By Renee Daggett
QB Report: Sales by Customer Summary
Do you know who your top 10 customers or clients are? QuickBooks can easily show you where your revenue is coming from. This is important to the owner of a business because the information can be used in several ways.
• By sharing this report with your employees, you can communicate who your top clients are and make sure your staff provides them exceptional VIP service.
• What about recognizing a top client by sending them a personal, handwritten note with something of value?
• Knowing the percentage of income that comes from any one client can be crucial. For example, if you lost that client, whatever the reason, would you be able to sustain your revenue? Double check what percentage your top customer consists of!
To create this report, click on Reports on the top menu bar. Then click Sales and then Sales by Customer Summary. Modify the report by clicking on % of column and then sort by total. I usually will hit the collapse button to condense the report to make it easier to read. This report will allow you to see the percentage each customer is bringing in as well as being able to easily identify the top 10 clients. Create this report in your own file and get excited on how you will use the information to improve your business!
QB Report: Sales by Item Summary
Do you know your top 3 income streams? Digging further, do you know not only the percentage of income they provide to your business, but also the average sale price? QuickBooks can easily show you these statistics which may be instrumental in helping business owners make wise decisions.
When I did this for my own business, I could see not only the number of sales for each item, but the average sale of that item. This was enlightening because they were only “gut” numbers and nothing in black and white. I can use this report to see how my business may be turning by watching the numbers.
Something you may discover in your own QuickBooks file is that you do not have the break down that you really need in order to evaluate your revenue. If this is the case, create the income streams as items in your QuickBooks file for easy monitoring.
To create this report, click on Reports on the top menu bar. Then click Sales and then Sales by Item Summary. Enter the date range that you need. Take some time to review the number of sales, total sales, percentage of sales and the average price. Enlightening! Now choose one thing you can do to improve your business based upon this report!
QuickBooks Report: Watermark on Statements
We are in challenging economic times. Customers may be paying slower or you may even have some that cannot pay at all. What are some things you can do to make your invoices or statements stand out? QuickBooks allows you to create a watermark on your statements. You can have a gentle reminder that invoices are due upon receipt or you can put a note that says, “Past Due”. No matter what you want your message to read, QuickBooks can help you communicate it!
My first suggestion is to have a procedure in collecting money. The steps you take will depend on your terms. You may have terms like due upon receipt or Net-30. Are your terms outlined in your contract with your client? How about your financial charges?
After a customer is past due on the invoice, what is your procedure? It may be to send statements monthly. Below is a sample of a statement you may want to send.
In order to create this watermark on your statement, follow the steps below:
1.Click on Customers at the top menu bar and then click Create Statements
2.On the right side near Template, click the Customize button
3.(In newer versions of QB, you may be asked to click Customize Data Layout)
4.Click, “make a copy”
5.At the bottom of the page, click the button Layout Designer
6.At the top, now click Add and then text box
7.Type in your customized message
8.You can also change the color (choose grey for the watermark look), font and size of the message
9.Take off the border so it does not show & then click okay
10.Move the text box where you want it to show in the statement & click okay
Create this statement in your QuickBooks file and monitor the results of collecting money! Any little effort may be helpful!!
QuickBooks Report: Trend Report
Business owners absolutely need to watch for trends in their company. How do you do so? You can do so by creating a Profit and Loss report by month.
• When you compare the monthly income, you can set income goals and confirm that you reach them.
• Watch for consistencies, like rent expenses, that are the same amount each month. If there is a month that is not consistent, do some digging to find out why.
• Look for inconsistencies. This is where the adventure can begin. Ask yourself where you can cut expenses. Investigate why numbers go up and why they go down. Make conclusions. Pull the report monthly to follow the pattern.
To create this report, click on Reports on the top menu bar. Then click Company and Financial and then Profit and Loss Standard. Modify the report so that the report will show monthly totals. Set the date range you desire to compare.
I challenge you to not only create this report, but take 10 minutes to dig deeper into your numbers so you can analyze the trends in your company!
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If you would like to learn more about Quickbooks in a classroom setting then why give Chris Le Roy’s Quickbooks Courses ago. He offers Brisbane Quickbooks Courses and Townsville Quickbooks Courses every single month. Don’t miss out because they are very popular.
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