Bookkeeping Challenge Questions
Ever been faced with a bookkeeping challenge and didn’t know where to turn to have your questions answered? Well here’s your chance. Ask your questions about bookkeeping and managing your company’s books and we’ll respond to you within 36 hours. Just leave your questions in the comments below.
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Certified Payroll Software Options
For those of you who execute payroll for your companies, you know that it can be a complicated and consuming process. The demands of maintaining the employee records along with tax payments and schedules can be a full time job in itself. As a small business owner your objective should be to streamline your process so that the majority of your time isn’t spent doing administrative tasks such as payroll. And what about specialized payroll functions and processes? Contractors and construction businesses will know what I’m referring to when I mention certified payroll.
Certified Payroll exists when contractors and subcontractors perform work on federally financed or assisted construction contracts. The Copeland Act (40 U.S.C. § 3145) requires these contractors to “furnish weekly a statement with respect to the wages paid each employee during the preceding week.” U.S. Department of require contractors to submit weekly a copy of all payrolls to the Federal agency contracting for or financing the construction project, accompanied by a signed “Statement of Compliance” indicating that the payrolls are correct and complete and that each laborer or mechanic has been paid not less than the proper Davis-Bacon prevailing wage rate for the work performed. Okay, that’s a mouthful; however, this is what the typical contractor deals with on a weekly basis when handling this special type of payroll. The good news is that this process can be automated with the proper software package.
The software of choice for my business and my clients has been Quick Books. Quick Books already comes with features that handle payroll, but even better, there are software packages out there on the market that integrates with Quick Books for various purposes. One of those purposes is certified payroll. Currently there exist several add-ons that streamlines the whole process of downloading payroll data into modules that will generate this government required certified payroll report. If you have ever had the privilege of completing certified payroll reports, then you know how time consuming it can be, especially when you have workers who are spread across various jobs during different periods. Depending upon the job and the hours performed on each, you may have to prorate that time at different wage rates. This involves numerous calculations. In addition, if you are reporting for union workers, we’re talking about more complications. Integrative software such as Sunburst Certified Payroll Solution or Quantum Certified Payroll Project Manager will assist in collecting the weekly time and wage data needed to complete the report. These programs are designed to import all job specific information from Quick Books directly into its program. Once the data is culminated, reports can be generated that are in a format which complies with governmental standards. The key features of these programs will not only save you time but will allow you to become more efficient so that you can concentrate on your business instead of the paperwork.
Automation is the key, and it’s best that you take full advantage of it to stay competitive in this market. The money you spend today on one of these programs today will save you valuable time and money in the long run.
Partnering for your success
Jacqueline E. Williams
Financial Strategist
RECENT UPDATES FOR QUICKBOOKS 2009
Last week I delivered a tele-seminar that focused on time management techniques using Quick Books. In that seminar I spoke of the online banking feature and its recent updates that allow you to transfer your bank transaction more efficiently. For those who were not able to attend, I wanted to give you a brief update of some of the enhancements that were made to online banking for Quick Books 2009. Here are just a few of the latest updates in release 7:
- IT RUNS FASTER! Yes, I’m sure you’ll agree that this is the number one upgrade for the feature. Especially for those with large files.
- The first split line of a transaction is now Pre-filled with the total amount.
- You are able to access other areas of the software while the Online Banking window is open.
- The Add New option now appears on the Account dropdown in a Deposit transaction.
- If your company file has more than 65535 names, QuickBooks no longer crashes when trying to load Online Banking.
- Bills now display properly if ‘Use Account number’ is enabled in Preferences.
- When opening splits and deposits for editing, the full downloaded amount will automatically appear.
For more information on this update, refer to your copy of Quick Books or visit one of Quick Books online forums or communities.
Partnering for your Success
Jacqueline E. Williams
Financial Strategist
Characteristics of a good Bookkeeper
Finding the right Bookkeeper doesn’t have to be a tedious task. If you put forward the proper effort and research, you will find that a minimal amount of time would be spent in this process. I thoroughly believe in doing my homework up front when it comes to making key business decisions. So, to make your process easier, I am supplying you with these necessary tools. Let’s take a look at some important characteristics of a good Bookkeeper.
Detail oriented
Attention to detail is a must! Imagine having a person who doesn’t read the fine print or always looks for shortcuts. Or even worse, imagine trying to make a deposit not knowing who paid you the money or for what service. Believe it or not, this does happen. Being thorough in your documentation is critical to accurately reporting your financial information. A good Bookkeeper will know this. They should be able to determine what information is necessary and what’s not.
Must love numbers
We always hear about how important it is to have a passion for what you do. Whether it’s a hobby, your profession, or your business, it makes good sense to enjoy it. Hence, it makes perfect sense that you not only like, but love dealing with numbers. Working with numbers requires that you have a clear understanding of math, and that you are not intimidated by its concepts. Math is such an exact science. There are no maybes in summing up totals or calculating balances. Either its right or wrong! It takes great courage to deal on this level with a very small margin of error. I’m not trying to scare you here; just trying to stress the importance of taking responsibility for numerical accuracy.
Analytical
A good Bookkeeper will have the necessary skills to be able to review and decipher information for varied purposes. They must be able to understand what to look for and how it impacts the entire picture. The ability to create what-if scenarios will also come into play. For planning purposes, analysis of financial documents is crucial to making important decisions such as, how much financing could be needed for expansion, the affordability of benefits, or the necessity of working capital.
Time Management
My favorite acronym applies here. PPP-Planning promotes progress! A good Bookkeeper knows how to organize their time for optimum results. This involves creating an audit of how your time is spent. The right Bookkeeper will:
1. Determine which tasks have priority over others.
2. Always allow time to focus on problems and their solutions.
3. Schedule for weekly reviews and updates.
4. Not multi-task. This one is tricky because the common practice is to multi-task. Although this is a desirable quality, I’ve found it best to focus on one task to its completion before moving to another. In my opinion this approach yields better results when given the time to focus solely on that task.
Technology guru (or somewhat)
Without a doubt, this proves to be one of the most important characteristics. Everything today is automated, and it doesn’t make sense to partner with someone who is not technologically inclined. Software is used in all aspects of business today. I can’t think of anyone today who uses a manual system. And if they do, believe me, in their search they will be looking for someone who can bring them into the twentieth century. Being wise as to selecting the right software and knowing how to integrate it into the business will improve productivity and performance. The right Bookkeeper will have the skills to accomplish this. They will also know how to troubleshoot for problems, provide installation, configuration, and conversion.
Knowing what to look for in a Bookkeeper is half the battle of finding one. Take your time and make a careful assessment and you’ll be on your way to better bookkeeping.
Partnering for your success
Jacqueline Williams
Financial Strategist
SOFTWARE REVIEW: PRODUCTS TO STREAMLINE YOUR EXPENSE REPORTING
This month’s focus has been on time management techniques. We are always looking for ways to work smarter instead of harder. So, the best approach is to have the proper tools on hand to assist you in your journey. I’ve found a few products that you can easily integrate with QuickBooks that can help you to save time in your daily bookkeeping process. These products all have one thing in common; their objective; to help you create a structured environment. So let’s take a look at three of them now.
Virtual Time+Expense
Virtual Time+ Expense is a web-based tool that simplifies that creates a paperless environment for monitoring time and expense. The name states it’s best feature; virtual. No need to have to wait for employees to bring you their time cards. With this software, they are able to enter all their data over the internet. The same goes for expense reporting. This products easily integrates with QuickBooks and also includes compliance controls.
EZtime
EZtime, another web based application tool gives employees the flexibility of entering their time sheets over the web. In addition to time and expense reports, employees can also receive company news information. Administrators have the ability to control the approval of employee workflow and tasks.
Exgis® Expense
Exgis® Expense is an easy-to-use software application that gives you the capability to track your expenses either through the Internet or on your smartphone as soon as they are incurred. Expense transactions recorded on your smartphone are made available in real-time so they are ready for review when you go online. It also has globalization features for International travelers (ie exchange rates). With a claim reporting system, you can easily transfer business or travel expenses into a claim statement for submission to your finance department - we can even incorporate your company’s existing claim statement right into our software. One of the key features of Exgis Expense is that it reflects immediate changes to business rules to all users in the system, even mobile users.
Partnering for your success
Jacqueline Williams
Financial Strategist