[Question] New client wants 2 years history in QB, what's the easiest way?

[Coloradomom]

Hi there,
I haven't posted in quite a while. I just landed my second 'virtual' bookkeeping client!! She is a lawyer with no employees, but is set up as an S Corp (per her last accountant).

Anyway, she has been in business for 3 years and keeping all her expenses/income on an excel spreadsheet that she sends her accountant. We are going to use Quickbooks to track everything from now on (instead of excel). However, she'd like her 2008 and 2009 expenses & income input into QB so that she can compare year-to-date expenses, perhaps for budgeting.

She has a company checking account, and several business CC's, (biz was slow to start). My first thought is just grab the CC statements and Check register and start inputting all the data, then reconcile it month by month. That seems like a lot of work, however, for her to just have historical info. We'll need to put 2009 into QB for taxes (to make life easier on the accountant).

I am preparing a lump sum estimate to her for setting her up on QB, getting her 2009 info into QB, and setting up a budget for her. So I need to figure out the easiest way to get her 2008 info into QB without taking up a lot of time.

How have you input historical data into QB without having to type every single transaction?

Thanks in advance!

[Business-Bytes]

Hi there,
I haven't posted in quite a while. I just landed my second 'virtual' bookkeeping client!! She is a lawyer with no employees, but is set up as an S Corp (per her last accountant).

Congrats on your second virtual bookkeeping client! Way to go!!

I am preparing a lump sum estimate to her for setting her up on QB, getting her 2009 info into QB, and setting up a budget for her. So I need to figure out the easiest way to get her 2008 info into QB without taking up a lot of time.

Okay. I have Peachtree Accounting, but if I remember correctly (from using my son's QB Pro at his tattoo shop), the same principles will apply:

First I would get a Chart of Accounts from her accountant that would be helpful in setting the accounts up the way that s/he [accountant] had them. Then you need a 2008 year-end General Ledger Trial Balance report that would show you the balances for the end of the year and their debit or credit balance from her accountant. But...

What I do is do it by month when this situation arises, so monthly GL Trial Balance reports could be the way to go if your client wants more detailed information than just the year-end for 2008 (for comparison purposes year to year). You just input the info per each month end.

HTH a bit,

[Coloradomom]

Hi Jules, thanks for the quick reply and the congrats!!

Unfortunately, her accountant did not do anything but track expenses & income, so there isn't a COA or GL to work with. How's that for fun??

K

[Business-Bytes]

Hi Jules, thanks for the quick reply and the congrats!!
Unfortunately, her accountant did not do anything but track expenses & income, so there isn't a COA or GL to work with. How's that for fun??
K

Oh man. Well, in that case maybe separate all the receipts, etc. for 2008 by month and do monthly totals according to type of expense/income (e.g. all advertising totaled and under one entry [no matter who to], phone expenses totaled [land line, cell, fax line], etc.)? Another way to say it: You could maybe do General Journal entries (as opposed to A/R and A/P) and debit/credit the corresponding GL accounts for that month all in one journal entry (dated the last day of the month), with who to/from [or expense/income type] in the description area. I've had to do that, too. It does save time because you don't have to enter all the vendors/customers to do this when working with previous year(s).

Hope the above made sense.

When you do 2009, then you can put in the vendors/customers, etc. and do them each individually.

I feel for you... have fun!?

[debhowardgreenleaf]

K: You can just use the standard COA that QB gives you for her business type, a legal practice. Be sure to set up the checking account, then each credit card account as a separate "Credit Card"-type account.

Regarding last year's transactions, there are two options: You can try to use the Online Banking feature to download transactions. Some banks only go back six months, but other banks go back two years. Keep your fingers crossed and see what you can get!

If the Online Banking doesn't work for prior periods, you can still use it going forward. Once it's setup properly, it saves a lot of time!

For manually entering prior periods, I would use the "Enter credit card charges" screen to enter each STATEMENT. I'm assuming she has the statements for prior periods, if not you can usually download those from the bank's online site. Use one "enter cc charges" screen per statement, using as many lines down in the Splits as you need to ... one line for all the Office Supplies charges, one line for all the Telephone charges, one line for the Finance Charge, etc...

Doing it in this fashion will allow you to reconcile each statement properly and will make sure the existing balances are carried forward, too.

HTH!!
Deb

[Coloradomom]

Regarding last year's transactions, there are two options: You can try to use the Online Banking feature to download transactions. Some banks only go back six months, but other banks go back two years. Keep your fingers crossed and see what you can get!

Nice! I didn't think of that, download!

For manually entering prior periods, I would use the "Enter credit card charges" screen to enter each STATEMENT. I'm assuming she has the statements for prior periods, if not you can usually download those from the bank's online site. Use one "enter cc charges" screen per statement, using as many lines down in the Splits as you need to ... one line for all the Office Supplies charges, one line for all the Telephone charges, one line for the Finance Charge, etc...
HTH!!
Deb

Yes, I like that idea too, plus Business-Bytes idea:
You could maybe do General Journal entries (as opposed to A/R and A/P) and debit/credit the corresponding GL accounts for that month all in one journal entry (dated the last day of the month), with who to/from [or expense/income type] in the description area.

Great, thanks for the help!!

K

[MrsAn]

Just did this for a clients. Manually posted 2 years back log. Took me about 3 weeks to complete. You know...just time and my eyesight!

Best of luck.

[At Your Virtual Door]

One way to look at it, you're not necessarily going in and correcting someone else's mistakes. You get to start fresh although entering prior years expenses, etc. Correcting mistakes is far more work than what you are dealing with.

[BookkeeperSC]

This is good! How about a large client needing last years data entered? Entering the payables won't be difficult at all. How about the bank rec's? How about the customers?? This client has about 1000 customers and probably 5000 invoices. What's the best way to get everything to balance without having to enter every invoice, every pmt., every deposit. etc...??? and have your A/R balance be correct when all is said and done.