Fixes, pricing, and comparisons for small business software.
Job costing in QuickBooks tells you whether a specific job made money, not just whether the business as a whole did. For contractors juggling several jobs at once, this is the difference between knowing which types of work are actually worth bidding on and guessing. Here is how to track job costing in QuickBooks for … Read more
Closing the books at year end in QuickBooks locks a full year of transactions into place so nobody can accidentally change a number after your taxes are filed. Here is how to close the books at year end in QuickBooks correctly, in an order that catches problems before they get sealed in. Last verified: October … Read more
Owner draws vs payroll in QuickBooks comes down to one thing first: how your business is legally structured, not personal preference. Get the entity type wrong and the IRS treatment is wrong too, regardless of how carefully you record it in QuickBooks. Here is how each option works and how to record it correctly once … Read more
Giving your accountant access to QuickBooks the right way means they see exactly what they need to do their job, without you sharing your actual login or handing over more control than the task requires. Here is how to give your accountant access to QuickBooks safely, whether you use Online or Desktop. Last verified: October … Read more
What it means when your QuickBooks company file won’t sync A QuickBooks company file that won’t sync usually means one of two things: QuickBooks Desktop is having trouble syncing with its own hosted copy or a connected service, or a QuickBooks Online integration has stopped passing data back and forth correctly. Either way, this is … Read more
Why QuickBooks running slow is rarely one single cause QuickBooks running slow is almost always the combined effect of a large file, too many things happening on the network at once, and a computer or connection that is working harder than it should. There is no data at risk just because the program feels sluggish, … Read more
If you sell physical products, your stock is one of the biggest numbers on your balance sheet and one of the easiest to get wrong. QuickBooks can keep the count and the cost for you, but only if it is set up correctly from the start. Here is how to track inventory in QuickBooks Online, … Read more
Every business eventually has an invoice that will never be paid. Leaving it open makes your receivables look healthier than they are, and deleting it erases a real sale from your records. This guide shows how to write off bad debt in QuickBooks the clean way, so the invoice closes, the loss shows up where … Read more
Recording a loan in QuickBooks takes two moves that people often collapse into one. The money that arrives is not income, and the payment that leaves is not entirely an expense. Here is how to record a loan in QuickBooks so your balance sheet shows what you owe and your profit and loss shows only … Read more
QuickBooks won’t open: what is usually going on When QuickBooks won’t open at all, the cause is almost always local to the computer or the file it is trying to reach, not damage to your actual data. It can freeze on a splash screen, throw an error before it fully loads, or simply do nothing … Read more