There are 86,400 seconds in a day. Seems like a lot. But we sleep through a third of them. And, hopefully, we don’t work for a third (or something close.) One of the reasons we developed AnswerCoop was to save a few seconds on transactions. If we can save enough of them, we can get back hours. Here are some of my favorite ways to save seconds in QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA.)
Multiple Monitors. I assume everyone reading this is already using at least two computer monitors. If not, start. You can have a bank up on one screen and QBO on the other. Email on one, QBO on the other. An app on one, QBO on the other. Etc. Some of you probably have three or more monitors.
Along with multiple monitors, have multiple QB screens going. In QBOA, just click the Accountant Tools briefcase and choose New Window. A duplicate QBO window will open so you can be in two different tabs at the same time. I use this a lot to have the bank feed open on one screen and search on another. Also, if you haven’t yet, try the QuickBooks Online App. This is an app you download to your desktop. You can open multiple QBO files. This is especially helpful if you have a client with multiple QBO accounts. It is a great way to see multiple QBO accounts for things like transfers and other transactions between companies.
Also found in the Accountant Tools briefcase is the reclassify transactions tool. This allows you to reclassify the account, class, or location of many transactions at once. It is way faster than changing transactions one at a time.
Another great time saver in the Accountant Tools briefcase is the Notes section. This is relatively new. It is an area where the Advisor team can put notes. This section is not visible to clients. We use it to notate things specific to the client, such as they like to split up Marketing into a few subcategories. Or the client uses projects. Important notes can be pinned to the top, so they are always visible. We use Loom frequently to record videos specific to clients. The link can be pasted right into a note for easy access.
To save time at Month End, use the Month-end Review (Bookkeeping review) which is also found in the Accountant Tools. This tool gives you open issues to check, such as transactions without payees. It also tracks bank reconciliations. The best thing about this feature is you can add your own items to create a Month-End checklist specific to your client. For instance, if you have a JE that needs to be added every month, you can list it here to make sure it was entered. In Final Review, you can keep a list of the reports you want to check every month. Changing statuses to Done let’s you check off the list as you go.
Documents can be shared in the My Accountant tab. This can also be accessed by the “My Experts” button in the upper right corner. We get a lot of documents from our real estate clients – Closing Statements, Leases, Mortgages. We attach these documents to the specific transaction. But we also put them in the Shared Documents tab in “My Accountant.” Documents can be easily renamed and sorted in alphabetical order, allowing quick searching.
I hope some of these tips help you save a few seconds, and hours, in your day.