PPB June 2017

58 / 116

the Write Checks icon, this
causes payments to be applied
incorrectly. I see this error often,
and it can be tedious and time-
consuming to correct.
Recently I was working with
a new bookkeeper and asked
if he had worked with sales
tax in QuickBooks before. He
responded, “How hard can it
be?” Wrong answer. We had
some more training to do.
5What is your
experience with making
journal entries? QuickBooks
allows users to make journal
entries for debits and credits, but
it discourages their use. Instead,
QuickBooks has a home page with
a flow chart of the accounting
functions (receive payments,
enter bills, manage sales tax, etc),
that is designed for data to be
entered within this framework,
and the debits and credits are
created behind the scene.
Some accountants operate
only with journal entries, which
in the long term
can be problematic
when using
QuickBooks. Ask
your bookkeeping
candidate about their
use of journal entries.
Minimal experience
here is best as there
are only a handful of
transactions each year
that require journal entries
(depreciation being one), but they
are rarely used in QuickBooks.
6What is your experience
with non-inventory items?
One of the most frequent causes
of confusion in the accounting
function for distributors is non-
inventory vs. inventory items.
Most other businesses and
industries record inventory items
but distributors typically do not
(confirm this with your CPA),
which causes another accounting
experience conflict.
In QuickBooks, the item type
to be used is “Non-Inventory
Part.” I have seen many a set of
books thoroughly messed up by
this confusion. Non-inventory
items are recorded directly into
the “Cost of Goods Sold” account.
Conversely, inventory items are
recorded into the balance sheet
inventory account first, and not
into the profit & loss statement
until later. If this error is made,
your financial statements will be
wrong, and the fix is tedious and
time-consuming.
Talk to your bookkeeping
candidates about their
experience with non-inventory
items, and ask for an explanation
of both non-inventory and
inventory items to be sure they
understand the distinction.
7What is your experience
with accrual accounting?
(If applicable) If your business
is on an accrual basis instead of a
cash basis, bills must be entered
to correctly reflect your accounts
payable account. Bills can also
be created for a cash-based
company, but it’s mandatory for
accrual accounting. If this is an
issue for you, ask bookkeeping
candidates if they have
worked with a company on an
accrual basis.
I hope these tips will give you
some specific criteria by which to
judge a bookkeeping candidate.
As you can see, some types of
experience are better than others
when it comes to accounting
in the promotional products
distributor business.
Harriet Gatter, owner of Accounting Support, LLC, was a promotional
products distributor for 23 years and an adjunct professor of
accounting at Neumann University. She sold the business in 2012
and became certified as a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. She now works
exclusively with distributors nationwide on their QuickBooks order
management and accounting needs, often integrating with SAGE
Online, and specializes in conversions from other systems such as
ProfitMaker, SmartBooks, OrderMaster, or manual systems.
Check out her Video Tutorials and Reference Library Service to train
new bookkeepers or distributors or act as a reference library for
distributors at any point in their businesses.
. Email: HGatter@
56 | JUNE 2017 |
GROW