How Small Business Owners Can Cut 10 Hours from Their Work Week

Starting a business is no small feat, but with sites like eBay and Etsy, it has become much easier for creative and enterprising individuals to bring innovative ideas and products to customers around the world via virtual storefronts. But, no matter how brilliant or unique a product might be, navigating through the business world for the first time has the potential to derail many new entrepreneurs, who may get bogged down by tedious day-to-day financial details.

Luckily, there's software that can help organize your finances in quick and easy ways so you can shift your focus back to what's important. With the motto, "Simplify the Business of Life," Intuit equips small companies with the tools to help them work smarter. The Intuit QuickBooks ecosystem of products relieves small businesses from accounting, payroll, invoicing, and payments woes, giving busy owners their time back. This makes it easier to optimize your business and focus on the core development, branding, packaging, marketing, and sale of your products, which are pivotal for growth.

QuickBooks Removes the Guesswork from Your Business Strategy

QuickBooks helps clarify how your business is performing, so it's easier to recognize the need for changes or opportunities for growth. For example: not sure if you're breaking even, let alone making a profit? The software gives you the option to generate a company snapshot, complete with year-over-year income, expense trends, top customers, and account balances. Come tax time, there's also the option to generate a one-click income tax report, breaking down your company insights to easily see the details behind the numbers.

For businesses with just a few employees, invoice and billing processes can be rather time consuming. QuickBooks alleviates this hassle by producing invoices; tracking sales, bills, and expenses; and keeping everything organized in one place, so past transactions are just a few clicks away. Additionally, QuickBooks Online has an entire vendor-management function, offering the ability to create purchase orders and customize flexible transaction forms that, according to PC Magazine, are far more comprehensive than competing products.

Receiving payments and putting them on the books is equally simple with Intuit's GoPayment merchant payment services, which syncs with QuickBooks files instantly. Funds go directly to any bank account you specify, and you can just as easily update the sale in your system so no payments fall through the cracks.

Need access to information away from the office? The aforementioned QuickBooks Online also provides you with the ability to view all your business information from an account dashboard no matter where you are. That means you aren't limited to updating your books on a specific desktop in your office. QuickBooks Mobile takes that to another level so you can continue to be productive on the go while on an iOS or Android device, though the mobile tools are limited in comparison to the full desktop software.

Simplify Complex Tasks with Even More QuickBooks Features

As your business grows, more advanced features in QuickBooks make it easier to stay ahead of the game. The software has the ability to track sales and expenses, track and manage inventory, predict job costing and payroll, and lay out estimated future income and expenses. The advanced inventory feature, for example, allows you to rack items to specific bins within a warehouse, scan barcodes, and transfer items between inventory sites. To boot: QuickBooks Online has 45 apps that currently support and enhance its software to your specific preferences and links to an online payroll system that tracks time and expenses for you.

QuickBooks transcends basic bookkeeping on multiple levels, too. The GoPayment program and device allows all iOS and Android devices to accept credit card payments, the process of which integrates seamlessly with the QuickBooks ecosystem. A simple credit card swipe through the free GoPayment mobile card reader (which fits into the headphone jack on any smartphone or tablet) and the transaction is complete.

On the internal end of things, Intuit's Online Payroll Services is available for a separate monthly fee, but also offers a platform that allows you to enter hours, get instant paycheck calculations, pay employees via instant paychecks or free direct deposit, and get free support from payroll experts. With this subscription, you'll even be able to make use of a built-in payroll calculator for instant tax calculations, electronically file taxes, and print out year-end W-2s for your entire staff.

Cut 10 Hours of Work from Your Week

With the ability to cut your administrative duties in half, plus the know-how to avoid costly accountant fees with a built-in ecosystem of user friendly tools, you'll be saving invaluable time and money with QuickBooks. In fact, 19% of QuickBooks users say they probably save more than 10 hours a week with QuickBooks. It's the perfect deterrent to unnecessary grunt work that may keep businesses stagnant.

Try QuickBooks Online for free for 30 days. If you like the software, you can continue with QuickBooks Simple Start for $12.95 per month, although it does lack some of the key features listed above. The more advanced QuickBooks Essentials plan costs $26.95 a month, while QuickBooks Plus will run you $39.95. Once you're ready to make a full commitment, take the plunge and buy the heavy duty QuickBooks Pro software suite, which is currently available at a 40% discount for a limited time, dropping the price to $149.95.

Managing a small business can be tricky, and in order to thrive, you need more than just a great product or service for sale. QuickBooks lets you get back to work by crunching complex data and presenting it in a way that anyone can understand and act on.