Cutting Expenses

Cutting Expenses Key To Profitability, But How? Some Tips

It may seem like a no-brainer – cut expenses to make more money – but many small changes can result in significant savings.

It looks like the economy may finally be looking up. Still, this is no time to loosen the purse strings in terms of your business expenses. Rather, why not re-double your efforts to cut costs and boost your profitability?

Excessive expenses cause debt, which in itself can be very costly. So any money-saving actions you take will be doubly rewarding.

More Effective Money Management

To cut expenses significantly, poke into every corner of your company's finances. Inventory is a good place to start. If you sell multiple units of the same item and reorder regularly, you should be using QuickBooks' inventory-tracking tools. Go to Edit | Preferences | Items & Inventory | Company Preferences.

You should be stocking your inventory to match the pace of sales. You don't want to be caught short, nor do you want to be sitting on too much and tying up money unnecessarily. QuickBooks can help, but you'll need to calculate the sweet spot for each item. Several built-in reports can help, including:

·         Inventory Valuation Summary. Displays the current asset and retail value of each item and inventory as a whole

·         Inventory Valuation Detail. Shows how individual transactions have affected the value of your inventory

·         Inventory Stock Status By Item. Helps you set up smart reordering procedures

·         Open Purchase Orders. Outlines each purchase order and its expected delivery date

To maintain profitable inventory levels and minimize expenses, you'll need to study QuickBooks' related reports regularly. When you're making buying decisions, consider factors like reorder turnaround time and seasonal sales upticks. 

Ratio reports, like profit over sales, can also be very telling. QuickBooks does not supply these, but we can help you create them in Excel.

Using Available Tools

The efforts you make toward reducing expenses in other ways can result in more savings than you might think. Here are some actions you can take that will accelerate your cash flow:

Use QuickBooks' budgeting tools. This doesn't need to be as onerous as you might expect – you can start by pulling in your real data from the previous year as a base. Build in line items for ongoing accounting support like QuickBooks maintenance. Click on Company | Planning & Budgeting | Set Up Budgets.

Minimize your April 15 obligation with year-round tax planning. Work with us throughout the year on the next year's taxes to, for example, make smarter quarterly payments, and we'll help you reduce your tax bill by making better decisions every day.

Get discounts by paying invoices early. Set up a custom field in vendor records to track this.

Analyze the cost-effectiveness of your transportation. Can you replace some in-person sales calls with web-based communication? Make sure that your delivery routes and sales call paths are efficient.

Change product/service prices to build in your own cost increases. Do it across the board, in small increments. It may not even be that noticeable to customers.

Talk to us about establishing a line of credit. We'll help you determine if this is a viable option for emergencies. It's cheaper than using credit cards.

Cross-train employees. Have employees train each other on their tasks where it makes sense. You can avoid costly temp help and relieve overworked departments.

Don't try to change everything at once. Establishing these new procedures will require some extra work. And you may not notice a reduction in expenses immediately. But over time, you will see a positive change – one that will give you extra dollars and hours to invest in making your company flourish.

Year-end adjustments QuickBooks makes automatically

QuickBooks adjusts your income and expense accounts at year-end to zero. Your new fiscal year will start with a zero net income.

QuickBooks makes an adjusting entry to your net income. Say your profit for the year was $9,000, you will see this balance in the equity section of your Balance Sheet as net income of $9,000.

QuickBooks increases your Retained Earnings equity account on the first day of the next fiscal year by the previous year's net income ($9,000 in this example) and decreases your net income by the same amount. This way, you start the fiscal year with a net income of zero.

Modifying QuickBooks Reports Gives You Better Insight Into Past, Future

If you make one resolution about improving your accounting procedures in 2012, it should be this: Make extensive use of the tools that QuickBooks offers for report modification. Comprehensive, meticulously-shaped reports that flow out of your carefully-constructed records and transactions are your reward for pounding on the keys every day, conscientiously recording income and expenses.

QuickBooks supplies you with a wide variety of pre-formatted reports whose modification options can help you do focused, critical analysis of your financial data. The right set of numbers will help you understand your history and plan for the future more effectively.

Check your preferences

When you created your company file in QuickBooks, you chose between reporting on a cash (income and expenses are recorded when money changes hands) or accrual (recorded when you invoice or receive a bill) basis. This affects summary reports, but not those that break out individual transactions or are simply lists.

If you want to change this, click Edit | Preferences | Reports & Graphs | Company Preferences and click the desired button:

You can set other preferences in this window that will affect your report output here.

Altering the display

Open the Income by Customer Summary report (Reports | Company & Financial). Change the dates to reflect a range you'd like to see. Want the data displayed by different time increments – like week or quarter – instead of just the total? Click the arrow next to Columns and select Four week. 

By default, your report rows display alphabetically. If you want to view a column by total in ascending or descending order, select the column by hovering over the top number until the magnifying glass appears, and click on it. Click the arrow next to Sort by and choose Total, then click the AZ [down arrow] icon (in some reports, there will be other options here).

Additional options in this toolbar let you:

·         Memorize the report

·         Print, email or export it to Excel

·         Hide or Show the Header

·         Collapse or Expand the columns

·         Refresh the report if you've made changes that will alter data

More display options

Click Customize Report:

Some of the options here duplicate what you saw in the toolbar. In addition, you can switch between Accrual and Cash for just this report, and add sub columns in some. The latter is a complicated operation, one that you must understand well in order to glean any insight from it. We can help you with this.

Sometimes the sub columns are generic, as shown in the screen above. In other reports, they're very specific to that group of data.

Clicking on Revert takes you back to the default format, and Advanced opens additional options specific to the current report.

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More customization = more insightful results = more informed financial choices

Transaction reports have many similarities and two major differences: You can change the column order by hovering your cursor over the column label until a hand appears. Click, hold and drag the column to the desired spot and let go. You can also add or delete columns by clicking Customize Report and checking or unchecking labels.

Learn the mechanics of report display modification well, and your company's finances will come into much sharper focus, improving the wisdom of future choices. 

If you have questions on this or any other QuickBooks feature, call or email us. We’re here to make your business better.