Shake It Up Creative Case Study – Moving from Spreadsheets to QuickBooks Online

The need:
Shake It Up Creative were using an excel spreadsheet to manage their accounts. All of the expenses, sales invoices and supplier invoices were logged there, in categories and in a layout that helped the accountant. As their client list grew, the spreadsheet became unwieldly and keeping track of what had been invoiced, paid and what was overdue was becoming more difficult. The directors:

• Weren’t able to easily see where the company stood financially
• Weren’t clear quickly on what supplier invoices were outstanding and how long for
• Wanted to increase efficiency of entering data into the accounts
• Wanted to reduce time-consuming financial tasks to focus on their client work

The solution:
One Christmas, it became clear that over a dozen customer invoices hadn’t been paid over the course of the year and the directors had to ask former clients to be paid for work that was done quite some time ago and re-send invoices out. They also wanted to take the business to the next level and knew that they should practice what they preach about focusing on what you do best and delegating the rest.

Our Support:
We helped them prepare for QuickBooks Online.

• Ihelm did a lot of research into the best solutions for the client then delivered a presentation via Appear.In
• Shake It Up Creative went away from the meeting and thought about what was said, any questions they had and what were the best options for the business
• We needed to take a csv download from their CRM system of the sales
• We completed the year-end on the excel spreadsheet and sent the records to the accountant to complete the accounts and file them with HMRC & Companies House

Once their QBO account was live we:

• Created help sheets and provided remote training on how to create invoices in QBO and send them to the customers
• Once accounts were set up with all opening balances, invoices already sent via the CRM system since the beginning of the financial year were imported along with bank transactions that couldn’t be pulled in by the bank feed – at that state the team started using QBO fully

Results:

• Client and supplier invoices are now tracked efficiently
• Bank reconciliations are able to be completed quickly and efficiently
• Client can view the accounts anywhere they go and see where the business stands financially
• Instant reporting is available through QBO
• The accountant has access to various reports
• The accountant is able to run the monthly payroll through QBO so it’s all automatically entered into the accounts