Have you ever wondered just how long it would take to learn how to use Quickbooks Online for your business?

One of our new clients recently wondered the same. Having used pen and paper for his record keeping for over 30  years, my client Matt, who runs a very busy takeaway, decided it was time to take the plunge and see if moving to a cloud accounting program really would save him time.

Here is how it went:

 

• After our initial meeting with Matt at his business premises,  I went back to the office and wrote a training plan and agenda for the two training sessions we planned, a week apart from each other.

 

• Prior to the first training session, we set up Matt’s Quickbooks so it was all ready to go. That includes setting up the right accounts from Day 1, setting up which bank accounts he needs plus other key accounts that people who try Quickbooks themselves, never are able to set up correctly. As we always try to make everything as simple as possible, we also decided to start with the 1st of August so that there wasn’t to many days of transactions that had passed, to enter the details for.

 

• For the first session, we spent three hours on Quickbooks, going through how to use the Banking section (which is the key section for any cloud accounting system), covering how to log a bill in and then record it as paid as well as a few other hints and tips around recording the correct VAT codes for each transaction. The other less thought of transaction we looked at is Split Transactions. This is where you have a transaction that applies to two account categories. For example, if you get paid income from a payment provider that deducts their fee first from the sale, you would have to split the transaction to ensure the correct sale amount is recorded as well as the correct payment fee. This one can be quite tricky for business owners to get used to!

 

• On the second training session, we looked at the homework Matt had been given to see if there was anything we had covered in the first session, that needed more attention in our second session. It was great to see that the only thing we had to go over was the split transactions, everything else for August had been recorded correctly. Next, we look at how to record petty cash sales and the process around them. For this, we designed a specific screenshot process that we gave to Matt to refer to in the future.

 

• After the second 3 hour session, Matt was ready to go. We did one final review of the month of August and it was looking good! Even though he will continue to record his transactions in his book as well as Quickbooks Online, we are confident that the book will be made redundant in no time.

 

What impact has the training had on Matt and his business?

Moving across to a cloud accounting system, such as Quickbook Online, has saved hours of manual data recording each week. He is also able to save storage space as now that all bills are scanned in and attached correctly, they can then go in the shredder instead of a big lever arch folder! As he is reconciling his transactions along the way, he also is able to view his profit and loss and VAT bill for each quarter, immediately to which helps him get a much better feel on his current business performance in a matter of seconds!

It has also inspired Matt to look at moving to more electronic payments methods, for example moving staff wages to electronic means which would save him 6 hours each weekend, as well as looking at paying more bills online.

The change has not been easy to learn but Matt has been pleased to see that what they say on the television ad is true – that Quickbooks Online really can save you time and let you get on with running your business so long as you have an expert in this system helping you get set up from the beginning.

In all, for the investment of £499 (including VAT) Matt has successfully moved his business across to the cloud and now meets the Making Tax Digital electronic document keeping requirements to. Result!

If you want to make sure your VAT registered business is compliant with Making Tax Digital requirements and learn how to properly use Quickbooks Online for your business, give us a call on 01702 552 333. We only have two remaining slots for October so don’t delay getting your business and staff all trained up on Quickbooks Online.