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Being your own boss can be an exciting undertaking, giving you the freedom to live life on your terms, grow a sizable income, and support your family and local community. However, with business ownership comes the need for smart financial management. Whether you’re an HVAC specialist, a towing company, a plumber, a roofer, a contractor, a lawyer, a medical facility, or a restaurant owner, accurate bookkeeping and accounting are crucial for tracking revenue, maintaining a healthy cash flow, meeting tax obligations, and complying with industry regulations.
Enter QuickBooks for small businesses, a powerful software tool trusted by millions of small businesses and solo entrepreneurs for accounting, reporting, and financial management. This article explores QuickBooks’s many features, benefits, and pricing tiers, highlighting why it’s an indispensable tool for managing business operations and ensuring long-term growth.
What Is QuickBooks?
Built by Intuit, QuickBooks is a leading accounting software product available in both online and desktop versions. Its comprehensive suite of financial management tools enables businesses to track income and expenses, create estimates, identify tax deductions, manage payroll, generate reports, and much more.
In one survey of small-business owners, QuickBooks found that owners’ number-one success metric is being able to provide for themselves and their families. By using QuickBooks to manage their finances, business owners can realize their dreams while ensuring financial security, even without an accounting background.
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5 QuickBooks Benefits for Small Businesses
More than just a basic accounting program, QuickBooks is a global leader in financial software products that simplify financial management, streamline workflows, and allow teams to collaborate in real time. Here are five of the key benefits of QuickBooks for small businesses.
1. Streamlined Accounting and Bookkeeping
QuickBooks simplifies accounting and bookkeeping tasks, making it easier to track cash flow and make informed business decisions. The software automates many daily tasks, such as data entry, reducing the risk of human error. By centralizing financial information in one location accessible anywhere with an internet connection, QuickBooks keeps important financial information organized and accessible.
2. Time-Saving Features
Every second counts when you’re a business owner hustling to serve customers and grow revenue. With automated invoicing, billing, and payment reminders, QuickBooks eliminates manual accounts-receivable processes, helping you get paid faster. Set up recurring invoices, schedule payments, and free up valuable time for high-value activities that only you as a business owner can do.
3. Financial Reporting
From profit and loss statements and balance sheets to cash-flow analyses, QuickBooks has you covered with detailed financial reports. Get a bird’s-eye view of your company’s financial health so you can make informed decisions and plan for future growth. With an advanced plan, you can generate presentation-ready reports, customized with the information that matters most to key stakeholders, including investors, accounting professionals, and financial managers.
4. Tax Preparation
QuickBooks eliminates much of the stress of tax season. By keeping your records organized throughout the year, the software facilitates easy access for you and your tax professionals at tax time. QuickBooks also offers expert tax help to ensure accurate filing and maximize your tax credits, deductions, and refunds.
5. Scalability
As your business grows, QuickBooks grows with you, meeting your evolving financial needs. With plans that scale with your business, you can start small on a basic plan and upgrade to higher tiers only when it makes sense. Whether you’re a self-employed professional or a growing company with multiple employees, QuickBooks has a solution to suit your needs at every stage.
Essential QuickBooks Features
What can you do with QuickBooks? With its wide range of features, QuickBooks offers a holistic solution for businesses of all sizes. Here are some essential QuickBooks features to know.
Invoicing
Customizable invoice templates let you create branded invoices to present a professional face for your business. Smart invoicing features let you add billable hours, automate reminders, track payments in real time, and get paid up to four times faster, preserving your cash flow.
Expense Tracking
Tracking outgoing money is just as important as tracking income. Connect QuickBooks with your bank accounts, payment processor, credit cards, and other financial accounts, and automate importing and categorizing expenses. Upload receipts in seconds through the mobile app, and never lose track of critical expenditures.
Payroll
When you add automated payroll processing to your plan, you can make sure your employees and contractors get paid accurately and on time. From time tracking to tax filing and offering team benefits, QuickBooks reduces manual tasks and enables easy reporting.
Mobile Accessibility
With its mobile app, QuickBooks lets you manage your finances on the go. Whether you’re traveling for conferences, meeting clients or investors, or simply checking on your cash flow, you always have your financial data at your fingertips.
QuickBooks Pricing
QuickBooks offers several pricing plans for different business needs, with higher tiers including basic plus more advanced features and benefits:
- Simple Start: Perfect for startup and small businesses, this plan includes income and expense tracking, invoicing, and general reporting. Connect one sales channel, access expert tax help, automate bookkeeping, and leverage banking with a 5% annual percentage yield.
- Essentials: In addition to Simple Start features, this plan also includes enhanced reports, multiple currencies, connection with three sales channels, and access for three users, making it ideal for growing businesses with more complex needs.
- Plus: The Plus plan allows for five users, unlimited sales channel connections, inventory tracking, project profitability tracking, and more advanced reporting tools.
- Advanced: Designed for growing enterprises, this plan offers premium features, such as auto-tracking of fixed assets, Excel data sync, batched invoices and expenses, workflow automation, and access for 25 users.
With plans starting at $30 per month and a free trial available, QuickBooks makes it easy to get started and scales with your needs.
Industry-Specific Applications
QuickBooks is a versatile tool with applications in many different industries, such as:
- HVAC and plumbing: Keep tabs on job expenses, manage invoices and estimates, and streamline payment processes.
- Towing and contractors: Handle multiple projects, manage payroll, and keep track of expenses.
- Lawyers and medical facilities: Track billable hours, manage client payments, and maintain accurate financial records.
- Restaurants: Track sales and expenses, manage inventory, and generate financial reports to monitor your business performance.
No matter your industry, QuickBooks has features that can help you manage your finances more efficiently and continue growing your business.
Get Started With QuickBooks
QuickBooks is a robust software product that can transform your business’s financial management. With streamlined accounting processes, scalability, time-saving features, detailed financial reporting, tax-prep help, and applications across industries, QuickBooks makes building a business simpler and more attainable.
Don’t let financial management hold you back from pursuing your dream. Discover the benefits of QuickBooks for small businesses, and take your business to the next level.
Get Started on QuickBooks Today