Get ahead of tax season by integrating your POS system with Quickbooks.

Since 1998 when it was first introduced, QuickBooks has become one of the most popular accounting tools on the market today for businesses of all sizes. Available in both downloadable software and as an online platform, this program has a suite of features that can make your financial processes more effective and streamlined. This is particularly true as you prepare your processes for tax time.

How Quickbooks can help your business.

QuickBooks does much of the heavy lifting for your accounting department, whether that portion of your business consists of one bookkeeper or a large team. All that is required to use QuickBooks is that you enter your sales and expenses, and the system does the rest. The problem is that doing this job manually often proves to be arduous and makes you vulnerable to human error. Bringing your point of sale system (POS) into the equation takes away all of the guesswork and transforms what was once filled with drudgery into an automated accomplishment in just a few clicks.

Financial savings.

In addition to enhancing your efficiency, integrating QuickBooks with your POS can be a huge money-saver. That’s because you no longer need to pay accounting staff to do the data entry and bookkeeping tasks that can now be accomplished effortlessly by QuickBooks and your POS. Consequently, you will have more funds in your budget for important tasks like starting a loyalty program, ramping up your social media tactics or even hiring a tax specialist to help you with IRS-related matters as tax season approaches.

Unifying silos.

When you run a business, you need to constantly update two very different segments of your company: your accounting software and your sales platform. But once you integrate your POS with QuickBooks, any changes you make in one area such as implementing discounts and promotions on the sales side are immediately registered with the bookkeeping portion. Thanks to this collaboration, record-keeping becomes far more accurate and occurs in real time. As you prepare to pay your taxes, this precision decreases the likelihood that you will make human errors that will lead to a costly and stressful audit.

Better billing practices.

It is no secret that reliable income is the lifeblood of any business. Equally obvious is the fact that many entrepreneurs spend countless hours chasing late payments and stressing over those difficult conversations with customers who have, for whatever reason, failed to pay their bill on time.

A POS system integrated with QuickBooks automates many of the most time-consuming invoice management processes: emailing customers in advance of their payment date, sending a gentle reminder at a pre-set time after no funds have been received, generating confirmations and thank-you emails, and even providing clients with direct links that make submitting their payments as easy as possible. The reality is that most customers with delinquent bills have simply overlooked their payment and only need to be reminded. Your POS-QuickBooks system can do that and will then immediately record the fact that the bill has been resolved satisfactorily, making tax preparation smoother and more reflective of your actual income.

Enhanced analytics and reporting.

Once accounting and business sales have been married to each other via a union between your POS and QuickBooks, you will be better equipped to run illuminating reports that can provide valuable insights about various aspects of your business, including the sales performance of individual staff members, optimal times of the day for product sales, and what items are proving to be your bestsellers. Additionally, you will now be able to create specialized reports that show your profits and losses at all levels, thus helping you to make preparing for tax season easier and more accurate.

If you don’t already have an upgraded point of sale system that is compatible with QuickBooks, your first step should be to have a conversation with your payment processing service. Without a doubt, they can furnish you with the updated systems that can work seamlessly with this powerful accounting tool. Once you take full advantage of the advantages of integrating your sales and accounting silos, you will quickly discover that tax time is not nearly as stressful or prone to mistakes as it was in the past.