I have just joined this new company. So far I have worked in other companies on Sage Line 50.(upto TB stage). However this one uses quickbooks. I got a 10 minute training but feel a bit lost. To make matters worst the accounts haven't been touched since last 4 months. Company is not VAT registered. I was given bank statements and asked to start bank reconciliations. Can someone please advise if this is the best way to simply input customer receipts and payments from bank statements to reconcile.
Hi ??? Can you please pop a name on your post or profile please. Also we usually ask newbies to pop a bit of an intro on the first post as that helps us to help you with the way answers are given. So, just a bit of background - how long a bookkeeper, do you just work for the one company or do some self employed bookkeeping work as well/who did you train with/what qualifications do you have or are you undertaking? Where are you based? Not too much - just to give us an idea.
The other thing we need to know is what sort of Quickbooks? Is it the desktop version ( and what year) or quickbooks online?
How many hours/days a week are you working at this company? Is it just in the accounts department and is there someone else in the department or is it just you? just trying to gauge how much time you have to get to grips with it all and if you have someone who can help you there, as well as this forum.
The good thing with this one is that they are not VAT registered so this generally makes things a lot lot easier, certainly there are no looming timescales to get it all done for so that gives you some breathing space.
The Bank is a good place to start up to a point. First of all, its worth checking that you agree with the last Bank reconciliation completed.
Also - if its a desktop version, take a couple of backups and test the backups work BEFORE you do anything at all. Then backup at very regular intervals, in fact I would go so far as to say that and every time you try something new in the system, so you can backtrack out of it if you need to without having to do rafts and rafts of re-keying.
You can start to input customer receipts and supplier payments from the Bank statement, but only as far as the customer and suppliers invoices that they matching to have been entered.
Who issues the sales invoices? What I mean is....are they done on the QuickBooks system or on another? That would probably be my first job to get those entered. You can see the last ones entered by getting a sales day book reporT, so you know where to start. Then the purchase invoices. (plus any credit notes). I would be checking the supplier statements carefully to ensure no docs are missing.
Then you can start on the missing source documents eg those small receipts for bits of things purchased/making sure you have relevant invoices for any items paid by Direct debit, plus wages journals and the like.
Just concentrate fully on one aspect at a time and you will surprised how quickly you can catch up.
It might help us to know the type of business (no business names or identifying features though) so we can suggest what else you need to look out for, but that's up to you.
Quickbooks does have a handy help function, but there are also some QuickBooks users on here who can help.
-- Edited by Cheshire on Monday 17th of October 2016 08:34:02 AM
__________________
Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
As Joanne says, concentrate on what you can do and work your way through the backlog. Personally I would enter the customer and supplier invoices first and then reconcile with the bank statements. I use QB2012 pro and its very forgiving if you make mistakes, very easy to go back in and correct errors.
Drop me a line if you need any help with specifics.
I use QB's Desktop and QB's online all the time so ask away.
Hi Amanda. Just out of curiosity, and in relation to newbook's question. If you were to input from the bank statement first rather than the purchase and sales ledgers, would that leave you with a list of transactions that you could then marry up the purchase and sales receipts to?
In VT you can do this, creating a customer or supplier on the fly, then finding the relevant paperwork to match, which I find a godsend at times if there is a discrepancy in the invoices I've received and the relevant payments.
__________________
John
Any advice given is for general guidance and professional advice should be sought applicable to your circumstances.
