QuickBooks Tips Reloaded- Part 1

One of our Dental CPAs, Deana Jordan, posted an article in the January issue of Dentaltown magazine discussing QuickBooks: 10 Tips to Stay Organized and Efficient. We received so much great feedback from clients and others in the dental community who found the article really helpful. So we decided to further discuss Deana’s QuickBooks tips in a 3-part series blog post!

These tips help educate dental practice QuickBooks users on what they should be doing to not only better manage and organize practice finances but also help the practice advisers, especially in regard to practice decisions. 

Here is Part 1 of Deana’s QuickBooks Best Practices Tips:

.     1..     The Beginning: Basic Booking Tips to Jump Start Your Journey

o   Maintain separate accounts

The rule of thumb for any business is to always keep personal and practice checking accounts separate. Your business is a separate entity, so never comingle funds. 

o   Keep Track of your receipts to support your expenses

Keeping accurate expense records and updating your records regularly is the best way to ensure organization and efficiency.  Whether it’s scanning your receipts or using a filing system- don’t throw them away. They can be used for record verification when you least expect it.

o   Have a spare credit card for practice transactions

Using a separate credit card for your professional practice expenses is key. Also reconcile your credit card’s expense statements monthly- even if you can only spare 30 minutes to do so. By reconciling your expenses on a monthly basis, your records will remain up to date and accurate. So when your financial manager goes in to pull reports, they can do so more efficiently without waiting time digging around to find missing receipts.

     2.       Selecting the best QuickBooks Software Version

o   Choose the version of QuickBooks that best suits your practice’s needs

§  QuickBooks Pro- For practices that are just starting out and are more focused on getting up and running

§  QuickBooks Premier- For more established practices that are expanding their business and service offerings

§  QuickBooks Enterprise- For practices that have more complex levels of record keeping and need more flexibility in targeting the software specifically to their needs

§  QuickBooks Online – For online access for dental practices on any level

o   Our Dental CPA team recommends QuickBooks online, so you can login anywhere at anytime. There is no software data to manage and the system is automatically upgraded. Your data is stored on the Intuit servers so there is no need to process manual backups. If you have an offsite bookkeeper, QuickBooks online makes it easier for them to access your books from anywhere, that’s less time spent commuting to the office!

-        3.   Creating Customizable Chart of Accounts

o   If your practice is in its early stages, and you are not sure as yet which reports you prefer to see, start with a Standard Dental Chart of Accounts. QuickBooks will generate a chart of accounts based on the type of business entered at initial startup, in this case, a dental practice. Here is an example of a Chart of accounts for a general dentist.

With QuickBooks, and a trusted Dental CPA on your side, being organized and ensuring that your practice’s finances are accurately managed is simple. Regardless of the size of your Dental practice, you want to ensure that you are running your business efficiently by having good bookkeeping and accounting practices. 

Stay Tuned for part 2 of our three part series on Ten Tips to Stay Organized and Efficient. You can also check out Deana’s original Dentaltown article here. 

For information on questions specific to your practice’s accounting needs, contact Deana or reach out to any of our Dental CPAs by emailing info@dentalcpas.com