Like most small business owners, you probably wear many hats. If you’re not in a position to completely outsource your billpaying and bookkeeping services, then it’s time to at least make your in-house system more efficient so that you can spend more time on other things…sales, marketing, free time for yourself, etc.
One of the easiest ways to slash your bookkeeping and billpaying time is to setup QuickBooks and to have QuickBooks print your checks for you. Or if you are already using QuickBooks, but you still write your checks by hand, now is time to start printing your checks directly from QuickBooks.
This will save you time as you write each check and it will eliminate the double or triple entry system that you currently have in place. In most cases, it will also reduce your accounting fees, leaving you with extra money to spend, either on other areas of your business or for personal enjoyment.
The two ways in which this helps you save time include:
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No more writing out checks by hand. Gone are the days of writing “Central Business Systems - 10/25/10 – 145.28 - One Hundred Forty Five Dollars and 28/100 - Invoice #87435″ or “Verizon – $448.32 – 10/25/10 – Four Hundred Forty Eight Dollars and 32/100 – (631) 382-3999.” Now all you have to do it type “C or Ce – 145.28 – 87435″ or “V – 448.32.” So, a 30-60 second check writing process becomes a 5-10 second check writing process. Multiply that by 50 checks each month and you could save up to 45 minutes each month. If your billing rate averages $150/hour, that’s an extra 9 hours and $1,350/year in your pocket
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No more double and triple entry bookkeeping system. If you write your checks by hand, you then record them somewhere else…either on your check stubs, in your checkbook register, in QuickBooks, in Excel, in a handwritten ledger, or in a computerized bookkeeping program. So, not only were you taking ten times longer to write each check out, but now you have an additional 15-30 second entry that needs to be made each time you write a check. With the check writing feature of QuickBooks, this second portion of the entry is automatically posted for you as you write the check. So, that 15-30 seconds you were spending is now completely eliminated. That is another 5 hours and $750 in your pocket each year
Additionally, as I mentioned earlier, the move to QuickBooks should also result in a drop in monthly accounting fees. The average small business owner who writes 50 checks per month can expect to save $50-$75 each month in accounting fees, putting an extra $600-$900 in their pocket each year.
So, by purchasing QuickBooks for around $150-$175 (click here to save 20% on QuickBooks) and maybe even bringing in a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor to setup your QuickBooks file for another $250, you still end up with an extra 14 hours of free time and $2,700-$3,000 in your pocket each year ($2,300-$2,600 in year one after purchasing QuickBooks and hiring a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor) simply by starting to use QuickBooks.
