The basic record keeping checkup (Proceedings)

Do you divide your staff responsibilities? By dividing responsibilities you reduce the opportunity of potential stealing from your hospital. Basically you should never have one person handle all aspects of a task. For example, the receptionist who handles money directly shouldn't be the person who prepares and makes the bank deposit. Likewise the person writing checks to pay the hospital's bills shouldn't be the same person authorized to sign the checks. Is the mail opened and a list of daily receipts prepared independent of the receptionist and bookkeeper? Also the practice owner should open the hospital's monthly bank statements and credit card statements and review them before providing to the bookkeeper for reconciliation.

Do you have more than one user login on your QuickBooks file? Any person who accesses the QuickBooks file should have their own separate user id and password. The practice owner should be set up as the administrator. To set up additional users, you need to be logged in as the QuickBooks Administrator and then from the Company menu select Set up Users and Passwords, then Set up Users. You will then create the user name and password and then select the areas of QuickBooks you would like them to have access to. It can be all areas of QuickBooks or selected areas of QuickBooks.

The reason for separate user names is the audit trail feature of QuickBooks. The QuickBooks audit trail keeps a record of each transaction that is created, modified, or deleted in a data file. The audit trail also records who made the change. The audit trail is always on and cannot be turned off. To help prevent users from creating or modifying transactions undetected, changing certain fields on a transaction that has been saved into QuickBooks triggers the audit trail to save a record of the change. If a user attempts to print or e-mail a transaction, by default QuickBooks forces the user to save the transaction first which posts the transaction to the audit trail. However, the Administrator can override this preference under General: Company Preferences before those actions are carried out (this is another reason why the administrator should be chosen carefully). The following fields trigger an audit trail record: Name, account, amount, quantity, class, unit price, item, payment method; Transaction type, transaction date, shipping date, billed date, due date; Terms, discount, payment terms, sales rep; Document number, modifying user, reconciliation status, posting status.

When you view transactions in the audit trail report it groups transactions by the modifying user. Since a single transaction can be modified by more than one user over time, the transaction may appear in more than one user's group of transactions. The audit trail report highlights values that were changed in each instance of a transaction. If there are multiple versions of a transaction, the earliest version has no highlighting, but subsequent versions highlight each value that differs from the previous version's value in that field by displaying the value in bold italics. If a line item was added to the transaction, that entire line of the report is highlighted. There are limits to the audit trail. The audit trail is not designed as an employee-tracking tool. It records changes made to transactions, but it does not track attempts to access areas of the program by people who do not have permission to use those areas. It only captures changes to transactions it does not capture changes to lists. Audit trail doesn't contain a column to show whether or not a check has been reconciled.

Do you know what QuickBooks release you are on? To check the current release of your QuickBooks program: While in QuickBooks, hold down the Control Key and press the number 1 (CTRL +1). Use the number one key at the top of your keyboard rather than the numbers on the right keypad. QuickBooks will display a Product Information window. The first line provides the QuickBooks product then the release number. If you are not on the latest release you can start the automatic update yourself within QuickBooks by doing the following: From the QuickBooks Help menu, choose Update QuickBooks; Click the Overview tab and click Update Now; Select the desired downloads in the Update Now window; Click Get Updates to download your selected updates; When the Update Complete message appears, click Close; From the File menu, Choose Exit; Start QuickBooks and click Yes to the message to install the update.

Do you set a closing date in your QuickBooks file? Once you have finished the year and filed your respective tax return there are two items that should be done. One is to enter journal entries provided by your accountant to ensure your records match theirs and to close the year within QuickBooks. To close the year within QuickBooks you should do the following: Select Edit from the toolbar menu; Select Preferences; Select Accounting; Click on the Company Preferences tab and click on the Set Date/Password button; Enter your year end date, i.e. 12/31/010 in the closing date box. This represents the date through which books are closed. Set a password in order to edit a transaction on or before the date above. By setting a closing date, this will prevent prior year data being changed inadvertently and will ensure your accounting records match the filed tax return.

Do you backup your QuickBooks file? The frequency of backups will vary with each practice, depending on the volume of data being input. For example, if a significant amount of data is input daily, daily backups should be made. If data is input once a week, weekly backups may be sufficient. When performing the backup you should have QuickBooks automatically add the date and time to the backup file name. This will prevent you overwriting previous backups. Backups can be made to a network drive, a read writable CD or a flash drive. Where are the backup files stored? Backup files are of little use if they are not available. Procedures should be implemented to ensure backup files are securely stored onsite. In addition, at least once a week, one complete backup should be stored offsite. When the backup is placed offsite, the previous week's backup should be returned to the practice to the backup rotation.

To backup your data (must be in single-user mode), select File from the menu bar and choose Save Copy or Back Up. Select Backup copy, click Next. On the next screen select Local backup and click on the Options button. Indicate where to save the backup copies, place a √ mark in the Add the date and time of the backup to the file name, and indicate the number of backup copies to keep in this folder. Click OK and then the Finish button. If utilizing a read writable CD QuickBooks backs up to a temporary location until you perform the task "Write these files to CD" under your CD Writing Tasks window. All too often, practices attempt to restore a backup only to find that it contains little or no data. To verify that your backup procedures are working, periodically restore the backups to a temporary file name in QuickBooks. Do not replace your existing company information

One of the fastest ways to see a report on your QuickBooks data is to create a QuickReport. QuickReports are predesigned reports that give you information about the items you're currently viewing on screen. Whenever you have a list, a register, or a form displayed, you can click a button to have QuickBooks create a QuickReport. For example to see what you owe a vendor: Click Vendor Center on the icon bar; Select the Vendor; In the Reports for this Vendor section, click the QuickReport link. All QuickReports contain a summary of individual transactions. To help you better understand the information presented in reports, QuickBooks lets you trace report data to the individual transaction level using QuickZoom. When you position the mouse pointer over a number in a report and you see the QuickZoom symbol (a magnifying glass with a Z in it), you can double-click the number to display the original transaction in QuickBooks. Each QuickReport window has a buttonbar at the top of the report for customizing report content and layout. To add a column to a report: In the QuickReport window, click Modify Report; In the Columns list, select Trans #; Click OK to accept the change. To move a report column: Position your mouse pointer over the Trans # column that you added to the QuickReport; Hold down the left mouse button and drag the Trans # column to the right until you see an arrow between the Date Column and the Num column; Release the mouse button. QuickBooks places the Trans # column between the Date column and the Num column.

At least on a monthly basis you should be reviewing your Company's Financial Reports. The balance sheet comparison report compares the current year against the previous year in both dollar amount and percentage. To create a balance sheet comparison report for your hospital: In the Report Center, choose Company & Financial. Then choose Balance Sheet Prev Year Comparison; to eliminate the columns for $ Change and % Change click on the Modify Report button and eliminate the √ mark for $ Change and % Change. Click OK; to memorize this report Click the Memorize button and leave the name of the report as is.

The Profit & Loss comparison report compares the current year against the previous year in both dollar amount and percentage. To create a profit & loss comparison report for your hospital: In the Report Center, choose Company & Financial. Then choose Profit & Loss Prev Year Comparison; to eliminate the columns for $ Change and % Change click on the Modify Report button and eliminate the √ mark for $ Change and % Change. Also place a √ mark next to the % of Income. Click OK; to memorize this report Click the Memorize button and leave the name of the report as is.

In addition to saving report settings, you can create memorized report groups that you can use to organize your memorized reports in a way that makes sense for your business and to allow you to quickly process a group of reports at once. QuickBooks comes preset with a number of memorized report groups each containing common reports for each area. You can add your own reports to these groups, modify the groups to meet your needs, and even create your own groups. To create a memorize report group: Choose Memorized Reports from the Reports menu, and then choose Memorized Report List; In the Memorized Report list, click the Memorized Report menu button, and choose New Group; In the Name field of the New Memorized Report Group window, type Year End; Click OK.

Occasionally, you may want to change a report's appearance or contents in ways that aren't available in QuickBooks, filter report data in ways that you can't in QuickBooks, or run "what-if" scenarios on your QuickBooks data. You can send reports from QuickBooks to Microsoft Excel. Since the changes you make in Excel don't affect your QuickBooks data, you're free to customize reports as needed and even change data to run what-if scenarios. To send a Report to Microsoft Excel: On the Report button bar, click Export; On the Basic tab, make sure that a new Excel workbook is selected; Click the Advanced tab; Under Formatting options, click the Colors checkbox to clear it; Under Excel features, select the Auto Filtering checkbox; Click Export; Leave the report open in Excel. Within Microsoft Excel, you can filter on any column of data using a drop-down list at the top of the column. Using the drop-down list, you can apply a number of preset filters or create your own custom filter. To filter a report in Microsoft Excel: In the Excel window, click the down arrow in the $ Change column of the balance sheet report, select Number filters and choose (Custom filter...); In the $ Change field, choose is less than from the drop-down list; In the field to the right, type 0; Click OK; Print the report and save the Excel file if needed; Close the balance sheet report in QuickBooks; Choose No when QuickBooks displays a message asking if you want to memorize the report.

The Company Snapshot (starting with QuickBooks 2009) gives you a real time overview of your business-all from one window. You can add, remove, and move widgets on the snapshot, such as an Income and Expense graph, a list of reminders, a list of Vendor, and Account Balances and more. You can customize the Snapshot to pay bills directly from the window. To display the Company Snapshot, go to the Reports menu and click Company Snapshot (you can also click Company Snapshot on the Icon Bar). For example you could add Top Vendors by Expense, Vendors to Pay, and Reminders.