Bookkeeping Tips

Do you often invoice your customers for the same product or service and spend ages meticulously entering the details about those items every time you create a new invoice? You may be able to save some valuable time by creating a price list instead. Once your price list is set up, when it’s time to invoice your customer you simply choose the item you need from the list, and FreeAgent will automatically add the item to your invoice. 

To find out more click here.  

QuickBooks Online Lets you upload and save attachments on any transaction.

This makes referencing source documents easier and more efficient.

To add an attachment:

1. Open an invoice

2. Click attachments icon

3. Browse for the attachment

4. Click Save

NOTE: Now QuickBooks Online lets you view the source document when viewing the transaction. This is helpful for receipts, bank statements, copies of transactions, etc.

As a daily user of Xero by far for me the best time saving option is to open multiple Pages at the same time

• To open a link in a new tab on a PC, right-click on a link and select Open a new Tab.
• To open a link in a new tab on a Mac, hold down the Command key and click on the link.

As a small business owner, you probably rely on a range of digital tools to help you get things done. FreeAgent has combined forces with lots of market-leading integration partners, from e-commerce and payment solutions to forecasting and productivity tools. In FreeAgent, navigate to ‘Connections’ from the drop-down menu that displays your company name to see the full list of integrations available and to get the setup process started.

Did you know there is a helpful list of shortcuts in QuickBooks Online?

It can be accessed by pressing the following keys at the same time: CTRL + ALT + ?

Additional information

You're viewing QuickBooks in Accountant view
Your Company ID is 4620 8163 6524 XXXX XXX Copy

Keyboard Shortcuts

To use a shortcut, press and hold ctrl/control and alt/option at the same time. Then press one of the keys below.

When you press this shortcut, QuickBooks Online displays the list of shortcuts.

In addition to these shortcuts, you can access date shortcuts on transactions.

To use the date shortcuts, place your cursor in any date field in QuickBooks online and use the following shortcut keys:

• T – enters today’s date
• W – enter the first day in the week
• K – enters the last day in the week
• Y – enters the first day in the year
• R – enters the last day in the year
• M – enters the first day in the month
• H – enters the last day in the month

A great tip to save time in xero is to create recurring invoices and bills

You can create a recurring Sales Invoice and recurring Purchase Bills

This is extremely useful if you have a customer that you invoice the same amount each month.

You can create the invoice and Xero can approve and send out to the customer automatically.

Or

You can create and save for you to update, add attachments, review then you can send and approve.

You can do the same for Purchase Bills.

I find this especially useful if you pay an invoice by DD each month – for example an insurance premium.

You can create a recurring bill each month and this amount will match to the DD that has been paid from your bank.

For more information on recurring bills and invoices please do contact me on annarowson-smith@ellis-uk.com or 01244 343504

Or visit

• https://central.xero.com/s/article/Add-or-edit-a-repeating-invoice-template#Howrepeatinginvoiceswork
• https://central.xero.com/s/article/Add-repeating-bills-or-copy-bills-UK

Quick Tip of the month for this month is relating to Quickbooks

Quickbooks online allows you to upload and save attachments to any transaction. Whether is a bank/credit card transaction or a posted journal.

This allows you to have an audit trail of your postings and if there are any queries allows your accountant to look for the attachment.

We advise that if you are VAT registered you attach all VAT receipts to your bank and credit card transactions

To add a transactions:-

• Open the transaction line from the bank/credit card
• Click on the attachment icon at the bottom left corner
• Browse the attachment
• Upload
• Click and save

You may have already visited the Knowlegde Base to find answers to your questions or to troubleshoot, but have you met Ruby the Robot?

You can find Ruby when you're logged into FreeAgent by clicking on the blue 'Help' button in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. From there, Ruby will pop up and offer her services to help answer questions and to search the Knowlegde Base for you.

If your question is outside Ruby's remit, contact our in-house software specialist Anna Rowson-Smith. 

I use Xero every day and for me by far, the best time saving feature is having more than one session open at time.

This is especially helpful if you have more than one screen set up - However it is quite accessible with only one screen as you can [ALT & ←] to skip between screens.

With two sessions open at a time - You can have the bank reconciliation screen open and the files option open.

This will enable you to load and enter the invoices and receipts and check and match the payments that have come out of your bank with a quick ‘click’ 

Keyboard shortcuts can help you save time and allow you to keep your hands on the keyboard when you enter information into QuickBooks Online. Use these keyboards shortcuts when working in a transaction window. Mac users can substitute Option for Alt in the following table.

There's also an easy way to access these common commands with a shortcut of its own. By hitting CTRL + ALT + ? for PC or CTRL + OPTION + MAC, a menu will pop up with these shortcuts, which are summarised below.

Insights is an innovative feature that uses your data in FreeAgent to highlight certain aspects of your business' performance - as well as opportunites and potential issues - so that you make better informed decisions about your business and finances. At the moment there are four insights available:

• Top customers - Insights highlights your top five customers from the last six months.
• Upcoming VAT payment - this lets you know when you have an upcoming VAT payment to budget for.
• Slowest-paying customers - this shows you your slowest-paying customers from the past 12 months and offers guidance to help you get paid faster.
• Top spending catergories - this highlights your top five spending catergories from the last six months to give you a clearer picture of your outgoings.

Keen to check out your most recent insights? Navigate to the bell-shaped icon at the top right of your screen in FreeAgent and dive straight in!

It happens to everyone: you’re in a groove, zooming through your bank feed and before you know it, you’ve incorrectly matched a transaction.

Xero’s “unreconcile” feature lets you fix this mistake quickly.

Since unreconcile keeps the account transaction and the bank statement line but removes the connection between them, this Xero tip will save you a ton of time and hassle.

Here is how to unreconcile an account transaction:

• Click on the three little dots to the right of the account name on the Dashboard.
• Go to account transactions under the find header.
• Click the transaction you want to change to open it.
• On the next screen, click options and then select unreconcile.
• Click OK on the pop-up window to unreconcile the transaction.
• After you’ve completed this process, you can now re-reconcile the bank statement line.

Are you are interested in having a bookkeeping review with our practice bookkeeper and software specialist Anna Rowson-Smith?

What is involved in a bookkeeping review?

• Bank reconciliations check
• Category posting checks
• VAT code checks
• Duplicate transaction checks

If you are interested in a Bookkeeping review please contact Anna on annarowson-smith@ellis-uk.com  

Fees will apply.

In any business it’s important you know what’s going on with your hard-earned money.

In QuickBooks you can ensure your accounts always reconcile.

For example; when you receive a statement or a payment remittance, ensure it reconciles with your QuickBooks.

This covers all statements, including those for credit cards, loans and bank accounts.

It is important that the actual bank balance matches to the reconciled balance in QuickBooks, this is a common issue that we do come across when completing the year end accounts.

Are you are interested in having a bookkeeping review with our practice bookkeeper and software specialist Anna Rowson-Smith?

What is involved in a bookkeeping review?

• Bank reconciliations check
• Category posting checks
• VAT code checks
• Duplicate transaction checks

If you are interested in a Bookkeeping review please contact Anna on annarowson-smith@ellis-uk.com  

Fees will apply.

Practice bookkeeper and software specialist Anna Rowson-Smith, will be sharing her bookkeeping tips in every edition of our newsletter.

This month… FreeAgent… let Ruby help you!

FreeAgent has a new helper, meet Ruby the Robot.

If you need to troubleshoot or ask any questions whilst using FreeAgent click on the blue help button (bottom right hand corner) and Ruby will pop up.

Ruby will help answer any questions and if outside her remit she’ll put you in touch with a member of the FreeAgent team.

Are you are interested in having a bookkeeping review with our practice bookkeeper and software specialist Anna Rowson-Smith?

What is involved in a bookkeeping review?

• Bank reconciliations check
• Category posting checks
• VAT code checks
• Duplicate transaction checks

If you are interested in a Bookkeeping review please contact Anna on annarowson-smith@ellis-uk.com  

Fees will apply.

Perform quick actions with ‘+’ button

On the top right hand you’ll see a small plus icon (+).

Click the icon to quickly access several different functions including creating a purchase order, invoice, or contact.

Are you are interested in having a bookkeeping review with our practice bookkeeper and software specialist Anna Rowson-Smith?

What is involved in a bookkeeping review?

• Bank reconciliations check
• Category posting checks
• VAT code checks
• Duplicate transaction checks

If you are interested in a Bookkeeping review please contact Anna on annarowson-smith@ellis-uk.com  

Fees will apply.

Practice bookkeeper and software specialist Anna Rowson-Smith shares her bookkeeping tips... 

This month… Quickbooks handy hint

You can open more than one Tab when using Quickbooks online

For a quick link, right click on any link in QuickBooks and click open link in new tab.

I find this useful if you are checking transactions when entering or wanting to check the account code for posting transactions.

Are you are interested in having a bookkeeping review with our practice bookkeeper and software specialist Anna Rowson-Smith?

What is involved in a bookkeeping review?

• Bank reconciliations check
• Category posting checks
• VAT code checks
• Duplicate transaction checks

If you are interested in a Bookkeeping review please contact Anna on annarowson-smith@ellis-uk.com  

Fees will apply.

Practice bookkeeper and software specialist Anna Rowson-Smith, shares her bookkeeping tips... 

This month… Xero multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Cyber-attacks have increased dramatically since the start of the pandemic.

The results of a cyber-attack can be devastating, in order to protect its users even further Xero will be introducing a mandatory multi-factor authentication (MFA).

This added security will be brought in from early April (2021), with users invited to opt into MFA and use an authentication app, such as Xero Verify.

Xero Verify will send out push notifications to ensure it is the user trying to log in, therefore preventing anyone else trying to access your account.

Xero will contact all users in early April.

Are you are interested in having a bookkeeping review with our practice bookkeeper and software specialist Anna Rowson-Smith?

What is involved in a bookkeeping review?

• Bank reconciliations check
• Category posting checks
• VAT code checks
• Duplicate transaction checks

If you are interested in a Bookkeeping review please contact Anna on annarowson-smith@ellis-uk.com  

Fees will apply.

Practice bookkeeper and software specialist Anna Rowson-Smith shares her bookkeeping tips... 

This month…Store your business files right inside FreeAgent

You probably have files and documents that you like to have to hand while you’re working on your business accounts, so why not bring them straight into FreeAgent?

Simply upload your docs to the 'Files' area of your account using the storing company files feature or email the documents directly to your FreeAgent account!

To find this click on the company name on the top right hand side /files.

Compose a new email in the email account that you use to log into FreeAgent, attach the files and then send the email to files@[yoursubdomain].freeagent.com.

(Here’s how to find your subdomain if you’re not sure.)

Once the email has been received, the files will automatically be uploaded to the Files area of your FreeAgent account.

Are you are interested in having a bookkeeping review with our practice bookkeeper and software specialist Anna Rowson-Smith?

What is involved in a bookkeeping review?

• Bank reconciliations check
• Category posting checks
• VAT code checks
• Duplicate transaction checks

If you are interested in a Bookkeeping review please contact Anna on annarowson-smith@ellis-uk.com  

Fees will apply.

Xero has an inbuilt calculator that allows you to perform basic math functions directly in certain fields. Using this calculator decreases the chance of an entry error

The inbuilt calculator has addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and group functionality.

To use it, just type in an equation — like 15 * 1.12 — into a field. Press enter or tab and Xero calculates the result. You can use this calculator for transactions as well as manual journals. 

If you are interested in a Bookkeeping review please contact Anna on annarowson-smith@ellis-uk.com  

Fees will apply.