickBooks for a Commission-Based Business
Feb 5th
Does your business sell products on behalf of several companies and receives a commission for the sales? Then using estimates in QuickBooks could be useful to you.
Tracking Commissions Owed – Let’s say you sell products from Unique Clothes Company to your customers. In return for the sales, your company receives a 10% commission. Instead of relying on Unique Clothes Company to pay you the correct commission earned, you can track the commissions earned yourself. Then, when the commission check is received, you can compare it against what you expected to verify that you are receiving the correct amount.
In QuickBooks you would create an estimate for the sales. Then you would create an invoice for the percentage that your company is paid. In this example it would be an invoice for 10% of the estimate. After invoicing off the estimate, you would mark the estimate closed.
Negotiate With Provider Customer – At the end of the year, you can generate reports to see how much you sold on behalf of Unique Clothes Company. Using this information, you could show trends and possibly negotiate a higher commission rate from the company.
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Estimates vs. Sales Orders in QuickBooks
Feb 4th
Some business owners may need to use estimates in QuickBooks but some may need to use sales orders to accomplish sales. The estimate feature is in QuickBooks Pro, but you have to use Premier or Enterprise if you want to use the sales order feature.
Estimates – Estimates are good to use if you have to provide a quote to a customer which the customer can accept or reject. Once accepted, you can invoice a customer using the estimate. If you have progress invoicing turned on, you can even invoice for a certain percent of the estimate or for specific items. If you create a subsequent invoice based on the original estimate, the progress invoice will show the original estimated amount, the previous amount invoiced, and the current amount due.This is a handy feature for construction or consulting firms.
Sales Orders – Sales orders are good to use if you sell inventoried products, such as books or clothes. You can also use sales orders to track services. When you are ready to invoice a customer, you can choose one or more sales invoices to include on one invoice. The invoice will show the sales order numbers, the original amount ordered, amounts previously invoiced, items backordered, and items currently invoiced.
Differences – An estimate is used when the customer has not yet accepted your product or service, whereas the sales order is used when the customer has definitely accepted your product or service. You can create a progress invoice with the estimate, but only for one estimate. With sales orders you can choose which items to invoice, like the estimate, but you can include multiple sales orders. Sales orders pull the item from inventory to give you an accurate idea of the amount available to sell, but estimates do not. You can generate estimate vs. actual reports for estimates. You can generate open sales order reports for sales orders.
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