Why You Need QuickBooks

Oh, QuickBooks, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways…oh wait, you pretty much do that for me.

QuickBooks is my favorite bookkeeping and invoicing software. I didn’t realize all that QuickBooks did for me until I had a MAJOR computer crash and lost 7 years of QuickBooks data for one of my businesses (even the backup hard drive was fried, and a half a dozen experts were scratching their heads, but I digress).

I switched to QuickBooks online and although it took a little getting used to the differences between desktop and online, I will NOT go back. I use this company for ALL of my businesses, even the ones for which I use a professional bookkeeper—heck, especially for those!

Whether you’re a new business, a service-based business invoicing your time, or a product-based business tracking inventory, QuickBooks has something for everyone. Their suite of enhanced accounting software products lets business owners invoice and accept payments, track miles, manage bills and receipts, track income and expenses, and much more.

Used by over seven million people worldwide, QuickBooks has the reputation of being the best…it also has a reputation of being over-priced.

I get it. When you’re starting out (or even when you’re just trying to cut costs to bump that bottom line), something extraneous like bookkeeping software might seem like an unnecessary luxury, or maybe an unnecessary pain in the tookus. But trust me—you NEED QuickBooks in your life!

10 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD USE QUICKBOOKS

1. It saves so much time! Picture this: You are in line at the Starbucks buying coffee for the team. You swipe your card and QuickBooks automatically identifies the purchase and sorts it into your “office morale” category before you even hear the barista call your name. Plus, QuickBooks will save you all that double entry nonsense by sharing data with hundreds of other business applications such as Excel, Word, and ACT.
2. It keeps you honest. So, you bought a pack of Skittles in the check-out line at Office Max…just take a picture of your receipt, tag that to your credit card transactions and subtract the $1.00 from your expense. Everything is right there in black and white so there’s no second-guessing your shopping trips. Take THAT IRS audit!
3. Reports and more reports. Want to know how much you paid a contractor? Want to see your monthly expenses? Want to know if you’ve made a profit this year? Want to see the last 5 years of profits and losses? There’s a Report for that!
4. You save money. Really. To quote the awesome movie Moonstruck: “It costs money. It costs money because it saves money!” Arguably, QuickBooks does cost money, but with all the features and automations, you can easily forego a full-time bookkeeper, which saves you beaucoup bucks. You can run a $5 or $25 million company for just a few hundred dollars, all of which is a tax write-off. Plus, QuickBooks is offering a 40% discount on the first 6 months of their online packages. Check it out: Intuit QuickBooks
5. You get paid faster. In a perfect world, all your contractors and customers would pay you the moment they received your services via cash on the spot. Ha! Almost as good is the ability to email an invoice straight from QuickBooks so your client can easily pay you via credit card or bank transfer. No more waiting on a paper check that mysteriously gets lost in the mail…twice.
6. You can pay bills and bank online. Setup your current bank account in QuickBooks, and you are good to go! Write checks through QuickBooks as you normally would, click a button, and they do all the rest. You can even download your bank statements into QuickBooks, making reconciling even easier!
7. You can accept Credit Cards. No need for additional software or chip-card hardware! With QuickBooks Merchant Account Service, you can easily accept Visa, Mastercard, or American Express through their integrated software. Again, no more data double entry! Whoo!
8. It’s customizable. This program has so many customizations, it’s astounding! You can make custom rules so all your trips to the tattoo parlor to showcase your body art/logo are automatically filed into your advertising expenses, or you can select a specialized accounting package for Contractors, Health Care Professionals, NPOs, and more!
9. It helps you grow your business. Looking to expand and planning to get a loan or line of credit? QuickBooks can help! No, not with the funding, but with the business plan and projections the bank is going to request. QuickBooks can help you design a solid business plan complete with projected balance sheets, P&Ls, and cash flows in the exact format recommended by the Small Business Administration (SBA).
10. Can 7 million people be so wrong? That’s right, I’ll say it a third time: over 7 million people worldwide trust QuickBooks. It’s reliable and proven. Enough said.

I could probably go on and on, but you get the point. QuickBooks is a solid business investment in yourself. I have used them for all my business accounting software needs for over a decade and the only real complaint I have is that I need to purchase separate accounts for each of my companies, rather than a toggle option like my Instagram accounts. But remembering yet another password is a small price to pay for the peace of mind alone that QuickBooks gives me.

Check them out. If you find something better, let me know!