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instance, paying sales tax as “Write
Checks” instead of paying it within
the structure of the “Manage Sales
Tax” icon in QuickBooks Premier
creates immense problems, as
payments will not be applied
correctly. You need to know how
QuickBooks works to accurately
record transactions in it.
Has the candidate worked
exclusively in QuickBooks or
in multiple software packages?
You would be better served
with someone who knows
QuickBooks in-depth, not
someone who has only a surface
knowledge of the program.
Distributors’ transactions are too
complicated for that.
2
What is your experience
in using QuickBooks?
Merely knowing that a candidate
has experience in QuickBooks is
not enough. QuickBooks offers
a variety of products, including
three desktop versions and an
online version. The desktop
products are Pro, Premier and
Enterprise, all of which are
relatively similar. Each one
builds upon the other. Pro is the
most basic and Enterprise is the
most robust. If your candidate is
experienced in one of these, he
or she will have some experience
relative to them all.
For our industry, I find the
desktop products to be more
suitable and recommend
Premier most often.
QuickBooks Online is a totally
different product. It is as Greek is to
Latin—both are ancient languages,
but unrecognizable to the other.
It is highly unlikely that someone
who knows QuickBooks Online can
automatically work in QuickBooks
Premier, and vice versa.
If you’re not sure which
QuickBooks version you have (as
my clients often are), it’s written
on the top tab of your screen
when your QuickBooks is open.
3
In what types of
businesses have
you worked?
Some types of
experience are better than
others, and some might be
irrelevant. One such example
of irrelevant experience would
be a service industry job such
as an accounting firm, like my
current business. The accounting
work I do today is much simpler
than when I was a promotional
products distributor. Now, as
a service business, most of my
transactions involve only an
invoice with service items. As
a distributor, my transactions
included customer sales orders,
supplier purchase orders, cost
of goods sold, adjustments to
the supplier purchase order and
supplier invoice, and creating a
bill for the supplier.
Our industry is unique and
complex, so you need to ask your
candidate to detail the steps of
the business in which they have
experience and judge for yourself
if their experience is relevant or
not. For example: What is the
step-by-step process you use to
record and track your orders?
It might be helpful if you ask
this question of yourself so you
can compare their experience
to what you would like them to
manage for you.
4
What is your experience
with sales tax?
If your
business deals with sales tax, does
your candidate have experience
with its recording, reporting
and filing? Is the experience
within your state? All states are
different, and sometimes the
counties and cities within a state
are different, causing additional
accounting steps.
Having experience with sales
tax is an asset. Having to learn
it for the first time requires
proper instruction because it
is complicated.
Experience with sales tax and
QuickBooks is an even greater
asset. QuickBooks Premier
includes a specific function,
represented by a unique icon,
to manage and record the
payment of sales taxes. If sales
tax is merely recorded under
I have heard
bookkeepers
say something
along the lines of
“All accounting
software is
the same,” or
“Accounting is
accounting, and
it doesn’tmatter
what software
youuse.” That
is not true.
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