With technology driving change in the accounting world so quickly, you may be overwhelmed with how this change can impact you and your business. Although you may have moved to a virtual work environment for day-to-day accounting processes, there is so much more you can do to streamline and customize your accounting to meet your operational demands. Last fall, the CK accounting services team attended the QuickBooks Connect conference in San Jose, CA where the theme was “Own Your Future”. Thousands of business owners, self-employed individuals, and accounting professionals came together to gain and share knowledge, skills, and insights to better run their businesses.

The takeaway from the conference was that the accounting world is evolving, and we need to be part of that evolution by using technology to streamline processes. Our mission as accountants and QuickBooks Pro Advisors is to assist you in understanding your operations, streamlining your processes, maintaining your control functions and providing you with trending applications to help you succeed. This technology is not meant to recreate the wheel but revolutionize the process through artificial intelligence (AI).

As a small business owner, you wear several hats ranging from accounting, marketing, and hiring. Accounting may not be your passion but keeping your books up to date and organized is crucial to your success. Meaningful financial statements can be a click away through applications and the automation of your accounting tasks. In this blog we’re providing an overview of a few ways to free up your time so you can spend it on other aspects of your business.

QuickBooks Online Automation Features

Bank Feeds: This feature allows you to link your bank and credit cards to QuickBooks Online (QBO) and automatically download cleared transactions. This process significantly reduces manual data entry and makes the month-end reconciliation process much simpler.

Bank Rules: This is an additional feature that can further automate the bank feeds by recognizing and categorizing transactions by certain details, including description, bank text and dollar amounts.

QuickBooks Payments: This feature gets you paid faster by allowing your customers to make a payment directly from your emailed invoice with one click. The payments are automatically received against open invoices, and deposits are automatically recorded in QuickBooks. Payments can easily be made by bank transfer or credit card.

Applications That Automate Data Entry

ReceiptBank
Ditch the shoebox! With ReceiptBank, your clients can simply take a picture of an invoice or receipt and upon uploading, ReceiptBank reads the information and automatically publishes it in QuickBooks as a transaction.

Bill.com
Spend up to 50% less time paying bills. Bill.com delivers everything you need to simplify every step of your bill pay process with automated approval workflows, paperless document management, domestic and international payment options, seamless integration with QuickBooks software, and more.

AR Collect
Get paid faster. This app helps manage receivables and makes collections easier by syncing with QuickBooks and Sage products to send batch emails in a single click, automatically send past due notices based on number of days past due, send advance reminders prior to upcoming due dates, and much more.

QBO Full-Service Payroll
This is an automated payroll solution with integrated time tracking and tools that help you grow your business. It’s truly full service! Once you submit your payroll, they take care of everything else such as paying employees via direct deposit, submitting all tax payments, and filing quarterly and annual tax filings electronically (even W-2s). And the best part? Payroll is automatically recorded in your general ledger.

T-Sheets
This web-based and mobile time tracking and employee scheduling app can help keep you and your team organized. TSheets is an ideal system for businesses with employees who always, or sometimes, work outside the office. Remote employees can clock in and out using the TSheets mobile app, laptop computers, telephones, text messages or even Twitter.

There are many other industry-specific apps that can provide your company with a more robust accounting platform. Contact us for more information.

As AI continues to revolutionize the growth of applications it will continue to simplify and automate work, eliminate tedious tasks, and provide you with information so you can run your business successfully. The CK Accounting Services team is available to provide clients with direction on how to select the right tech stack. Contact us today to request a needs assessment and discuss ways your accounting processes can be enhanced through the use of apps and related technology.