Managing your automotive services business involves juggling a lot of tasks and responsibilities. From planning your marketing to managing payroll and approving vacation requests, there are several details that you need to keep track of. And so many of them are about managing and tracking the money. Finding the right software solution for finances can go a long way toward simplifying management and strengthening your business. At Gift CPAs, we recommend QuickBooks Online for automotive services businesses.
QuickBooks Online provides a comprehensive set of accounting and bookkeeping tools. It can be customized and tuned to align with your individual business goals and needs. From recording sales and payments to detailed reporting, QuickBooks Online gives businesses an easy-to-use platform that helps businesses run better.
For automotive services businesses, these are the top five reasons we think QuickBooks Online is the right accounting software.
1) Integrate It with Shop Management Software
Running a garage, body shop, exhaust repair or other specialized automotive services business means keeping track of a lot of moving parts. Keeping clients happy relies on you being able to get their work booked quickly and then to get their cars back to them as swiftly as possible. As your business gets larger, the volume of items to manage grows exponentially.
Selecting a shop management tool can help. These software programs can serve as a database for keeping track of your customers, often referred to as a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool. . They allowg you to create a detailed history of transactions and work details. You can take their CRM capabilities further and use them to help run marketing activities for special offers and maintenance reminders.
They can also serve as a critical link in managing the schedule of the shop. These tools can help track not only employee schedules, but they can also help in coordinating availability of parts and equipment.
QuickBooks Online integrates with a variety of these tools, allowing you to automate the movement of data from one system into the other. For example, when a new client comes to your shop, you can create an entry in the shop management tool, and it will automatically create an entry for the client account in QuickBooks Online. This kind of automation adds up to save you significant time, and helps you better manage clients, work and finances.
2) Access It From Anywhere
QuickBooks Online resides in the cloud, which makes it simple for shop owners to access their information from any location with internet access. Regardless of device, QuickBooks Online has an interface that lets users see and update their information when and how it is convenient for them. The mobile app even lets users check their data using their mobile phone.
Because QuickBooks Online is a cloud-based service, users also get the peace of mind of knowing that their information is housed in the most secure facilities with advanced encryption and backup capabilities. These leading resources provide levels of service and security that can’t be matched using a single computer or local server.
3) Share Access with Accounting Professionals
QuickBooks Online lets shop owners easily share data with accounting professionals. By giving everyone access to the same data, if a question arises, everyone can be certain that they are reviewing a common set of information.
Whether there is a question about bookkeeping details or a need for guidance on what the next step should be for managing cash flow or growing the business, your accounting partner can access your information whenever it is needed.
4) Generate Financial Reports
Is now the time to buy that new diagnostic tool? Is the shop busy enough to be able to afford to hire another mechanic? Can you afford to give your team raises this year? Getting the correct answers to these questions is vital to being certain that your business continues to grow and thrive. But how can you be certain you are making the correct decisions?
QuickBooks Online provides a variety of pre-built report templates that can help you see how your business is doing at any moment. With the right data in hand, you can make smarter decisions on the questions above, and more. Some of the standard reports included with QuickBooks Online include:
- Balance Sheet
- Profit and Loss Sheet
- Cash Flow
- Open Invoices
- Sales Tax Liability
More report options are available and can be customized to help get you the information you need. And remember, since you can share access to your data with your accounting partner, they can help you get all the reports you need put in place. And they can help you make sense of them all. For more details on what these financial reports can do for you, check out our Business Financial Statement Infographic.
5) Simplify Tax Time
Preparing and filing taxes doesn’t have to be an overwhelming burden. Much of the challenge businesses face every year actually stems from cleaning up bookkeeping records. Reviewing the items in detail, ensuring accuracy across records and compiling everything into a single location can be very time consuming.
Luckily, using QuickBooks Online and reviewing the details of it regularly with your accountant can minimize any special effort needed at tax time. And again, the fact that you and your accountant can both access the information online at any time can help make the management of these details as simple and efficient as possible.
The Right Accounting Partner in Central PA
These are only five of the reasons that we think QuickBooks Online makes sense for many of our automotive services clients. We’d love to talk to you about what other features make sense for your business and how we’ve helped other automotive services companies in central PA to improve operations and streamline their bookkeeping and accounting tasks. Contact us today to start the conversation.
