"Flying by the seat of your pants," is not a phrase that should refer to how one runs their business. Unfortunately, it seems to describe all too many companies.

The good news is that the 4.5 million QuickBooks users and their accountants can take steps to work more efficiently with QuickBooks to get a solid grasp of a business' financial health.

"With so many small businesses using QuickBooks, most CPA Firms  are having to deal with inaccurate, incomplete or inconsistent data they get from their clients," said Gustavo A Viera, founder of Gustavo A Viera CPA, a large QuickBooks consultant. "That presents all sorts of problems. Obviously, it's hard to prepare a tax return from bad data, so a lot of CPAs find themselves in the business of cleaning up the QuickBooks data files from their clients. The core of the problem is that the clients were never really properly trained on how to put data in [QuickBooks]."

There are several ways that CPAs and their clients can work better with QuickBooks, including a regular review of client data and utilizing remote access tools, but, as Viera indicated, having the correct set-up and training from the beginning ensures that users get off on the right foot.

There are many training options, whether it be finding a small classroom environment at a local college or signing up for a virtual training course. But the cost may be three times as high, but the value is 10 times as high.Best advice is Invest in some professional guidance and get set up and going properly.

Regularly reviewing a client's data is critical. You don't want to find out at the end of the year that a significant mistake has been made and it could have been resolved had it been caught earlier on. To help avoid such issues, experts recommend that an accounting professional be involved on a regular basis and review data files at least quarterly, if not monthly or weekly.

REMOTE AND HOSTED CONTROL

Perhaps the easiest and most efficient way to stay involved in the client's data and to resolve any QuickBooks questions or issues that may arise is to take advantage of remote access tools, such as GoToMyPC, QuickBooks Remote Access, or to use a QuickBooks hosting company to host the client's data in the "cloud." Taking advantage of remote access tools and logging into a client's desktop enables accounting professionals to review client data or resolve issues within QuickBooks, eliminating the time wasted driving to and from a client's office.

Furthermore, if QuickBooks is used in a hosted environment, as opposed to being on a client's desktop, there's even greater flexibility to access data from anywhere, at any time.

CATCHING CLIENT MISTAKES

Having greater access to a client's data can help catch and resolve client mistakes, some of which may be more costly than others.

"Accountants  work with so many different clients, but almost all clients make mistakes that are very, very common," acknowledged Victoria Dolginsky, QuickBooks Accountant Edition product manager at parent Intuit.

According to Dolginsky, there are about 4.5 million businesses using QuickBooks and about 97,000 accounting firms that work with small businesses and help them with QuickBooks.

Some common mistakes include, but are not limited to: numerous old accounts, customers, vendors or items within lists; a growing balance in undeposited funds; payments that are not applied to invoices; unapplied vendor credits; and incorrect or inconsistent inventory procedures.

One significant mistake that a client with inventory could make, noted Woodard, is to improperly merge inventory items. This will distort data and is irreversible.

NEW TOOLS

Looking to make QuickBooks even easier for accounting professionals in serving their clients, Intuit has developed many tools. Among the more popular is the Client Data Review tool. Client Data Review, which was introduced in 2009, with four new tools in 2010, helps accounting professionals be more productive when detecting and correcting client data errors. Features include a tool to quickly reclassify transactions, real-time data refresh as corrections are made to the client's data, and the ability to track changes to the QuickBooks lists, including added, deleted, merged or edited.

BE SMALL BUT PLAY BIG

The QuickBooks consulting market is poised for growth, but there's no doubt that the market isn't what it used to be. Today, in order to grow a consulting business, consultants must be willing to change with the times and be well-versed in third-party add-ons, find ways to differentiate from the competition and be masters of networking

Since the launch of the first QuickBooks software development kit for third-party developers in conjunction with the release of QuickBooks 2002 products, the universe of third-party add-ons has caught on like wildfire. It is estimated that today there are more than 450 add-ons available. 

Add-on products have become necessary to many small and midsized businesses as they provide businesses with the specific tools and functions they need.

Intuit Partner Platform director Alex Chriss noted that more recently, the company opened the doors to all developers and independent software vendors interested in building online applications on the platform. The IPP gives developers the opportunity to build Web-based applications, as well as Software-as-a-Service businesses, and to focus on developing on-demand software solutions that solve unique problems for the small and mid-market businesses using QuickBooks.

"What we are getting from the CPA market right now is that a lot of people are interested in learning how these add-ons work, because they can go in and actually make a fair amount of money implementing third-party add-ons," said Chris Farrell, vice president of sales and marketing for Virtual Software, an add-on for a Web-based time-and-expense reporting platform that seamlessly integrates with QuickBooks. Virtual Software even takes the power of paperless to a new level by seamlessly integrating with another add-on for document management - SmartVault.

"The CPA helps elevate the user from a system that worked pretty good to all of the sudden running a very, very efficient organization that has all of the advantages from a cost and productivity and employee morale [standpoint] that your larger enterprises have," said Farrell, who noted that Virtual Software has 40,000 people logging into the system every day. "Be small but play big. That's the big opportunity."

Gustavo A Viera CPA

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