Recently, a small business owner reached out to us about the amount of time they spent reconciling credit card statements. They felt like they were between a rock and a hard place- too small to justify a staff accountant, but too large for working through things by hand to remain practical for much longer. Their process wasn’t laborious- all they needed to do was enter line items into QB, to ensure the right accounts were being updated- but combing through their statement was becoming more and more of a time sink as their business grew.
Fortunately we were able to point out a feature they hadn’t been using, Bank Feeds. Initial setup was a bit of a pain, but it’s very quickly paid off in time saved. Bank Feeds takes user-established rules and uses them to sort transactions automatically. Expense items from Laclede and Ameren can be set to post to a “Utilities” account, or invoices from frequent vendors can be set to post to a “Parts Expenses” account.
It’s not a bulletproof system, and the rules setup requires an ongoing investment of time to remain useful, but it turned a 10-hour data entry process into a 2-hour verification setup, and even that looks to be reduced as things get tightened down further. It’s a tremendous gain for the business that’s now using it, and because it’s a QuickBooks feature we’re able to offer them full support, backed by our own expertise and the Intuit team.