quickbooks users?

[JML]

hello, i was wondering who uses quickbooks pro. if you do i have a few questions i would like to ask you. thanks

[BIG D]

I use quick books pro. What's the problem?

[Skookum]

Me too, whats up?

[Greenkeepers]

Shoot me an email. I'm an accountant / Lawncare Co. Owner. Ask Away!

[Vandora Lawn & Landscape]

I use quickbooks, how can I help?

[JML]

Ok, thanks so much.. Can you automate it so that it will generate invoices
for lawn maintenance customers at the end of the month? Also can you give a
specific service a specific price for a customer, so when I add a lawn care
app to Mrs. Smith's bill it will come up at $45.00? I have a few more I
might have figured out, but those are the big ones for now. Thanks again

[smithf36]

We use QuickBooks Pro too. My wife attended a two day class on how to fully use it. I would highly recommend attending one of these classes if you can. It was put on by Intuit, the makers of QuickBooks. My wife says the class was well worth it. She learned how to use a lot of the features we were not using in the past.

Now to answer the question I think you're asking. QB2000 will not remember different prices for different people. For example, You "mow and trim" Mrs. Smith's lawn at $45 and you do the same for Mrs. Jones at $60. QB2000 will not remember the different prices for the same "job" at different customers.

However, QuickBooks Pro 2001 will. If you enter Mrs. Smith as the customer, enter that you "mowed and trimmed", $45 will come up in the price so you do not have to enter it every time. Also I do not believe you can automate the billing, but I will try to find out.

I hope this answers your question. If you need more help e-mail me at smithf36@ytci.com

Joe

[Island Lawn]

I bought Quick Books yesterday!
It is already a quantum leap for my business!
One problem/inconvience. I have to manually open the internet to recieve updates/ect. The program tells me that since I dont have Microsoft Explorer, it cant automatically make an internet connection for me.

[thelawnguy]

If you install MSIE (its included on your quickbooks CD) your inconvenience will be gone. Just dont configure it as your default browser. Though, if you are presently using Netscape (as I once did) you may welcome the change.

[Indiana]

I have used Quickbooks for three or four years. I love it.

I set each of my different customers up for mowing as a different item number in the descriptions. I used their first couple of intials from their last name and a three digit number to assign the service usually performed.

Example: Last name- West Usually mow & trim
Item #: W001

In the item description I would fill in that their service is usually $45.00

This way I go down my calender book from the truck and get dates and the services performed on that date. I do it customer by customer each with their own invoice. I take a highlighter to mark each service as I enter it into Quickbooks. I do this at the end of each month and mail the invoices.

As the checks come in I enter them as payments for each customer. At the end of the year, I just print the report out and go over it. SEND IT TO MY ACCOUNTANT and I'm done.

[BRL]

Smithf36,
You can do the things that you are saying can't be done with QuickbooksPro. Like Indiana said, you can set up prices for jobs in item list or you can set up Mrs. Smith's cut at $45.00 per cut. You can also have QB automatically invoice Mrs. Smith weekly, biweekly or monthly. Had a long couple of nights of stacking & salting snow so I'm too tired to type directions now. If you all want to know how I'll host a Stone style class after I get some sleep ;)

[Skookum]

I too do like Indiana. setup your customers also as a item and it will then automate it as far as putting in the price and description of service by just using the tab key.

[JML]

I have been trying to read the book, but to no avail i am still not getting what i want out of it.. how do you automate it to do your billing monthly? thanks

joe

[Island Lawn]

I bought the program wanting to gets my #'s in order.
I'm shopping for a CPA and wanted to waste as little of his (our) time as possible.
One of the first things I found on the program was a list of certified QuickBooks professional advisors.
I found a CPA around the corner on the list. I have an appt w/ him tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Skookum]

Is your question based on, "You want to be able to hit one button and have QB create all invoices for all customers that are based on a like regular monthly rate"?

If that is close, QB will not do that as I know of. You must create each invoice for each customer one at a time. I do not think you can create a batch for say at one time push button invoicing. If you did you would not be able to distinguish between customers for payment and such, which would be a lose of good available data.

Once you have your customers setup and items setup for each cutomers, it is as simple as using the tab key, then pick the item, enter the service dates, tab on to the next invoice.

Now I am still using QB 99, see no reason to upgrade at this time. Maybe QB 2000 or 2001 might do such a thing.

[Indiana]

Skookum is right. I don't know why you want to make generic invoices for each customer. Quickbooks is really used so you can keep up with services, customers, and their data.

I really like it for invoicing and recording payments.

I haven't used it 100% for checking, etc...

I have a brother-in-law that does and he loves it.

[Fantasy Lawns]

My cpa loves quickbooks pro ...... I like that with "pc anywhere" I can access her server and get up to date info on recent billing....payment.....checks.....financials

[thelawnguy]

Am I correct in my assumption, that Quicken no longer offers a free demo disk?

[Skookum]

I think they do something like a demo disk. Try Intuit as a web site or search. I am sure they still do that demo deal.

[thelawnguy]

I did not find it there, which is why I ask. They just have a web-based demo.

[KirbysLawn]

The next time you have an invoice open ready to print click on >edit >memorize invoice, then click on >remind me, set for monthly, set a date for next month and your done.

Next month the memorized invoices will show, open that window and click enter transactions, change any charges if needed and your done. You can print them as normal or send the to print as a group later.

Oh yea, this would also memorize the charges for each customer separate, so yes you could have an automatice invoice for Ms. Smith at $150 and one for Ms. Wilson at $120 each month.

Ray

[Edited by KirbysLawn on 01-11-2001 at 04:44 PM]

[bridges]

I got two words for all you quickbooks users.


Lawnmonkey

[BRL]

Ray,
Please change the blinking smiley. It hurt my eyes. Really. Felt like a welding burn in my eyes. Weird experience. Thanks.

Ray explained it right. I'll add to it though. You can at the "memorize" invoice screen tell QB to do that monthly invoice every month on the 30th (or whatever date you want) or just the months you need if you only have seasonal contracts with 8 or 9 month periods. It will work for weekly or biweekly invoices too. Once you memorize the invoices QB will automatically process them on the date you specified. They will then show up in your reminders list as Invoices waiting to be printed. If you need to change or add something, just pick the invoice you need to change out of that list & edit as needed. You can also memorize any other transaction, like monthly bills. You can have truck payments, depreciation charges, etc. etc. automatically processed each month using the same method. Saves lots of time.

[KindGardener]

I took over QB Pro2000 from my bookkeeper one month ago - so I am still in the steep part of the learning curve.

I "create" ALL my invoices (for Jan 31) on Dec 31. Then each time I need to add a service, or more improtant - to add extra work & materials! - I just put it on the upcoming invoice.

Tried the "memorized transaction" - It Works! This Month when I process my invoices I'll set each one up.

I found that if I set "Memorized transaction - Create Invoice" to Automatically Invoice ecery month with 31 days notice.... then BAMM !!! the program generates the new invoice.

Guys - this is one tedious task I hated doing - thanks for the tip!

Do y'all set it at "Automatic Invoice" or just "Reminder" (pros/cons?) It seems that with "Automatic" - you can generate them in advance (as I do).


OTHER NOTES>>>

In my ITEMS list, I created "Weekly Landscape Maint." at "$0.00". (as well as Bi-weekly & Monthly) That way, I just tab over & put in the correct amount for that customer.
Aslo, about 1 in 3-4 invoices has something extra each visit.

I customized my last month invoice & put a Holiday Message at the bottom. This month it has reminders of extra services I can do...

I'd be interested in seeing what others' invoices look like - I'll e-mail mine to anyone interested.

Will@Shrubberies.com

[BRL]

I set it for automatic. It still prompts you (I consider this my reminder, but its already set to go) to actually process the invoices (or whatever transaction) so this would be a good reminder for me if I need to make any changes. You won't save as much time if you just tell it to remind you because I believe you will then have to make each invoice when it reminds you about it. My item list is actually pretty big, especially with some complicated snow plow contracts I picked up this year. But if you take the time to set it up the way you want it will save you time for sure. Will, not sure what you are doing with weekly maintence, but I would bet a lot of us have weekly mowings that we bill. Lets say you have a lot of $35.00, $40.00 & $45.00 lawns. You could set up items with the pricing instead of having to enter that price each time. Item M35 set for "mow lawn" and set the price for $35.00. M40 "mow lawn" price $40.00, etc. Every little bit of time saved on the paper work makes more time to check in here at Lawnsite! :)

[Skookum]

WOW!

Thanks for that info on how to set up those invoices automatic. I never once thought of using that that way.

That's a great tip!

[JML]

Ok, so i set up all my customers with their own service, for example mr. jones is a $55 weekly account, so his service is LM55. now how i do i set up the invoices so it just puts in LM55 four or five times? thanks

joe

[BRL]

Are you saying that you bill Mr. Jones once a month maybe? Or do you send an invoice each week? Either way, as explained earlier in the thread, you'll have to do the first invoice as normal. Then click "edit" at the top and then click "memorize invoice". On the next screen choose automatic and how often to do the invoice & when to stop it & you're all set. Next week or month QB processes that invoice for you.

[rixtag]

Hi all. I have read all posts on this subject and I have a question. As I understand it Qb is more geared toward the accounting side of the biz and LM is more scheduling/routing. Correct or no? The reason I ask is because I am in the market for a good accounting program and I am solo and do not need scheduling/routing. On the subject of accounting programs is QB the only way to go or do I have other options.
Thanks in advance

Rick

[BRL]

Rick,
Your thoughts are pretty much right on. For just accounting you could also try Peachtree accounting software, which is the QBPro competition. If you don't need the scheduling, one of those 2 would be a good start for the money. When you need more you can get Clip or LM or Service Pro and I believe they all now interact with QB, so you can still be comfortable with the accounting side of things.

[rixtag]

Thanks BRL I appreciate that very much.

Rick

[CHC]

As a long time CLIP & QB user, I was interested to see that CLIP has a linking module to get the info right into QB. We haven't tried it yet, but would be interested to know if anyone has. We use the auto feature on our contract customers.

BRL; did you get all the info on the EPHenry seminars? They are having some freebie classes on 2/15 & 2/16, as wellas the ICPI stuff.

[BRL]

CHC,
Yes I did thank you. Can you E-mail me, I have some questions for you.

[smithf36]

Do any of you print checks through QBPro? I bought the blank checks with nothing on it. I am having trouble getting my bank name, check #, and account number to print on the check. Help Please.

joe

[Vandora Lawn & Landscape]

Try printing on blank white paper. Try adjusting the settings until when you hold it up in the light it lines up. That what I do when I need to test new forms.

[smithf36]

You don't understand, I don't know how to even get them on the checks at all. Can you explain it?

Joe

[Skookum]

Smithf36,

Did you try the Help menu on the taskbar?

Try, Help, Checks, Setup.

I do not print checks, but it should be just like an invoice or statement, etc. You need to setup the document in question so QB will know where to put what on the page as it prints.

If the checks are from Intuit, or compatable with QB, you should be able to just choose from a list. If not, you will likely need to do a custom setup like I had to do for my invoices.

No matter, everything you need should be right there in the Help file set by step.

[Skookum]

For those that want to try Quick Books totally free, even the shipping, according to the TV commercial I seen a little while ago, You can get a free demo disk at 1-800-213-1333 or at http://www.tryQB.com/norisk

[thelawnguy]

Originally posted by Skookum
For those that want to try Quick Books totally free, even the shipping, according to the TV commercial I seen a little while ago, You can get a free demo disk at 1-800-213-1333 or at http://www.tryQB.com/norisk

Thank you, I received my disk today, and am now a QBPro2001 user. I esp like the feature which memorizes the dollar amount for each customer.

Thanks again Skookum

[Edited by thelawnguy on 01-25-2001 at 01:54 PM]

[Island Lawn]

I'm printing this thread and taking it to my accountant!

Since I've got qb, I see it everywhere. My landlord, my local Skag dealer, here and there.

I always ask their opinion. Nothing but rave reviews.
I am most impressed with how everyone agrees on it's ease of use.

It may be a bit more program than I need right now. But as business does pick up, I can work and wont be stuck having to learn a program.

[Greenkeepers]

Do you guys put the date on line items....

Ex: Lawn maintenance 01/26/01, if so how do you can't memorize that..

[KindGardener]

too bad there is no way to create a "hotkey" (shortcut) for inserting a date... like "Alt-D"... to just insert today's date in the description section (which is where I put in each of the dates I service them)

I've thought of dropping this - just billing for monthly service, but I keep thinking I'll come out behind (given the 3-4 times a year they will have 5 services in a month).

[Skookum]

Will

I have my invoices setup so that the first column is "Service Date" second column is "Item" third is "Description of Service". When tabbed to the first column it starts out at todays date. All I do is use the + or - keys to change the dates or after tabing to that column while it is highlighted all you have to do is type 10 for October if it is really November then + or - to the right date you need since it will start out at October but with todays numeric date.

I hope I did not over state the obvious.

[GREG R]

IF YOU LOOK AT THE TOP OF THIS FORUM "CLIP" IS ONE OF THE
SPONSORS CHECK IT OUT . I'VE BEEN USING CLIP FOR ABOUT 2 YEAR (USE TO USE QUICKBOOKS)
ROUTING SCHEDULING AND INVOICING COULDN'T BE EASIER

[Skookum]

How much did that Clip cost ya? I thought I seen around $500 somewhere in a ad. Is that about right?

[GREG R]

CLIP.COM IS THE WEB SITE
THEY OFFER DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THE PROGRAM
COST WILL VARY.
BUT THE TIME YOU SAVE IS WORTH THE MONEY
WE USE TO SPEND 45 MIN TO 1 HOUR AT THE END OF THE DAY DOING PAPER WORK NOW 3 MINUTES TOPS.. AT THE END TO THE
MONTH FOUR BUTTONS AND ALL THE INVOICES PRINT OUT
GREAT PROGRAMS (NOW WE NEED A MACHINE TO FOLD, LICK, AND STAMP)

[Runner]

O.k., here is MY question(s). I just recieved the Lawnmonkey demo and it keeps making references to quickbooks. What I am looking for is a program that allow me to make entries everyday (once a week per customer), and print the invoice at the end of the month. Example: On 6/1, I enter Mr. Adams, Mr. Bryant, and Mr. Charles. All for mowing and trim. On 6/2, I enter Mr. Donald,, Mr. Ellis, and Mr. Frank, and so on. THEN on 6/8, I enter Mr. Adams, Bryant, and Charles again. Same on 6/15, 6/22, and 6/29, but on 6/29, I also want to add edging. Now, my question is can I go to Mr. Adams, and have QB print out a seperate invoice with all the entries I made for the month, and can I have it have individual pricing. i.e. Mr. Adams' edging is 15 dollars. If not on QB, can I have Lawnmonkey do this without having to use QB? Please help! Thanks,

[LoneStarLawn]

You might want to direct you question in the Lawn Monkey forum located at the turfmfg.com link

[Runner]

True. What I'd like to know, is this possible even just with QB? If not, then with LM?

[BRL]

I am pretty sure you would be able to do that with LM as well as Clip software. You can do it with QB but you don't use Invoices. Instead you would use Statement Charges. With Statement Charges you set up the opening balance, then enter the work as you specified into a registry format, then at the end of the month (or whenever you choose) you can print it out & send.

[Scape Sculptor]

Greg R, Not to be a smart guy...but you can buy a machine to fold from Staples and you could put your stamp on when you print the envelope out with your current printer and e-stamp. Haha...Then you would be totally automated.