Pump Up Your Cash Flow By Getting Paid
by DENISE O’BERRY

Recently a copy of the “Getting Paid Survey” landed in my mailbox. The survey was conducted by an independent firm for Intuit, the makers of QuickBooks, from Oct. 7-10 and included a sampling of 751 small business owners with less than 10 employees. The results say some really sad things about how small business owners are managing the cash side of their business. I know you know better, but I’ll share the results with you anyway.

Don’t Do This

Let your invoices age
Guess how many invoices are overdue in your business
Forget to invoice
Forget to follow up on an overdue invoice
Manually handwrite your invoices
Lose a customer because you don’t accept credit cards
If you’re not doing any of the above, good for you. But the survey results paint a different picture. Here’s what the survey revealed.

Nearly 40 percent of small business owners have aging invoices of over 30 days with some not knowing how many days it takes to get paid.

You simply must collect on your invoices. Don’t allow them to age. Invoice as soon as work is completed, or better yet set milestones for payment and get that cash in your account.

Nearly 20 percent of small business owners admit to forgetting to invoice or follow up on an overdue invoice.

There is no excuse for this. If you are uncomfortable asking for money from your customers, you shouldn’t be in business. Get this taken care of now.

66 percent of small businesses still handwrite invoices, use word processing programs and spreadsheets, or simply don’t have a standardized method.

Time to move into the 21st century. Get a financial software program like QuickBooks (or sign up for one online) and get those invoices generated.

20 percent of small businesses admit to having lost a customer because they could not accept credit cards.

Lots of people carry little to no cash these days. They can’t buy what you sell if you don’t take credit cards. If you can’t find a merchant account, check out PayPal online as an option.

Another great benefit is the ‘green’ aspect. In a time when we are going green you can email your clients/customers their invoices and then process their payments online; saving paper, trees, mailing costs, and (most importantly) time.

If you are looking for ways to improve our business practices, don’t overlook such a simple but cost effective tool. Keeping cash flowing helps ensure that you can be about the business of running your business, not working on past due accounts.

Hosting your QuickBooks file in the Cloud means that instead of going to your desktop computer and logging straight into QuickBooks, you login through the Internet. You can do this Anytime, Anywhere with secure password information.

That means you don’t have to use QuickBooks online, that doesn’t have all the functionality that a desktop version has. It also means you don’t have to invest in expensive hardware to have your own server. Hosted QuickBooks is like having a server in the clouds. It takes away the need for you to invest in hardware, maintenance and software.

In a hosted environment, you get:

* Latest release of desktop versions of QuickBooks (Pro, Premier or Enterprise) * Microsoft Word & Excel * Automatic offsite backups

And more! It depends on who you host through as to the particulars of cost and included software options. We also include Unlimited, Enhanced Payroll in our service through RPPC.

You can start a new file, convert your online file to the Cloud, or simply move existing data file from your computer. It’s the way of the future for business owners who are constantly on the go and working from multiple locations.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to call or email.

The desire to focus on what we do, rather than on billing, project management or those looming tax deadlines is what is at the heart of why every entrepreneur went into business. This has become increasingly easy with tools like remote access, virtual assistants, online accounting packages, and cloud computing. With the wealth of cost-effective online tools now, more than ever, the day-to-day tasks of running your business from your laptop or even a tablet computer is doable.

Make sure you are keeping up on the current technologies that can help you keep your business moving and growing. Keeping your business on track and profitable is a challenge, but it is getting easier and more efficient everyday.

Check out this awesome app Quickbooks View My Paycheck App

Increase efficiency & accuracy

Set-up recurring transactions to record at regular intervals over a period of time. Choose to record automatically or have QuickBooks remind you or just add the transaction to a list and its ready for entry with one mouse click at any time. A recurring transaction that has been set-up in QuickBooks is called a memorized transaction. Memorized transactions reduce mistakes, keep better tabs of cash in bank and increase accuracy:

Why Use Memorized Transactions in QuickBooks?

Here are examples of recurring transactions that will save you time to set up as memorized transactions in QuickBooks:

Recurring outgoing cash flows

• Loan or lease payments
• Recurring bills in QuickBooks
• Recurring checks in QuickBooks
• Monthly health insurance bills
• Monthly electronic withdrawals from checking such as internet access payments or business insurance installment payments
• Rent

Recurring sales in QuickBooks

• Recurring sales transactions
• Rent collections
• Monthly installments payments due from customers
• Repeating tuition invoices

Recurring purchases orders in QuickBooks

• Purchase Orders that are repeated with many of the same items

Recurring journal entries in QuickBooks

• Recurring Monthly depreciation journal entries
• Allocation of overhead to other departments

Recurring Estimates – if you frequently choose the same line items when creating a quote

Providing Accounting Services For Small Businesses

Austin Small Business Accounting Services are available.  RPPC provides virtual accounting services for businesses Austin and surrounding areas. We specialize in custom solutions for any business. We don’t just occasionally use QuickBooks®…we specialize in QuickBooks®! We differentiate ourselves through onsite, customized and virtual accounting and bookkeeping solutions for you.

We offer a full range of services to clients through our leading edge technology through QuickBooks® and Cloud offerings. We offer everything from bookkeeping, data analysis, job costing, budgeting to financial review services.

We want to be your partner for financial success.We take the time to help you feel better about your accounting and bookkeeping processes and know that your financial information is accurate and timely. Our staff has over 40 years of experience in working with a variety of clients in many industries.

For more information: http://rppc.net/accounting-services/