Every business seems to have some recurring transactions. Recurring payments are those you have to pay more than once, and often on a regular basis, such as monthly bills, insurance payments, rent and more. You can use the recurring payments function in Accounts Payable to streamline the process of paying monthly expenses.

Individual Recurring Transaction

Creating an individual recurring transaction involves setting up and saving the basic information on the invoice, so it can be retrieved and processed each time you need to pay that invoice/vendor. Typically you would enter a description that is familiar, so you can find the correct transaction each time you need to use it. Once you have entered all the necessary information for the individual recurring invoice, that invoice will be saved in a list of recurring transactions. When it comes time to processes the invoice, simply select it from the list, open and edit the dollar amount (if necessary), and save the transaction.

Groups of Recurring Transactions

For even more efficiency, set up your recurring transactions within a group (or batch)! For your monthly recurring transactions, set them up in a monthly recurring group, for your quarterly transactions a quarterly group, and so on. First, create the name of your transaction batch, for instance “Monthly Recurring Bills.” Set up individual transactions and assign each of them to their group. By assigning the transactions to a group, the entire group of transactions can be created easily when needed. When it comes time to run a group of invoices, you go in and change any information if needed, run those invoices, and print them along with a check.

Setting up and using recurring transactions can save you significant time!

Project tracking within your accounting software program is a great way to understand the cost of a project. It is fairly easy to set up and manage. Once set up, you track projects by attributing income and expenses to projects each time you enter them. Project tracking is not to be confused with ‘job costing’, which is a more complex function that includes the tracking of a job’s progress, timing, and other information; whereas project tracking deals mainly with the income and expense for a project. Here are the basics of project tracking, so you can decide if it’s the right thing for you to do for your business.

Setting up projects

If your accounting software includes the ability to track projects, you should be able to go into your setup options to create a new project and give it a name and/or an abbreviation. Make sure the name is easily recognizable, so it’s easy to identify during data entry. Keep in mind that you may actually have more than one project within a bigger project, so the name you give each project should reflect that. Otherwise, finding the right project can be confusing during data entry.

Assigning a project during transaction entry

Typically, once this is set up, a field within the transaction entry screen(s) will show you the projects you have available to choose from. Be sure to choose the correct project for that income or expense. If you forget to choose a project to associate with that transaction, most systems will let you edit the invoice afterward.

Getting reports by project

Most accounting systems will allow you to filter a variety of reports by project. Whether you are looking for a sales report, financial or general ledger report, use a filter within your report generation tool to include only the information that relates to your project. By filtering the reports this way, you won’t need to sort through loads of other information to get the information you are looking for.

When you are finished tracking a project and have all the information you need, many systems will allow you to mark that project inactive, keeping your list of projects to choose from accurate and easy to work with.

Once you set up and use project tracking, you might just be surprised how easy it is to keep track of even the smallest of projects. Keep in mind, that many systems also allow you to assign projects to your labor costs for a more accurate picture of complete project costs. Check your system today and give project tracking a try!

Learn why voiding checks is important within your accounting software, and also the general process for voiding checks.

A check should be voided if you still have the check in hand, and the check amount is incorrect, it was issued to the wrong vendor or bank, or the invoice should not have been paid. Once a check has been voided, a record of that transaction remains in the system. If you have already sent out the check, you should only void the check if they never received it, and you need to send a new one.

The void check function is used to cancel an existing payment transaction. If the check had been used to pay an invoice, then voiding that check will also reverse the payment for that invoice, returning it to an unpaid status. Once the open invoice has been restored, it will again display on the open invoices and vendor aging reports. If the original check was entered without applying it to open invoices, then the void process will also void the expense portion of the check.

If a check number had not previously been recorded, due to the check being destroyed before ever entering the system, you will have a gap in sequence numbers. If your business likes to account for all check numbers, it is good practice to record and void that check in your accounting software. That way you will not question the missing check number later on, as it will be accounted for within the system.

Accounting software is of course instrumental in helping manage your business finances. And in addition to that, accounting software includes a host of functions that help you organize information and manage processes within your business. The ability to manage inventory in multiple locations is one of those functions. Multiple inventory management can help you become more organized, streamline processes, and even keep your customers happy.

View stock quantities at multiple locations.

Do you have your inventory items in different locations? Maybe you have two different stores, multiple warehouses, or perhaps you keep some of your inventory on a truck. All of these are scenarios in which tracking inventory at multiple locations can be helpful. Above all, tracking inventory by location allows you to quickly see what you have, how many, and where it is. This saves the time of searching for your items, and it also keeps your customers happy by letting them know whether that item is available to them.

Customized pricing by inventory location

Tracking inventory by location lets you set pricing by location as well, especially helpful in the case that your stores have separate pricing schemes. Costing can also be tracked by location, which gives you a more accurate picture of true costs and profitability by location.

Keep track of quantities on order (purchase orders), assigned (sales orders), on hand and sold by inventory location.

When you organize your inventory items by location, your processes can become streamlined in several ways. You will be able to see, by location, which items are on order, which are assigned to sales orders, and which are available and sold. When you can view all of this information by location, it becomes much easier to stay organized, give customers accurate shipment information, and keep just the right quantity of inventory items in stock.

Tracking your inventory by location keeps you organized and because of that, you can also keep customers happy and add more profits to your bottom line.

With the startup of a new business comes a wide range of choices. Often, accounting software is not the most top of mind concern. However as a company grows, the need for a more robust accounting software package becomes evident. The basic software package that was installed upon startup lags behind and cannot keep up with the complexity of the growing business. Here are five main ways that basic accounting software packages differ from more advanced (or mid-range) accounting software.

Customizability: The longer you are in business, the more you realize that your business has a unique set of needs. For example, you want to show a special field on your invoice, or you want to start tracking information by sales category or by project. With a basic accounting software package, there is limited customizability, and therefore you must make due with a system that is made for the masses. Advanced accounting packages recognize that your business develops its own specific needs over time as it grows, and therefore allows for customization.

Data Limits: This is a major different between basic and advanced accounting software packages. A basic system will only allow for a finite number of things like inventory items, concurrent users, transactions, accounts, etc. Often this is the main reason for needing to upgrade to a more advanced system. When your business starts to require additional data storage, this is when a more advanced system can really make your life easier. Reporting: Again, for the sake of ease of use, basic accounting programs provide a limited set of reports for you to run. Yet your business may really need to see the data in its own way. For example, perhaps you want to include a line that shows the subtotal per item with tax. A more advanced program will allow for revisions to be made, and the reports can then be saved for later use, so that you can view the information in a way that is more helpful to you and your accountant.

Data drill down: How easy is it to view all of the details of a transaction when you are looking at your business numbers on a report? In a more basic system, you will likely need to close out the report and go searching through layers of information to find the details. By contrast, a more advanced system will allow you to view the transaction details that make up the number with just a few clicks, and will even allow you to edit the information on the fly.

Service: As with any product available today, the end result of paying too little means your service will be less as well. Many basic accounting software programs will defray service expenses by outsourcing their service to an overseas call center. More advanced programs provide more complete support services, with a variety of contact methods, and technicians with years of experience.

When choosing accounting software for your business, be sure to consider all of the above points so your system will grow along with your business.