QBO Sales

Credit Memos in QuickBooks Online – For Accurate Financials [VIDEO]

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qbo credit memo video featured

Video transcript

00:00 QuickBooks Online credit memos ensuring
00:02 accurate reporting okay so I let’s start
00:06 off your video off with a quick answer
00:08 so that somebody just needs to know
00:11 where to navigate to can get the
00:14 information they need the as you can see
00:17 there’s kind of a lot of aspects a lot
00:20 of quick answers to this video I will
00:21 start with the most fundamental which is
00:23 how to actually create a credit memo
00:24 okay and that’s easy enough that it is
00:28 done by going up to the new button and
00:30 under the customers heading you’re gonna
00:33 click on credit memo okay so once you
00:36 have a credit memo in there so you want
00:38 to apply that credit memo to an invoice
00:40 for a customer that’s new receipt
00:44 payment and enter the pertinent
00:56 information there back you out okay say
01:06 that you’re not able to do that ideal
01:09 thing where it makes more sense to issue
01:11 a refund rather than a credit memo you
01:14 can do that also in the new button and
01:17 hit refund receipt under the customers
01:21 column
01:34 and you’ll select the amount of the
01:36 refund there and fill out all the other
01:38 pertinent information about the customer
01:40 and then finally the customer request
01:43 statement or if you send out statements
01:45 as a matter of procedure then that’s
01:49 going to be a little different area
01:50 that’s gonna be the sales menu and
01:53 customers and you’re gonna select a
01:55 customer those sales customers okay you
02:01 just select the customer and batch
02:04 actions it’s a little tough to say and
02:07 create statements pick your statement
02:11 type your date range and send it the
02:15 customer okay so that’s it for the quick
02:19 answer now I’m gonna get into a little
02:22 more detail there’s a lot to cover here
02:25 so we’ll start plugging away okay so
02:32 first of all what our credit memos
02:35 excuse me
02:37 credit mine was the ability to credit a
02:38 customer for a particular dollar amount
02:41 next time that they receive an invoice
02:43 the credit will reduce the amount that
02:45 they owe it’s not a refund not the same
02:49 thing similar in nature but not the same
02:52 cash does not go back to the customer
02:55 which all things being equal is good you
02:58 don’t want cash leaving a business if
03:00 you can help it
03:01 it can be reflected on a customer
03:03 statement of course and should be and
03:06 will reduce the amount of accounts
03:10 receivable that you have once you’ve
03:12 created a credit memo okay so why use
03:14 them you know changing a transaction
03:19 like a past transaction can create
03:23 confusion you know if you’re tweaking
03:26 the amount that you sold it for or start
03:29 fidgeting around with you know standard
03:32 prices and and that sort of thing you
03:35 might not know the details of why you’re
03:38 doing what you’re doing so you know your
03:40 books could become out of balance if the
03:42 transaction was in a previous period too
03:44 so you know in simply discounting the
03:49 next transaction along the same lines
03:51 isn’t gonna tell the whole story you can
03:53 look back a year from now two years you
03:56 know you could send out a statement to
03:57 the customer they weren’t clear about
03:59 what happened and you don’t remember if
04:01 you deal with a lot of customers a lot
04:03 of transactions or somebody else in your
04:05 organization did it or you didn’t do a
04:08 credit memo but edit a transaction it
04:10 just can create confusion so you know a
04:13 credit memo accurately portrays the
04:15 events that took place okay it creates
04:17 what they call an audit trail it you
04:21 know allows you to look at it and
04:26 basically do what I out on this channel
04:30 is to make sure your accounting system
04:33 matches reality you know so it’s
04:37 beneficial in those terms and you know
04:43 really the the correct the best practice
04:46 so to speak when it comes to giving a
04:48 customer credit you know and a credit
04:51 memo is preferable to a cache where you
04:53 fund all things being equal sometimes
04:55 you’ll have to do a refund perhaps but
04:58 you know the reason for that is because
05:00 the old finance or basically what
05:03 corporate finance is built on a dollar
05:05 today is worth more than a dollar
05:06 tomorrow you want to keep that cash in
05:08 the organization so you can use it so
05:10 you can use it to pay employees so you
05:11 can use it to pay vendors okay so you
05:14 can reinvest it in your business and if
05:16 you send cash out to the customer
05:19 there’s no guarantee that they’re going
05:20 to return with that cash okay if if you
05:23 can get away with using a credit memo as
05:25 opposed to a refund then it incentivizes
05:27 them to come back their next purchase is
05:30 going to be less it’s going to have a
05:33 credit applied so you know it’s that’s a
05:37 couple of the reasons that a credit memo
05:39 is preferable to a cash refund with
05:43 QuickBooks Online it can be applied
05:45 automatically this is something you
05:47 specify in accounts and settings to
05:51 automatically when you create a credit
05:53 memo to apply to next invoice but yet
05:56 like I said you have to turn that
05:57 setting on
05:59 so we’ll get in a little more detail
06:02 rather than a quick answer rushing
06:04 through how to create a credit memo
06:09 again you’re gonna go to the upper left
06:14 do new button bit credit memo will
06:19 appear under customers credit memo and
06:25 then you’re gonna pick your customer
06:26 that’s going to receive the credit memo
06:32 will use won’t Duke’s basketball camp
06:36 again so you need to specify what the
06:45 credit memo was for if it’s you have to
06:50 use your judgment here if it’s in
06:52 regards to something being miss you know
06:59 something wrong on the invoice to the
07:01 customer or something an error involving
07:05 a particular product or service you can
07:06 select that particular product or
07:08 service and edit the quantity and/or
07:10 rate rate over to the right here or
07:15 potentially you could create a non
07:17 inventory product or service and
07:22 basically edit the description to say
07:25 this is a credit for you know the
07:31 customer was upset about the customer
07:33 service or something or whatever the
07:34 reason may be you know just so again so
07:37 you’ve got something a thorough
07:39 description there so you know when you
07:41 look at it years from now what you did
07:43 this for so maybe we miss billed if
07:50 that’s even a term build an error for a
07:56 rock fountain to Duke’s basketball camp
07:59 and we want to issue a credit memo for
08:03 $275 08:10 okay so we enter that information
08:14 product or service it is optional you
08:16 can just enter a quantity or rate also
08:19 and then you’re gonna hit save and new
08:23 if you want to do another you have a
08:25 couple credit memo standard Savin San to
08:27 email them the credit memo or just save
08:30 and close to exit in this case you can
08:33 preview it if you’re sending it to the
08:34 customer and you know actually let’s do
08:38 this let’s just delete this and let’s
08:44 just say we’re going to credit the
08:45 customer $275 they’re no product just we
08:49 messed up here’s our credit for $275
08:56 okay so that got sent to the customer
09:00 this is a sample company so didn’t
09:02 really send it to anybody but now it’s
09:05 in a system for Dukes basketball camp
09:08 okay so you expanse of all camp comes
09:11 back to us for more landscaping services
09:13 that’s our sample company that’s the
09:15 business they’re in and we’re gonna play
09:18 that credit to the next invoice so have
09:21 to have an existing invoice to credit of
09:23 course and it’s only necessary if
09:27 automatically applied credits like I
09:29 mentioned and account settings isn’t
09:31 selected and to do so you go to new the
09:35 upper left button receive payment and
09:44 hopefully there’s a default invoice in
09:46 here for Dukes basketball camp let’s see
09:56 doesn’t have an open invoice okay so I
10:00 picked the wrong customer there let’s go
10:03 with Geeta okay
10:06 so we’re gonna select we chose this
10:12 customer we’re gonna select the
10:13 appropriate invoice with a checkbox and
10:15 then there we go and then down below
10:24 here we would have a credit section that
10:30 we could apply to Gita’s let’s back out
10:36 of here and do it the right way
10:39 new credit memo and let’s apply it for a
10:51 friend eat it
10:57 let’s see I’m just doing them out here
11:03 over the 275 there okay now we have a
11:17 credit memo and forget it – now we will
11:25 go to new receive payment we know Geeta
11:30 has at $623 employees has standings
11:33 there I’m
11:45 is that and actually in this case they
11:51 are automatically applied
11:53 so you’ll notice the original amount 629
11:55 I misspoke but here’s the balance
11:58 at $275 doesn’t itemized it here but
12:02 you can see that it did apply it on the
12:06 next invoice if it’s not automatically
12:10 applied like I said it’ll appear down
12:11 here below where you can select the
12:12 credits that you want to apply to credit
12:14 memos to the invoices you’ve selected so
12:18 when we applied that save and send to
12:22 Geetha and hopefully it will show
12:26 applied on her PDF here no it doesn’t
12:36 that’s a little bit of a shortcoming a
12:37 little more detail would be good there
12:39 but what’s important is Geetha gutter
12:43 credit
12:44 okay so Geetha is a happy customer once
12:46 warm and you know we go back about our
12:50 business
12:52 so issuing a refund now let’s say Geetha
12:56 said no I’m never doing business with
12:57 you again I’m outraged you know it’s a
13:01 bad situation
13:02 I want to refund okay then to issue a
13:06 refund again to new we’re gonna go to
13:08 refund receipt this time the customers
13:10 column we’re gonna choose Geetha from
13:13 the drop-down customers refund receipt
13:28 choose geet okay and we want to choose a
13:38 refund payment method okay we’re gonna
13:41 do cash we’re gonna do credit back on
13:44 our credit card will do check for Geeta
13:52 and where it’s coming from want to
13:57 select that and we want to enter an
13:59 amount to that $75 and hopefully that’s
14:06 it for the refunds were issuing so we’ll
14:08 hit save and close and Geeta
14:14 there goes refund issued $275 okay now
14:22 it’s getting a little more detail about
14:25 statements statements provide
14:28 transparency to customers about their
14:30 account standing about the details of
14:32 credits refunds and that sort of thing
14:33 unfortunately the the receipt that we
14:37 issued early to get it didn’t I mean she
14:40 would probably know but it didn’t say
14:42 you know hey and you know and this is
14:44 just a preference of mine I want to know
14:46 here’s what it was you know the cost of
14:51 what I purchased from you here’s what
14:52 the amount it was this kind of buy is
14:55 and here’s the net amount that I would
14:57 owe and you know and I paid and here’s
15:00 my receipt detailing all that I didn’t
15:04 do that but the detail should be on the
15:06 statement so how to create a customer
15:11 statement it’s time again we don’t go to
15:14 new button we go to the sales menu with
15:18 select customers and we are already here
15:20 so sales customers that’s where we are
15:22 now okay then I’m gonna check box for
15:26 let’s look at eat as a count here for
15:29 the customer we want and you can do this
15:34 as in batch so you can do what have you
15:36 select here for all customers in this
15:37 case we’re just doing Geeta
15:38 she says send me stay Milan I’ll make
15:41 sure everything’s right about what you
15:43 did with my account okay eat him happy
15:46 to do that and we select that batch out
15:52 actions drop-down and create statements
15:55 okay so we want to select the statement
15:58 type that we’d like to create we’ll get
16:00 into that in a little more detail here
16:03 in just second we want whichever is most
16:05 appropriate for the situation with the
16:07 date range we’ll give her for the past
16:09 month here and yeah so let’s talk about
16:14 statement types real quick before we do
16:16 that
16:16 okay balance for word is gonna give a
16:18 list of payments and invoices that the
16:20 customer had it clarifies what is
16:22 currently do on the account open items
16:26 okay this is gonna be open invoices
16:28 detail and unpaid invoices credit memos
16:31 and unapplied payments this would have
16:33 been the type of statement we would have
16:35 santaguida before we did the settled the
16:42 invoice earlier well actually that one
16:48 might I guess since we just sent the
16:50 invoice then one might be appropriate
16:51 trans actually same it’s gonna be
16:52 transaction detail of a date range it’s
16:54 appropriate for accounts with a high
16:55 volume of transaction so let’s try this
16:56 open item here and apply it now nothing
17:08 trade balance forward then
17:20 all right because Gita’s balance is zero
17:23 now so let’s do save and send this is
17:29 what’s nice about QuickBooks Online it
17:30 gives you the opportunity to preview it
17:32 yeah this is what we want okay so not a
17:35 high volume in transactions but
17:37 specifies what we did on the account you
17:42 know we issued an invoice on 12:12 for
17:45 six hundred twenty nine ten dollars
17:47 there’s our credit memo we entered
17:49 earlier for 275 there’s a refund
17:52 we gave her for 275 obviously in the
17:54 real world you probably wouldn’t do both
17:56 but you know Gaeta was our best example
17:59 so now Gaeta owes us seventy nine ten
18:04 we’ll send that to her and there you go
18:10 okay
18:12 so have you previously created
18:13 statements and like I said there’s a lot
18:16 of detail on this one but we’re almost
18:18 through it sales on the Left menu with
18:22 all sales sales all sales we’ll just
18:26 click it here takes us to the same spot
18:32 from there we’re gonna select the filter
18:35 drop down and type statements so we want
18:41 to filter and type so drop down drop
18:45 down statements okay for the last year
18:52 well let’s apply that should show Geetha
18:54 is I think yes there it is so now we can
18:58 see it again if she calls in with a
18:59 question about her statement you know
19:02 again this isn’t all gonna happen just
19:05 boom boom boom like we’re doing it now
19:06 you know time will pass people forget
19:09 stuff you know you got a lot on your
19:11 plate as a small business owner so you
19:15 know this is how we can see again
19:17 Geeta’s a statement and she wants to
19:20 call him and speak on it then we’ll have
19:22 it in front of us and we can help her
19:24 piece together what happened so
19:29 that’s the view previously created
19:31 statements now to automatically apply
19:34 credits which is what was set up in this
19:39 particular sample account but just to
19:42 let you know how that happened
19:43 I’m gonna go to the gear in the upper
19:45 right accounts and settings under the
19:48 your company heading your company
19:54 accounts and settings then on the Left
19:57 menu we’re gonna go to advanced and
19:58 we’re going to edit and edit click the
20:01 little pencil any automation section
20:07 waiting on it here ok let’s try again
20:14 counts and settings let’s do advanced
20:21 and like I said down here in the scroll
20:26 post-it no advanced ok in in the
20:40 automation section edit and that’s check
20:47 box you’re looking for automatically
20:49 applying credits is on off set of how
20:53 you want it probably on and then you
21:01 want to click Save now will
21:03 automatically applying credits then
21:06 click done to get out of the accounts
21:08 and settings okay so that covers
21:13 everything to do with credit memos so a
21:19 lot of information there but covered
21:21 credit memos refunds statements you know
21:26 so everything kind of potentially
21:29 affected by a credit memo so there’s a
21:31 lot to you know there QuickBooks Online
21:35 is pretty simple but there’s a lot of
21:37 different a lot of things you can do you
21:40 know because business is dynamic and
21:41 you know that you know so if bookkeeping
21:46 isn’t your cup of tea if you know having
21:49 to research and how to do this stuff
21:51 every time you need to do something new
21:52 there’s a new cup of tea if you’d rather
21:54 spend your time working on your business
21:56 helping it grow and less time on menial
21:59 tasks like watching spreadsheets for
22:01 business quickbooks online videos
22:03 nothing personal I get it and you know
22:07 you just want to do more business and
22:09 less data entry okay then check out bot
22:11 keeper I’ll have a link down in the
22:12 description and what bot keeper does is
22:15 automate but keeping tasks that you hate
22:17 to do all right so it’s a artificial
22:21 intelligence powered and that’s what
22:24 does the bulk of the work and then it
22:27 also has a human touch that kind of
22:29 qualifies the artificial intelligence
22:32 transactions and you know just puts a
22:35 set of human eyes on it to to make sure
22:37 everything’s accurate timely and you
22:41 know most importantly off your back so
22:42 if it’s something you think you’d be
22:44 interested in again click that link down
22:46 in the description and check it out so
22:48 this was a long video I’ll wrap it up
22:51 here thank you for liking and
22:53 subscribing and why would you like well
22:56 if you liked the fact that I got gave it
22:59 a quick answer up front was shortened to
23:00 the point but then went into more detail
23:02 after that if you’d like that format I
23:03 would appreciate a like if you find
23:05 yourself if you’re gonna do your own
23:07 bookkeeping and you find yourself
23:08 looking up how to videos and QuickBooks
23:11 Online fairly often then consider
23:14 subscribing so you can just jump onto my
23:17 channel and see if I’ve covered it and
23:19 in that case great then if not you can
23:22 search search it on the YouTube you know
23:27 through the youtube search so hey I’m
23:30 appreciate you guys watching as always
23:32 take care

19 Minutes To Master Sales Tax in QuickBooks Online [VIDEO]

by
qbo sales tax setup video featured

Video transcript

00:00 sales tax and QuickBooks Online how to
00:02 manage the quick answers our first to go
00:09 to taxes and then add or edit tax rates
00:13 and agencies or edit sales tax settings
00:15 where you can edit what you’ve already
00:18 entered and that’s like I said in taxes
00:21 and then the add edit tax rates and
00:25 agencies click new to add a new sales
00:28 tax rate or if you want to enter what
00:33 you’ve sorry edit which you’ve
00:35 previously entered click on edit sales
00:37 tax settings if you want a view
00:41 reporting on your sales tax liability
00:46 you go to taxes again view sales tax
00:48 liability report that is here here you
00:55 can specify the reporting period or put
00:59 in custom dates and you can select which
01:02 tax agency you want to see reporting on
01:05 just change those settings at run report
01:07 and finally any other sales tax setting
01:11 you might want to edit is the sales tax
01:15 category for products and services to do
01:17 that you go to sales products and
01:21 services and you get here you’ll see a
01:26 listing of your products and services
01:28 just click the one you want to edit
01:30 click Edit under the action column and
01:39 towards the bottom of the product
01:41 service information screen you should
01:45 see sales tax category okay so that’s
01:50 quick answers now we’ll get into a
01:52 little more detail about all that so
01:58 before I get into it I want to start off
02:02 with a caveat did recently QuickBooks
02:07 Online has made some changes to the user
02:11 experience and
02:13 I’m getting conflicting information
02:15 between what I see in the sample company
02:17 which is what I use for my examples
02:20 obviously I use that for purposes of
02:22 privacy so I’m seeing a difference
02:24 between that and what I’m seeing
02:28 elsewhere so what I chose to do in order
02:35 to get this video out not sit on it
02:38 forever is to basically cover both ways
02:41 so I guess whatever QuickBooks has got
02:46 going on in terms of that you new user
02:48 interface if it’s affecting you yet
02:52 then you should still be able to use
02:54 this video if it’s not you should also
02:56 still be able to use this video so with
02:58 all that said we’ll get into it here
03:03 capabilities of QuickBooks Online it’s
03:05 supposed to have a sales tax engine it
03:07 makes calculations that basically kind
03:09 of a wizard for figuring out sales tax
03:12 what it does do though once you enter
03:14 information automatically calculates
03:15 every time that you enter an invoice or
03:18 a sales receipt okay so it’s based on
03:21 the location of the sale and the type of
03:24 product and basically everything you
03:26 entered during setup there supposed to
03:29 be a sales tax enter where you can view
03:31 upcoming tax payments see liability
03:33 reports change settings and all that you
03:36 can as I covered in a quick answer still
03:38 do most of that but again
03:40 things have changed somewhat so I can’t
03:44 walk you through an example of the old
03:47 basic setup or any of the old examples
03:50 because again the sample company has
03:53 changed is different than they used to
03:56 be but here’s how the old way used to do
04:00 basic setup and you go to left menu
04:03 taxes and in setup sales tax there would
04:06 be a button there you would confirm your
04:08 address your place of business and it
04:12 would ask you if you needed to collect
04:14 sales tax outside of where your address
04:17 was and you’d click typically no they’re
04:25 in close the window then
04:27 he would also select a filing frequency
04:28 and you’d be giving guidance on that
04:30 based on your locality and the
04:35 anticipated amount of receipts you had
04:37 how often you should file unfortunately
04:40 seems for the time being all that’s gone
04:42 you’re now left to kind of sort it
04:47 figure it all out yourself I would
04:50 assume that’s a functionality that
04:52 they’ll bring back but yeah I don’t know
04:55 like I said things are a little weird
04:56 now as of the recording of this video so
05:00 the new way though you know that I’m
05:02 still go to taxes on the left menu then
05:04 like I said add edit tax rates and
05:06 agencies let that load up and your first
05:14 time you’re probably going to when
05:16 you’re setting it up you’re gonna want
05:17 to click new and you’re gonna choose
05:22 whether you do a single or combined tax
05:26 rate and if you’re not familiar a single
05:31 tax rates pretty straight forward that
05:34 would be like a state sales tax
05:35 now obviously sometimes counties and/or
05:40 cities or you know other other
05:46 governments will implement an additional
05:49 sales tax you know to pay for schools to
05:53 pay for new arenas to pay for whatever
05:57 it is so when they do that when you
06:00 start stacking sales tax rates that’s
06:03 when you’ve got a combined rate okay
06:06 what I would suggest doing until they
06:08 get to a little wizard back up and
06:10 running if they do is to go to this
06:14 address right here sales tax states calm
06:17 and that’s an easy way to look up what
06:21 the sales tax rate is in a specific area
06:23 but I would definitely double check that
06:25 against the appropriate State Department
06:29 of Revenue website just to confirm it
06:35 so once you have it entered if you want
06:39 to edit mention go to edit sales tax
06:46 settings here and this isn’t editing
06:50 being sales tax for one of the
06:54 government entities attended earlier
06:57 this is more general settings you know
07:00 as you can see do you charge sales tax
07:02 where your default sales tax is and
07:05 whether you want to make all new
07:08 customers taxable or and/or all new
07:11 products and services taxable so there’s
07:13 more general settings not the specific
07:16 settings those would be edited here of
07:18 course where you would click on the
07:21 relevant government entity and click
07:24 Edit there you can change the rate
07:37 oops what did you do there I don’t know
07:42 what happened get back on track here
07:59 a little bit more about those general
08:06 options that you can edit you know it
08:09 asked do you charge sales tax if you
08:13 sell physical goods typically the answer
08:15 is gonna be yes again the old with the
08:20 old way it used to walk you through
08:22 where you could kind of I don’t know it
08:28 gave me more guidance on what was
08:31 taxable and how much based off your
08:32 locality and everything it just doesn’t
08:34 seem to do that now but so typically the
08:37 answer is gonna be yes but it’s
08:39 complicated topic so make sure you do
08:40 your research you pick a default sales
08:44 tax that’s a drop-down like I showed you
08:47 from previously entered agencies and
08:49 then make all new customer product
08:52 services taxable depends on the nature
08:54 of your business
08:55 but I would imagine that would typically
08:56 be checked also okay so a little bit
09:02 more about tax categories for products
09:04 and services again that sales products
09:06 and services then you want to add it for
09:08 a specific product or service
09:27 so the sales tax category like I said
09:31 it’s a drop-down you can choose either
09:33 taxable standard rate non-taxable or
09:36 choose a special category if you’re
09:38 unsure you might take a look at special
09:40 categories to make sure this particular
09:43 product or service doesn’t fall under
09:45 one of those let’s take a look at that
09:48 here and this is what I was talking
09:55 about how it’ll kind of walk you through
09:57 a little bit as far as different
10:00 products and services are concerned so
10:02 if you were in the business of
10:05 professional services
10:06 you know you might click that look and
10:10 see it’ll narrow it down if your
10:13 services say photographer fall under
10:18 this category you know again you keep
10:22 narrowing it down and check the button
10:26 click the button and hit done and it’ll
10:31 apply the appropriate sales tax given
10:36 your locality like I said and a
10:40 particular product or service if you
10:45 can’t find that particular product or
10:49 service in that special category list
10:52 then just go ahead and click taxable
10:55 standard rate unless you’re certain it’s
10:58 non-taxable I used to be able to check
11:05 the sales tax calculation by looking at
11:10 sales receipt and invoices again as far
11:13 as I can tell that’s no longer an option
11:17 like if we go to all sales here sales
11:21 all sales select receipt or invoice
11:23 click on the sales tax link it used to
11:26 be where sales tax was calculated you
11:30 know it was clickable kind of hyperlink
11:33 in the bottom right and then you could
11:35 viewer edit the sales tax calculation
11:37 from
11:38 there now if we look at for instance an
11:55 open invoice that depends in part what’s
12:03 on the invoice course it’s all
12:06 non-taxable services then if something’s
12:12 not quite right
12:13 no kiddin I see we can click on another
12:17 one here I’m good
12:31 and this one doesn’t have sales tax that
12:37 was a payment though we tried one more
12:40 invoice yeah all right so anyhow like I
12:51 said it used to
12:53 obviously the functionalities gotten a
12:55 lot worse yeah that’s the way it used to
13:00 work it could be that they bring that
13:01 functionality back but the time being as
13:05 far as I can tell it’s gone the sales
13:09 tax enter the old way again and the left
13:12 menu you go to taxes and then sales tax
13:17 in some instances if you do payroll you
13:22 might see payroll taxes as a tab or a
13:30 sub option there but in this case the
13:34 sample companies and set up that way and
13:37 if it were I’m not sure if it would be
13:40 there the way the way things have gone
13:44 with these changes anyhow it did there
13:51 were a bunch of they call them cards or
13:55 whatever across the screen there where
13:57 you know they were kind of graphical and
14:01 easy to navigate like sales tax to was
14:04 their tax break down it showed you that
14:08 you know what you keep an eye on what
14:11 the sales tax do what you had accrued to
14:15 be owing all the agencies in terms of
14:19 set in terms of sales tax and tax break
14:21 down which was kind of the main area of
14:24 the screen it had sales tax amounts and
14:27 what was due this month what was
14:28 upcoming was overdue a lot of great
14:29 information then you had a opportunity
14:37 to view your return which was again
14:39 based on what it hadn’t already been
14:40 entered into QuickBooks Online when it
14:43 was time to pay
14:44 typically that was done on the say
14:47 States website where you would file that
14:49 return but you know it was all prepared
14:53 for him and it would also then record
14:56 the payment quickbooks online when you
14:57 click the record payment button finally
15:00 ur is history in the sales tax settings
15:02 sales tax settings that they do still
15:05 have where you can view at it mentor
15:06 agencies history that’s that the
15:11 comparable thing now is the the sales
15:15 tax liability report and you can view
15:19 previously paid or filed returns so the
15:23 old sales tax center had a lot of great
15:24 information now not as much I mean some
15:29 should does show what you oh here on the
15:31 main screen depending on breaks it down
15:36 by agency and that but it seemed to me a
15:41 lot more user-friendly previously there
15:47 were also the reports in the upper right
15:48 and sales tax liability report which
15:50 still has and taxable customer report
15:53 which might exist in reports now I feel
15:58 like it does let’s take a look here and
16:05 there were also shortcuts in a sales tax
16:07 center on the right side that navigate
16:10 to all the areas that fed into sales tax
16:12 calculation so you could jump straight
16:14 to him from there which was also handy
16:17 now you basically got I can mention the
16:22 sales tax owed that’s the main screen in
16:25 the sales tax center and the sales tax
16:29 liability report kind of your two
16:31 options and still-living talked a little
16:39 bit about the sales tax liability report
16:41 earlier and you select the appropriate
16:42 report period in tax agency and click
16:46 the run report button still loading
16:54 so that basically covers everything look
16:59 I know that was kind of a not the best
17:03 video ever I would love to give you more
17:10 up-to-date information but like I said
17:12 it seems like it’s in kind of in flux
17:14 for the time being so that is what it is
17:17 and I can always record a new video if I
17:20 have to in the future but so I don’t
17:25 know if you run into similar
17:26 circumstances then I did you saw me
17:28 struggling here and everything’s changed
17:30 where it’s located frankly it’s not as
17:33 not as robust as it used to be you know
17:38 and it can be a pain in the butt to deal
17:41 with so you know you’ve got a business
17:44 to run you’ve got sales that need to be
17:46 made and if you don’t have time to DIY
17:49 your bookkeeping you should check out
17:51 bots keeper what it is is a in essence
17:55 it’s a AI based bookkeeping but with a
17:58 human element to kind of qualifying
18:02 things you might say so a lot of the
18:05 tasks that you had to do are automated
18:07 and again you can work more on your
18:09 business you can work on bringing in
18:10 more sales and worry less about data
18:13 entry and worry less about slow internet
18:16 connections and fumbling around with
18:20 backwards changes they’ve made to
18:22 QuickBooks so there’s a link for that
18:25 down in the description if you want to
18:27 check that out and that’s all there is
18:30 so you know I still tried to make even
18:34 though things were a little wacky tried
18:36 to make this video quick into the point
18:38 upfront to get your answers and then if
18:41 you wanted to get into more detail you
18:43 know I tried to do that to try to give
18:45 you as much information as possible give
18:47 you this slides to reference and if that
18:50 worked for him
18:51 I would appreciate a like and if you
18:54 find yourself looking up topics on
18:57 QuickBooks Online fairly frequently and
19:00 want to skip searchbar in the future and
19:04 just check out my channel I
19:07 have posted and will continue to post
19:09 more videos if you subscribe you can do
19:13 that and yeah thanks for watching
19:15 take care

Periodic Sales Promotions in QuickBooks Online

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  • Periodic sales promotions give small businesses the best chance of boosting sales and profitability when they are carefully planned.
  • Care must be taken to not use periodic sales promotions as a crutch when sales fall short of expectations.
  • QuickBooks Online price rules give small businesses the opportunity to efficiently apply promotional pricing to products and services.
  • Small business owners, who are concerned about what effects sale promotions might have on revenue, can use this information to lower uncertainty

Periodic sales promotions

Weekly/monthly/holiday sales, aka periodic sales promotions, are something we’re all familiar with. The “one day only sale!” The “Memorial Day sale!” The “semi-annual sale!” Or, the most famous, the “Black Friday sale!” are all examples.

Before we get too far into it, let’s split hairs on the terminology a bit. A periodic sales promotion shouldn’t be confused with a discount or a markdown. A discount is a reduction in price for a particular group of customers. A sales promotion, typically, would apply to all customers.

A markdown is a “permanent” lowering of the price of goods in order to incentivize purchase so that they can be removed from inventory. This would be done for items that are slow-moving (or not moving at all).

Periodic sales promotions are a means of reaching periodic sales goals

Periodic sales promotions can help complement the efforts of salespeople and advertising. Whether your business markets to consumers or other businesses, a periodic sale can stimulate buying on the part of your customers.

Periodic sales promotions should compel your customers to purchase immediately. So, the nature of your promotion will have to be such that it bridges your customers’ culture with your sales goals. For example, are you trying to get customers to switch from a competitor? Or, are you trying to penetrate a whole new market?

Don’t launch a periodic sales promotion without a plan. Consider how the promotion will impact your business at different volumes. Decide what products/services should be included. Consider your best-case and worst-case scenarios so that you are mentally prepared for whatever your customers throw at you.

The upside of periodic sales promotions

Dead and slow inventory takes up valuable space. Worse yet, it ties up valuable cash. If you have inventory that is turning over slowly, you might consider how you can work it into a periodic sales promotion in order to make room for inventory that will actually sell. Doing so would be preferable to getting pennies on the dollar by discounting.

I wouldn’t offer a sale that revolved solely around dead and slow inventory, however. That might be a dud. Perhaps you might consider marking down dead and slow inventory extra – beyond the normal terms of the promotion. An example for a car repair business – a 10% off sale on brake replacement for President’s Day, with slow-moving tires offered at 40% off. Take advantage of the increased traffic to get the most that you can for the dead and slow inventory.

A periodic sales promotion might incentivize people who wouldn’t buy otherwise. If the promotion only runs for a few days, the sense of urgency could be increased. People who may only have a vague idea of what your business is about could be compelled to “check you out” while the sale is going on. Furthermore, the first-timers, if they are excited about what they found, might tell others.

Since a periodic sales promotion will hopefully bring in a lot of new faces, it’s an opportunity to collect some basic information. Even just an email address or a like on Facebook. Knowing more about your customers in general and those that were lured by the sales promotion specifically will help you to meet their needs better.

The downside of periodic sales promotions

Even the least savvy business person knows that if you sell something for less, you’ll make less profit on it. Periodic sales promotions will result in lower margins. The hope is – to make up for that with increased volume (quantities).

But, if you are able to pull off a successful periodic sales promotion, be careful not to begin to rely upon them. The siren song of a boost in sales/gross profit might prove irresistible if future sales don’t reach the levels you hoped. If periodic sales promotions are part of your strategic planning, then great. Run with it. Just don’t start using them as a crutch if things aren’t going as well as hoped.

When a customer purchases something at a reduced price, you might not be able to get a read on their future purchasing behavior. That is, beyond the fact that they’ll buy “x” amount of something at “y” price.

We’ve all heard the old adage “price, service, quality…pick two” when it comes to offering a value proposition to customers. If your business aims to excel in service and quality, but begins to succumb to the temptation to lower prices to boost sales, then you might see yourself transformed into a low-price provider – at the expense of service or quality.

It always comes down to…planning

Again, at the risk of being redundant, it all comes down to planning. Give your periodic sales promotions the thought and planning they deserve. Don’t just “knee-jerk.” Working it into a plan will give it the best chance of being successful.

Every industry is different. Every small business within an industry is different. There is no “one size fits all” solution to planning for periodic sales promotions. Nevertheless, since this website is SpreadsheetsForBusiness.com, after all, I took a stab at it.

Download the periodic sales promotion planning tool.

Complete the form below and click Submit.
Upon email confirmation, the workbook will open in a new tab.

weekly-monthly-holiday-sales-promotions-tool-screenshot
Click to enlarge

This is a very high-level workbook since it isn’t specifically made for any particular business/industry. Hopefully, however, it can give you a starting point for thoughtfully planning your own periodic sales promotion. Helping to ensure that it fits in with your strategic plan and helps your business reach its goals.

Periodic discounts in QBO

How to apply this knowledge in your accounting software, though? Well, here’s how you might go about it in QuickBooks Online.

We’ll look at periodic sales three different ways through the eyes of a restaurant:

  • First, an across-the-board 10% discount for everything. We’ll call it an “anniversary sale.”
  • Second, a 20% off of Mexican food and drinks promotion for Cinco de Mayo.
  • Finally, a weekly 15% off promotion for select desserts.

If you haven’t, read my previous post on the particulars of QBO price rules (levels). What follows won’t necessarily go into as much detail.

I’ll be using the sample company within QuickBooks Online Accountant. By default, this sample company is a landscaping business. For the purposes of these examples, I’ll make some changes to make the examples better reflect a restaurant business. But, if you see some odd things related to landscaping pop up in the screenshots or the video – that’s why.

In the previous example, we created a “dummy” price rule that provided no discount. We did this so that the price rule would not be applied by default during a sales transaction. However, in this example, for our restaurant, we want it to be automatically applied so that we don’t forget to give it to our customers. So, in this case, we’ll forego the creation of a “no discount” price rule.

weekly-monthly-holiday-sales-price-rules
Click to enlarge

Anniversary promotion

The across-the-board 10% discount is easy to set up. In the price rules screen, we’ll create a rule called Anniversary Sale. This rule will only be in effect over the weekend of April 27, 2019.

Since it is an across-the-board discount, All customers and All products and services will remain selected by default. A 10% decrease in price will be applied.

Simple.

across-board-discount
Click to enlarge

Cinco de Mayo promotion

Next, we’ll look at the Cinco de Mayo promotion. In this case, it’s only our restaurant’s Mexican fare that’s on sale. Also, the sale only runs over the weekend – May 3, 2019, through May 5, 2019.

In this price rule, we selected the products in our Mexican subcategory. We then chose to decrease the price by 20%.

weekly-monthly-holiday-sales-promotions-cinco-de-mayo-discount
Click to enlarge

Weekly dessert promotion

Finally, we’ll tackle the restaurant’s weekly (Wednesday) discount on desserts, designed to get people in the seats during the slow mid-week time period.

This was approached in much the same manner as the Cinco de Mayo discount. Except, there is no Start date and no End date. This is an ongoing promotion. All products in the Desserts category were selected for inclusion and they were decreased in price by 15%.

dessert-discount
Click to enlarge

Periodic sales promotions

When it comes to pros & cons, advantages & disadvantages, upside & downside posts, I always overlook a few. What are some of the pros and cons I missed for weekly/monthly/holiday sales promotions?

What other considerations need to be taken into account before a small business launches a weekly/monthly/holiday sales promotion?

Join the conversation on Twitter!

QuickBooks Online Pricing – the Full Guide to Levels + Rules

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  • To turn on price levels:
    • Gear (icon) > Accounts and Settings > Sales > Products and Services > Turn on price rules
  • To create price levels:
    • Sales (left menu) >Products and Services > More > Price rules
  • Price levels (levels) in QBO allow users to specify price changes for customers, products, or a combination of the two
    • Promotional pricing can help drive sales and profitability

What are QuickBooks Online price levels?

Price levels (rules) are used in QBO to quickly and easily give special pricing on particular items, and/or to particular clients. You can mix and match customers with products/services when setting up price levels. Also, you can broaden your selection to all products/services that fall within a particular category. For instance, maybe you want to only have a sale on installation and not physical products. Not every pricing rule has to be across the board.

Price levels can be set up to give a percentage discount, a fixed dollar amount discount, or… you can simply enter a custom price for a particular item.

Furthermore, if it makes sense in your pricing strategy, you can even increase prices. Plus, you can round to the nearest dollar, $.49, $.99, and many other amounts.

Finally, for each price rule, you can enter a Start date or End date to control when the rule is applied. Beyond that, QuickBooks Online gives you the ability to easily activate and inactivate a particular price rule after it’s created. Therefore, you can create price levels now, and put them into effect as needed.

Why use price levels in QuickBooks Online?

Promotional pricing is a valuable tool when used wisely. It can help small businesses drive sales and profitability. It might even be a coordinated part of your strategic plan.

Whether it is a periodic/seasonal sale, coupons, a referral program, a customer loyalty program, or a volume discount – there are plenty of reasons that you would want the ability to easily applying special pricing for specific customers and products/services.

Does your small business have sales promotions? Of course it does. Read this post:
PERIODIC SALES PROMOTIONS IN QUICKBOOKS ONLINE

How to implement QuickBooks Online price levels

First things first, in order to use price levels in QBO, you’ve got to turn them on. By default, they’re turned off. The option to create a price rule won’t be available if they aren’t turned on first.

By the way, in my walkthrough here, I’ll be using the QuickBooks Accountant sample company. The sample company is a landscaping business.

Go to the gear in the upper right corner and select Account and Settings.

Once in the Account and Settings menu select Sales. Under the Products and Services section, you’ll see Turn on price rules (beta). Click on that and the checkbox. Then click Save and Done in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. Price levels are now turned on.

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Creating a price rule

Now, that price levels are turned on, you can create one. Go to the Sales section on the left (main) menu and select Products and Services. Alternatively, you can go directly to Products and Services from the gear in the upper right-hand corner.

Once in the Products and Services screen, click on the More drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner and select Price rules. If this is your first rule, you’ll see the little intro graphic and text. Click the Create a rule button.

more-rules

Each price rule in QuickBooks Online will need a name. A rule name should be succinct, yet detailed enough for you to understand what changes it will make when it’s applied.

quickbooks-online-price-levels-enter-rules

As mentioned, you can make effective dates (Start date and End date), if you’d like to limit the time window in which this price rule will be in effect.

Next, you’ll decide whether you want this rule to affect all customers or just specific customers. And, you’ll decide if you want it to affect all products and services, categories of products and services, or individual products and services.

After that, you’ll specify what degree you want the rule to adjust the price. You can choose to adjust the price by a percentage, a fixed amount, or you can enter a custom price. Beyond that, you can specify if you want the price adjusted up or down. Price levels aren’t just for markdowns!

Do you know who your most profitable customers are? Read this post:
QUICK & EASY TOOL FOR MEASURING CUSTOMER PROFITABILITY

Finally, you’re given the option of having your price rule rounded to a specified amount. $.05, $.50, $.88, and so on…

That’s it! Those are the only variables to enter when making a price rule. You’ll see in the table at the bottom after you click Apply, the original price (Sales price) and the Adjusted price. The Adjusted price reflects the effects of the price rule you just created. Review those changes to make sure there are no surprises. Then click Save and close at the bottom.

quickbooks-online-price-levels-adjusted

Using a price rule in a transaction

In order to use a price rule, you’ll have to apply it to an individual sales transaction. So, for example, if we click on Sales in the left menu. Then, click on All sales on the top menu. Finally, click on the New transaction drop-down and select Sales receipt.

In this example, I’m just using a Sales Receipt for illustrative purposes. Pricing levels can be used in Invoices, Estimates, Sales Receipts, Credit Memos, and Delayed Charges.

sales-receipt

Populate all of the customer information at the top. Select the Product/Service at the bottom. Click the Rate drop-down box and you’ll find the price rule you just created available as an option. Select the rule and you should see the Subtotal on the Sales Receipt change accordingly.

Making a lot of sales doesn’t mean anything if you don’t collect cash. Read this post:
13 TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE THE MANAGEMENT OF YOUR CASH FLOW

QuickBooks Online does support price levels

In the next post, I’ll explore different types of promotions that small businesses, like yours, can run, and how to create corresponding price levels in QBO.

What other types of variables would you like to see added to QBO price levels, so that they could suit your business better?

Join the conversation on Twitter!