Sincerely,
Mike Weiland
http://readydvd.com
I was just trying the Quickbooks I have again. Seems the one I got from my friend is a trial and don't work anymore. I been fooling around with both Microsoft and Quicken trials and they all seem to have the same structure. If she can give some insight on to how movies rental and sale income is added, that will be great. I don't want to take up too much of your or her time on this. I do understand the credit and debit part of it all. My problem is where to enter the credits, such as rental income.
I will chose soon between Quicken and Microsoft. Quickbooks is way to much money, unless Michelle says it's worth it. I do have an accountant for the tax part of it all but I like crunching numbers myself.
Thank You
Joe
7 comments:
Hi Joe,
It's Michelle. Here's what I do with Quickbooks. I thought about this for a little while when we first started the business, and this is what makes sense to me. If this is WAY too much detail, I'm sorry! I don't currently keep track of the profit for each movie. We just look in Connections to see what is renting. We have learned from mistakes with our ordering, and are doing a lot better with not ordering movies that won't rent. It's just too bad we didn't figure some of that out sooner. We also cut back most of our kids titles to one copy per kiosk. Unless it's huge like Wall E, we just get one copy.
This is how I record Revenue, Bad Debt, and Cash Received. I record gross revenue by using the Connections numbers for total monthly revenue (rental revenue and sale revenue). I set up an Accounts Receivable account for First Data (our credit card merchant). I do this because the cut-off issues regarding when the cash is actually deposited into our bank account from First Data.
A/R-First Data xx
Rental Revenue (xx)
Sale Revenue (xx)
I do this for all transactions, not the Approved Only. I look at the difference between All and Approved Only and do a bad debt entry. I credit the A/R First Data because I'm not going to get this cash.
Bad Debt Exp xx
A/R First Data (xx)
When I close my month I use the bank statement. The total cash I received from the First Data reduces the A/R:
Cash xx
A/R First Data (xx)
If I do collect any money for something I recorded as Bad Debt, I debit the First Data A/R and credit the Bad Debt Exp.
I have a set of standard journal entries that I do every month to close the month, so I do this on paper and key them into Quickbooks as general journal entries. I'm not sure how to do this in an automated manner in Quickbooks. There are probably some short cuts of which I need to take advantage. I really haven't had the time to sit and figure it out. I can get my JE's written up in 30 minutes and enter them and complete a monthly close in another 30 minutes. So an hour a month is OK. However I need to figure out some shortcuts with a some recurring JE's or something. I was killing myself with detail by entering all the info broken out by kiosk, but I stopped that. I keep Excel worksheets for each location and the revenue/loss, so that was doubling my work. I know I can export my bank's transactions in QB format, but I haven't messed with that yet, either. I know there is help available if you call QB - Intuit. There are also probably QB certified people in your area that could set up your system and know all the tricks. I have a tax accountant, too. I just do my stuff in it and send it all to him. It's worth every penny! I just don't have the time to forge through it. I'm a financial analyst in a hospital, and haven't done real tax work for many years. I actually really dislike tax!
I hope I answered some of your questions, and I apologize for any redundancy. I haven't used Money. I use the QB Pro. I think it cost me $150. I use for the the financial statements, reconciling bank account, and for invoicing. I'm sure many products will do that. I can't say that I use it for anything very specialized.
Please let me know if you have other questions or if I didn't give you the answers you needed.
Michelle
Well said Michelle.
Joe, from personal experience in having used both programs, QuickBooks ALL THE WAY! Way easier (in my honest opinion). Even if you aren't really computer savey, there is a second to none training system built into QB... you watch step by step video for almost everything.
Also, if you are really worried about price, I would check around (eBay, craigslist, etc.)... but make sure that you DO NOT buy a "STUDENT" or "CLASSROOM" edition... while they may be VERY cheap, you can only install them 3 times as they are temporary editions that are only used for training (a lot of the eBay adds won't tell you that - I had to learn the hard way).
Good luck,
Jason
Thanks Jason and thanks again Mike and Michelle. I am computer savey and like learning new software. I will go with Quickbooks. Sams club has QuickBooks Pro 2009 + Learning QuickBooks Bundle for $158.74
http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=409958
You have to me a member. I have one in my area and I'm a member.
Michelle,
Thank you for the detail. I am a novice when it comes to accounting and attempting to become more educated through online help and a 2 hour session with a CPA who is a quickbooks expert. Learning accounting basics is definitely a priority. However, attempting to set up accounts that are applicable to our business is just as important. It appears that you do not have to manage sales tax. Is that correct? I will be needing to figure out how to do that too.
Thanks for your insight.
JMW
Hi Jason,
I know everyone might see things a bit differently, but this is how I handle sales tax. One of our kiosks is in Wyoming has a sales tax. It’s kind of a pain. The Connections software shows the tax collected and includes it in the total sales. The tax isn’t part of revenue, so I have to back it out to arrive at the actual kiosk revenue. Here’s an example with $500 in sales and a 5% tax. This would show as $525 in Total Revenue in the Connections Report:
Accounts Rec – First Data* $525.00
Kiosk Revenue (500.00)
Sales Tax Payable (25.00)
*You will be collecting all the money from your credit card merchant.
When you write the check to the taxing entity, this is what will happen:
Sales Tax Payable $25.00
Cash (25.00)
In QB there is a Write Checks feature, so all you need to enter is the Sales Tax Payable account when you do the check. You will have your checking account set up, so it will automatically credit cash. I don’t print checks, but I believe there is a “to be printed” box you can check (I’m going from memory here) if you will be using QB to print your checks. I write them in a manual checkbook and key them into QB in this funtion.
I think going to a QB expert and CPA will be great. You will probably get a lot of great ideas and have your system set up properly right away. I have had to make some modifications as I went along, but things seem pretty good now. You will probably learn shortcuts I don’t know.
Let me know if you have any questions or other thoughts on this.
Michelle Weiland
http://readydvd.com
Jason
I'm doing the same thing. Sitting with a Quickbooks expert. I understand the logic behind it all as Michelle explained it and I'm also reading a QB book. But the lists, the accounts, the customers, credit being a debit and a debit being a credit, I can only take so much.
Thanks Mike, I forgot to explain the tax to the QB expert. My Appointment is this Thursday.
I too went with quickbooks, I tried to set it up myself and created a nightmare.
In desperation I started looking for some help and found that there are independent certified quicken experts.
I found a local person that has proven to a real gem. We met for a few hours and have now completed the revision. Most of it we did via e-mail and phone calls. She does awesome work.
Jenny Groberg
booksmartsaccounting@gmail.com
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