Quick-Look FAQ South Africa: Ask the Accountant

samalia · ‎March 23, 2022

Quick-Look FAQ South Africa: Ask the Accountant Edition

Meet Lauren du Plooy, a QuickBooks Proadvsisor from South Africa. Lauren is full of localised, expert product knowledge and here to answer your top-of-mind accounting questions. As a small business owner using QuickBooks Online, an accountant can be the perfect pairing to make sure your books stay clean. If you would like to find a certified QuickBooks Proadvisor in your area you can do so here.

1. What are the biggest benefits of moving from QuickBooks Online desktop to Online?

Automation, wouldn't you love to save up to 60% of your processing time each month in your accounts department?

Also, accessing your books from anywhere on any device is an exceptional tool for any business owner and you will have up-to-date information at your fingertips.

No more server issues/network issues in your office. No more capital layout for new servers or data storage devices or worrying about backing up of your data file - everything is cloud bases

Cashflow is managed a lot easier with the online version especially using automatic invoice reminders to get those invoices paid on time

2. How do I go about migrating my data from desktop or another software to QuickBooks Online?

You have 2 options:

QuickBooks offers free migration to online from any competitor software, speak to your accountant or Easybiz technologies to assist with this.
If you would like a fresh start for your new system you can import all masterfile information (lists) into QuickBooks Online and then you will need to bring in the opening balances for your year-end, this can all be imported - you can look for a migration specialist to assist you with this or even if your accountant knows QuickBooks they can assist

Quick-Tip: Check out our article on Importing Data into QuickBooks Online, and make sure you work with an accountant to make sure you keep your books clean.

3. What is your favorite QuickBooks Online trick or workaround?

Batch processing in the banking module. We love how clever QuickBooks becomes as it learns from your processing and will prepopulate information on these transactions so you can just approve them the next time they appear in your bank. As well as bank rules these save a huge amount of processing time each month

4. What are your favorite App integrations and why?

Dext used to be but with QuickBooks Online receipt capture that is going to be changing - We have been so excited with this new product release, clients being able to upload slips from the mobile app is a game changer.

We also love Quotient App which is a proposal system that integrates with QuickBooks Online.

Our Payroll of choice is Payspace with seemless integration into QuickBooks Online and for inventory we use Unleashed and MrPeasy.

Quick-Tip: For specific app support, you will need to reach out directly to that app for help. QuickBooks itself cannot advise or offer support with any 3rd party integrations.

5. What are the top 3 most common mistakes your client makes in QBO?

Processing customer payments to an income account instead of matching it to an invoice from the banking screen
VAT, clients make mistakes on what expenses vat is claimable on
They don't utilise the reconciling function, this is very problematic when they are processing manual transactions for customer & supplier payments as well as expenses. if they don't reconcile their bank accounts they are not picking up any errors and correcting them. we see a lot of incorrect bank balances due to this

6. What is the biggest challenge(s) your client faces as a new business owner?

How to manage their cashflow - to plan for the future and make difficult decisions when the need arises
How to market their business - to understand their client's needs and the best way to then spend their marketing budget
Time management - how to make sure the ball is not dropping in certain areas of their business, they need to make sure they have the correct team in place doing their jobs correctly to give the owner the space to work on the business and not get bogged down working in their businesses processes.

7. What is the biggest advantage to having an accountants help manage your books and Quickbooks account?

To have a business partner that has extensive knowledge in your industry is the most valuable tool you could need. This is how we want business owners to view their relationship with their accountant, We are here to support you every step of the way

We also to make sure the task of understanding your company's financials reports is not a daunting task but something that empowers you as a business owner to make decisions that will further your growth and success.

When it comes to managing your cash flow or looking at your annual forecasts and budgets - these are important tools that business owners need to be using daily and having an accountant on board managing these for you is extremely beneficial.

Do you have a question or topic you would like us to cover in our next FAQ? Leave a comment below by clicking the green "Reply" button.

Thande · ‎May 19, 2022

Can I load suppliers banking details on QBO and Make a payment?

FritzF · ‎May 19, 2022

Greetings, @Thande.

Thanks for joining this thread. Allow me to chime in and share information about managing suppliers in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

Currently, the option to add or load a supplier's banking details in QBO is unavailable.

You can only add an account's number to their information. This is the number that has been assigned to you by the supplier. It will appear in the memo line of every payment that you generate out of QBO for that supplier.

To learn more about managing and adding suppliers in QBO, consider checking out these articles:

For tips and other resources you can use in the future, I recommend visiting our website. Here's the link: Self-help articles.

Please let me know if you have additional questions about suppliers or anything else QuickBooks. I'll be right here ready to help. Take care always.

Thande · ‎May 19, 2022

Thank you for your response it helps.

Another question is I want to add or Link ABSA to QBO but I am failing will you please help?

Is QBO have a vendor supplier master file? and can I block a supplier?

BJ REFUSE · ‎June 16, 2022

How do i add tax to an existing client?

MariaSoledadG · ‎June 16, 2022

Let's make sure to add a tax to your client, BJ REFUSE.

As your business grows, it's important to stay organised and keep track of your customers. You can add customer profiles so you can quickly add them to transactions or invoices. This will also add the tax information of your existing client by following the steps below:

Go to the Sales tab, then select Customer.
Choose the name of your customer.
Click the Edit button on the upper right side.
Go to the Tax info tab, then enter the information.
Click Save.

For more information, read this article when you want to track VAT automatically when making a sale: Use VAT On An Invoice or Sales Receipt. Furthermore, QuickBooks Online tracks your payment due dates to avoid late returns. You can review what you owe and make sure you're updated when it's time to file. Check out this article for more details: File Your VAT Return and Record Sales Tax Payments In QuickBooks Online.

Reach out to us if you have any other concerns about your clients' taxes. We're here to help you all the time.

Ishana · ‎December 05, 2022

Hi There, I find it challenging to categorize the payments done or received to and from my business bank account. For example, I paid VAT to SARS - how do you categorise this accurately? It does not accept "vat payable" as an expense with a zero-rated tax selection. Please advise.

How would I categorise telephone expenses? will it be office expenses or dues & subscriptions?

Is there any training available for going through the categorizations and tax selections?

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Quick-Look FAQ South Africa: Ask the Accountant