Accounting & Bookkeeping

• The client agrees to pay us
• We create an invoice
• We email them the invoice
• Their check arrives
• We receive the check
• We update the Client Billing Sheet
• We deposit the check

The client agrees to pay us for work being done that month. Meaning, they are paying us for work to be done in February. The client wants to pay us with a check. On the first of the month, the MC’s create an invoice describing the work to be completed that month (or update the recurring invoice as needed). That invoice gets sent to them via QuickBooks no later than the 5th of the month. (To make sure the invoice gets sent, the MC needs to ensure the “automatically send emails” option is checked and that the invoice is being sent to the correct person at the company.)  In addition, any invoices that are not set up as recurring invoices need to be sent on or before the 10th of the calendar month.  The client receives the invoice. QB will show the invoice as viewed once this takes place.

The client sends the check to Sebo. Sebo accesses the client’s invoice inside of QB, and then clicks “Receive payment” and enters the check information (date, check # in Reference Number section, and select deposit account as “Undeposited Funds”, and click Save). The Office Manager updates the Client Billing doc. The payment is received, and then the payment shows up in the “Undeposited Funds” account of QB. The Office Manager creates a bank deposit (Plus symbol top right hand corner of the screen and select Bank Deposit) and selects all the checks that are received inside the Undeposited Funds account in QuickBooks, deposits them to the Income account, and clicks Print, then clicks “Print deposit summary only”. The checks and the printed Deposit Summary are placed on Bruce’s desk. 

Bruce logs into the Zion’s Bank Anytime Deposits system that resides on Bruce’s computer and his physical desk. He enters the amount of the deposit, then scans all the checks. The check amounts are verified, then the deposit is completed. A transaction verification of the deposits is printed, and the Deposit Summary, checks, and verification are stapled together and filed.

• The client agrees to pay us
• Client gives us card information to charge
• Save card information to QuickBooks (for new client)
• We create a Sales Receipt
• Credit Card is charged
• Thank you for Payment note is sent to client
• Money arrives in QuickBooks 
• We update the Client Billing Sheet
• We check periodically for any credit card issues/bounced payments

The client agrees to pay us for work being done that month. Meaning, they are paying us for work to be done in the current month. The client wants to pay us with a credit card that we have on file. On the first of the month, we create a Sales Receipt describing the work to be completed that month. We make sure that the Sales Receipt is processing their card on file. When we send the receipt the card is charged and a notice of payment gets sent to them via QuickBooks no later than the 5th of the month. The Marketing Coordinator responsible for that client verifies in QB that the receipt was sent to the correct person at the company and the card was processed and not declined/other errors. The Office Manager checks weekly in QuickBooks for any declined payments as well and works with MC’s to resolve these issues with the client. 

1. What if the check doesn’t arrive?

If the check doesn’t arrive, it is either because the payment is late or because the check was lost in the process somewhere. If the payment is late it is the MC’s responsibility to make sure the payment is paid. Near the end of the month the MC will notice the payment hasn’t been received and will contact the client or ask the office manager to do so. On the 8th of the following month, the office manager will transition the payment on the bill doc to the following month and change the category to late.

If the check gets lost in the mail, the MC will have discovered this through the process of contacting the client described above. The MC or office manager will contact client and let them know and client will send a new check. If the first check does come in, we will shred it.

2. What if the Credit Card bounces?

The office manager will notice this on the Dashboard of Quickbooks and will work with the MC to contact the client and get updated credit card information. When the updated information is received, create a new invoice or sales receipt and charge the updated card.

3. What if the payment is not received at all?

If it is clear that the client will not pay, Bruce will work with his accountant to mark the invoice as a bad debt expense. The line item is deleted from the billing doc.

4. What if the payment is late?

If the payment is late, the Office Manager will move the payment line item on the billing doc to the next month during the billing doc process. The office manager and MC will work together with the client to discover the reason for the late payment and resolve the issue.

• MC’s enter client information on Billing Doc (for new clients)
• QuickBooks ensures that each invoice/Sales Receipt is represented by one line item
• Line item is marked paid each time we receive check or Sales Receipt
• Revenues are totaled by MC at the bottom of sheet
• Office Manager reconciles MC totals with QB every Mon, Thurs, and end of the month 
• Monitor payments on days 1-7 that are attributed to prior month. 
• Change date in QB of payments for previous month to be the last day of the prior month.
• Zero out payments not expected to come in and change description cell 

An MC creates a line item on the billing doc (for new clients, as the recurring clients are already listed with their information) and enters the appropriate client information (see Sebo Training – “MC Training” section). The QuickBooks checks each month to make sure each invoice is represented by one line item (recurring invoices are correct in QB and no duplicate clients were created in the bill doc transfer process. When the Office Manager receives a check, or money is received into QB, the Office Manager marks the line item as paid. MC’s can also mark their line items as paid as they see the revenue come into QB if they desire. MC’s should only ever touch their own clients’ line items, not those of other MC’s. 

MC’s should regularly check their total revenues at the bottom of the sheet and their expected revenue number as well. They should take steps to make sure as much if not all of their expected revenue is collected on time. QuickBookss can assist MC’s with late payments or other client issues as needed. The Office Manager will reconcile the Billing Doc revenue numbers by MC with the QB report P&L by class – current month. They will ensure that each MC’s revenue in QB matches the totals at the bottom of the sheet and will reconcile any differences (marking items as paid that have not been marked paid yet, checking the category filters to ensure all revenue is included, backdating payments that come in days 1-7 but attributed to the prior month etc). The Office Manager will do this reconciliation every Monday and Thursday for the MC and company meetings, as well as at the end of the month when they close out the month for Zions transfers.

 The Office Manager will continue to monitor for payments that come in on the 1st – 7th of the next month and will include any that should be attributed to the prior month as paid on the billing doc. They will change the date of the payment in QB to the end of the prior month so that the QB report and Billing Doc match. Any revenues that are not expected to come in that month due to payments received during the next month (days 1-7) or other reasons should be marked as $0 in the amount cell by the MC. The MC should then add the original amount of the invoice in the description cell so that the Office Manager and MC can know what the payment should be when it does come in. These zero items are moved to the next month billing doc when the Office Manager creates the new month bill doc to carry over these items for payment in the following month. Either the MC or the Office Manager will change the 0 back to what the expected revenue will be. 

• Duplicate current month sheet and rename to next month
• On new month, change all items to unpaid
• Delete all non-ongoing line items (extra, late etc)
• Find and replace to change month names
• Clear data from Date Sent and Monthly Report sent Columns
• In invoice receipt sent column, delete all except Recurring and N/A
• Update task deadline block (bottom right hand corner of sheet)

Around the 25th -27th ish of the month, the Office Manager will make a new month billing doc. This needs to be done before any payments for the next month are received. The Office Manager will duplicate the current month sheet and rename the copy to be the next month. They will change all boxes in the paid column to be unchecked.  On the new doc, they will filter the ongoing/other category to include everything but ongoing (late, extra etc), and will delete all of these line items. (ie the only line items that should appear are ongoing clients). They will then change the filter back to include ongoing and do a find and replace for the current month and change to next month. Then do a find and replace for last month and change to current month. (ie if the current month is May, you would do a find and replace to replace all May with June, and then a second find and replace to replace all April with May). 

Delete everything from columns Q and T except for N/A. In column P delete everything except for recurring and N/A. In the bottom right hand corner of the sheet, update the task deadline block (cells should say report, client plan, email sent etc) with the new deadlines for the month (Ie the report is on day 3, client plan and email is day 4, invoices day 6 and LP CSV is day 7, meaning business days). Update the red targets as well on the bottom of the sheet using the Office Manager documentation.

• Confirm bill doc revenue and QB P&L match
• Copy unpaid items from prior month to the new month
• Change the category on carried over payments to be late
• Delete carried over payments from the prior month sheet
• Check for duplicates and any other errors
• Re-sort sheet to order line items by MC

On the 8th of the month, double check that the previous month matches with QB (meaning the revenues by MC section = the P&L of that month). Sort the prior month to include only unpaid payments. Copy all of those line item to the next month (we plan to hopefully receive those payments in the next month) and change the ongoing/other category to say late (because after the 7th these payments are now late). Make sure there are no duplicate items (if you did the prior process of making the new month bill doc correctly this should not happen).  Delete all of the line items that you just copied to the new month off of the prior month bill doc (ie everything on the completed month should now be green and paid). On the new month sheet sort by A-Z in the client name column and then sort A-Z in the MC column (this will put the late payments in the correct order with the rest of the transactions sorted in alphabetical order by MC and then client name). 

• MC’s use credit cards to provide for their expenses 
• Other office expenses are put on Bruce or the Office Manager’s card
• Office manager classifies expenses according to MC
• Office manager reclasses special transactions as needed 
• Office manager reconciles QB credit card accts with Zions every Monday
• Once a month, Credit cards reconciled with Zions paper statements
• Paper receipts collected and attached to reconciled statement for filing  
• Statement and receipts are filed in envelope in Bruce’s office
• Credit Cards are paid off manually by Office Manager (see section 4.3.2)

We have a credit card for each MC that should be used to track their own expenses. MC’s should keep track of their expenses and be aware of where they are spending money. The Office Manager can also provide assistance with this through the regular QB reconciliation and making sure transactions are accurate and classed correctly. Other office expenses or Bruce related expenses are put on Bruce’s or the Office Manager’s card and classed as Sebo. Expenses related to each MC should be classed under that MC and the Office Manager is responsible to make sure this is happening when they reconcile the accounts. There are several exception transactions that must be changed each month (For more information, see section on Split Transactions). The Office Manager is responsible to make sure these get classed correctly. 

Every Monday, the Office Manager will update the accounts in QB to sync with Zions and will reconcile the transactions and ensure the balances match. Any transactions they do not recognize or are not sure what expense category they fall under can be addressed with the MC. Once a month (usually the 3rd week of the month) the paper credit card statements will come in the mail and the Office Manager should reconcile these with QB. Once reconciled, any paper receipts attached to transactions in that month’s statement should be stapled in order of date to the reconciled statement. Receipts are collected throughout the month in a manila folder called Credit Card Receipts on Bruce’s desk. All receipts should be turned in as soon as possible after purchase to ensure they are there when reconciling. Statement and attached receipts are then filed in the expenses manila envelope in Bruce’s brown cupboard. (or placed on Bruce’s desk and he can file them when ready). 

The Office Manager needs to ensure all credit cards are fully paid at the last day of the month. This keeps all expenses in the current month and avoids any interest fees. Credit card payments are due on the 1st of each month and to ensure no interest the Office Manager MUST pay the full balance on the card by the last day of the month. MC’s and MCITs are encouraged to complete all purchases 3 days before the end of the month if possible to increase accuracy of balance paid off. Note that the balance that is paid off on each card represents the “op expenses” on that card for the month, and the expense number from Zions and the P&L in QB will be different numbers for each month. (ie the credit card payment paid on June 10th is the “op expenses” for the month of June even though some of those transactions were really purchased in May.) This is because we are using a hybrid cash accounting system and the actual cash that left (through paying off the credit card) is the number we will use for op expenses when making monthly Profit First transfers. See the following section for a more detailed description of the credit card payoff process updated as of Dec 2019. 

• MC’s make charges on their credit cards for days 1-15 in the month. 
• On the 15th, office manager updates accounts in QB to reflect current balances as of the 15th
• Office manager records balances to be paid off on the CC Tracking tab of the Sebo Finances -Monthly Tracking doc. 
• If needed, in step 3 record the bank balance in the small table on the right hand sheet and pull any pending transactions from the Zions’ website for that card. List them in the pending trans column and sum the two to get the balance plus pending charges to pay off. Only do this if needed (MC needs charges paid at certain time, really large charges, or cash balance makes it more favorable to pay them off. 
• Office manager makes transfers from op ex to each credit card for the amt listed on the CC Tracking sheet. 
• Record each payment as a transfer in QB
• Repeat this process at the end of the month for all charges that accumulated during days 16-31st. This will ensure that all month charges are paid off by the end of the month. 
• When credit card statements arrive in the mail (usually around the 17th or so of the month) reconcile them in QB and double check to make sure no errors or interest charges. 

At the end of 2019, we implemented a more in depth system for managing our cash balances and ensuring that all credit cards are paid off on time. Instead of paying off cards in one lump sum at the end of the month we pay credit card expenses twice each month, once on the 15th and once on the last day of the month. This allows us to align better with profit first transfers and requires less cash on hand to complete the process. Generally the credit cards are paid on the same day as profit first transfers if possible. 

The office manager is primarily responsible to manage the payment of credit card expenses. MC’s will use their cards and charges accumulate on the 1st through the 15th will be paid on the 15th. The office manager will update the accounts in QB on this day to ensure the most accurate balances are paid off and will look on the Zions website under each credit card account for any pending transactions to pay those off as well. For more information on pending transactions and how to find visit the office manager documentation accounting section. 

After updating the accounts and accounting for any pending transactions, the office manager will record the balances to be paid off on the CC Tracking tab of the Sebo Finances Monthly Tracking sheet. The office manager will then make transfers on the Zions website from the Op Ex account to each of the credit cards for the amount calculated on the sheet (note the amount may be different than what Zions shows is the balance if you are paying off pending transactions). Then the office manager will record the transfers as line items in QB so that the accounts will match next time they are synced (see office manager documentation for instructions on how to do this as well). 

This process is repeated at the end of the month as well so that at the end of the month all expenses for the month have been paid off and the cards are zeroed out to start the next month. This ensures that all expenses accrued during a month are paid with the cash alloted for that month’s expenses and that we never pay interest on our cards because we are ahead on payments. When credit card statements come in the mail, the office manager will check to make sure there aren’t any errors and that no interest is charged and will then file the statements in Bruce’s manila envelopes. No further action is needed on the statements because the payments are already being made ahead of the bank’s required schedule by doing the bi-monthly transfer system described above. 

• Update accounts in QB to sync transactions from Zions 
• Match and add transactions and make sure categories are correct
• When paper statements come in the mail, reconcile acct to paper statements
• When finished reconciling, click View Report and print the report
• Place printed report and statements stapled together on Bruce’s desk
• Note: Account Reconcile Monkey Responsibility (see description below)

The Office Manager is responsible to keep the bank accounts as up to date as possible. Typically the Office Manager should update the accounts in QB to sync with Zions at least every Monday (for Bruce’s accounting meeting) and one or two more times throughout the week. Bruce may occasionally update the accounts as well. Once updated match the transactions and make sure that all are classed correctly and have the correct expense category. If the category lists Uncategorized Expense, this means that QuickBooks did not automatically know what the transaction was for and you need to go and change it.

When the paper statements arrive in the mail, The Office Manager will then want to reconcile the accounts to the paper statements (for instructions on how to do this please see the Office Manager documentation: Accounting section or click here). When finished reconciling, instead of closing out immediately, hit the View Report button and make sure to print the report. Then the stapled report and paper statement along with any turned in receipts belonging to that statement can be placed on Bruce’s desk for filing. Bruce has responsibility to reconcile the Income and Op Expense account currently and can delegate that to the Office Manager at his discretion. The Office Manager is responsible for the rest of the bank accounts and credit cards (Bruce’s credit card he will typically reconcile as well unless delegated to the Office Manager upon request). For updated information on account reconciliation responsibility, see the Sebo Finances sheet (click here).

• Revenue comes into income account and accumulates on days 1-15 of the month. 
• All revenue that came into income acct from days 1-15 is transferred to Op Ex acct on the 15th
• Calculate transfer amts on the Profit First Calcs sheet in Monthly Finances doc
• From op ex on the 15th transfer all profit first transfers in Zions (transfers to UT Tax, Vault, Trips/Fun, Emp Profit Share, Distributions). 
• Record all of the transfers as transfers in QB
• Check bank account balances and Profit First Calcs sheet to make sure they reconcile. 
• Repeat this process on the 31st or last day of the month for revenue that accumulates on days 16-31st. This revenue will be used for the expenses for days 1-15 of the next month. 
• Vault or other loans are repaid if needed

The Zions income account should receive all of the revenue from clients, and the balance of the account is the balance we use to make monthly transfers. We are not using the QuickBooks number or the revenue from the Billing Doc, but a strictly cash basis (ie, the revenue that comes in June 1-7 that on the bill doc would be attributed to May will not count in May, but count as June income for the purposes of what income we use for the month’s expenses and transfers).

On the 15th and last day of each month, the Office Manager or Bruce will note what the balance is and record it in the Profit First Calcs tab on the Sebo Finances Monthly Tracking sheet. They will then transfer the entire amount from Income to Op Ex (to prevent going over transfer limits on savings accounts we transfer everything to Op Ex which is a checking account with no transfer limit).  Then copy the formulas from the prior month on the sheet to calculate the transfer amounts for each account based on the month’s revenue that was entered. Note that the Fed tax and the Bruce 401k distributions are not percentages, but fixed amounts of 3500 and 3250 respectively. After calculating the percentages, Bruce or the Office Manager will transfer those amounts into each account from the Op ex account. They will also want to make sure to record all the transfers in QB as well at the time of the transfers so that the accounts balance nicely when updated and there aren’t any mistakes in making the transfers.

The worksheet will keep a running total of the bank balance for each account as we transfer into it each month. If that month there was a loan taken from the vault (because income was too low or we didn’t collect enough on time revenue that month), then the loan will need to be repaid the following month from expenses allotted money if possible. The loan amounts from the vault are recorded in the Profit First calcs sheet on the Vault Loan record. The vault should be repaid as soon as possible and loans taken from it should be kept to a minimum.  Note that this whole process is done twice each month, once on the 15th and once on the last day of the month. The cash revenue for the month is the sum of the two revenue numbers and the profit is the aggregate of the two profit first transfer sessions each month. 

• Op Expense account gets too low for the month
• Bruce approves loan from the vault
• Vault transfer is made and recorded on the Profit First Calcs sheet of the Sebo Finances Monthly Tracking sheet
• Vault is repaid as quickly as possible from extra left in op expense account next month
• Vault Repayment is recorded on Zions Calcs sheet of MC Master

When a loan is needed, Bruce or the Office Manager will first pull from the vault, and will repay asap. They will also make sure loans are taken out at the end of the month on an as needed basis and not upon anticipation in order to borrow the minimum amount from other accounts possible. We will work to control our expenses and refine our Profit First system so that loans are no longer needed.  This means that the Office Manager is responsible to monitor the level of the op expense account as the end of the month approaches. Several key expenses come out near the end of the month including rent, payroll, 941 taxes, and potentially credit card payments. If the account will not have enough money in it to cover these expenses near the end of the month then a vault loan is needed and the Office Manager will approve the loan through Bruce.

Bruce authorizes the amount and that amount is transferred from the vault to the op expense account. The date and amount of the loan are recorded on the Profit First Calcs tab of the Sebo Finances Monthly Tracking sheet. As the expenses are covered that need to be, any left over is transferred back to the vault to help repay the loan (up to the buffer floor we have created of $1000 dollars to keep the account open and no bouncing payments). When the next month’s income is distributed to the Op Expenses account and that month’s expenses are covered, any extra is transferred back to the vault to repay the loan. Ideally the vault should be repaid within 1 month or as soon as possible. The date and amount of the repayments should also be recorded on the sheet to keep track of how much of the loan has been repaid and when it was repaid. 

Tentative budget information for each bank account including key expenses that come out of that account and the amount of money budgeted for that expense is found Sebo Finances Monthly Tracking sheet under the Account Budgets tab. (click here). 

Sebo covers the cost of several services for MCs. These are namely Unbounce and Adobe Creative Cloud thus far. Unbounce is charged to the Sebo card (Bruce’s credit card) and is reconciled as normal. Adobe Creative Cloud is currently charged to both Bruce’s and Chris’s credit cards and the charge on Chris’s card is classed as Sebo (there is an automatic rule for this but the Office Manager checks occasionally to make sure it is being completed. Adobe stock is classed to Chris).  Any other products that an MC uses that Bruce approves to be used by the company as a whole will also be charged to Sebo under the discretion of Bruce and the office team.

• Hoth transactions for Gargle are charged to the Sebo (Bruce) card
• Webfaction for Gargle charged to Rachel’s credit card
• Hoth charges for Kendall and any other MCIT are charged to the Sebo card
• Gargle acct manager (Erika or Parker) updates Office Manager on Gargle transactions
• QuickBooks re-classes transactions on Sebo/Rachel cards to Gargle
• QuickBooks follows up monthly to make sure Hoths attributed correctly

The Hoth link building service is used by many different MCs and typically charged to their own credit card. However, the Hoth transactions for Gargle are currently charged to the Sebo credit card. Each month a Gargle account manager (Erika or Parker right now) will update the Office Manager which transactions they purchased and the date and amount. The Office Manager will then go into the Sebo (Bruce) credit card in QB and change the class of these transactions to Gargle to differentiate them from hoth charges for Kendall or MCITs. The Office Manager should follow up with this each month when updating the credit card accounts to make sure that this process occurs. They should also ensure that they webfaction charge on Rachel’s card is classed to Gargle and that all other Hoth charges on Bruce’s card are classed correctly (done automatically but need to be checked on occasion)

So far we do not have any transactions to be split between MCs in QuickBooks. However, we have had split transactions in the past and will likely encounter them in the future. A split transaction is when multiple MC’s share the cost of one service and the charge appears on one MC’s credit card and is then split in QB to be classed between the different MC’s according to their agreement for splitting the cost (generally 50/50). The classification is important for the charge because classing the charge allows the expense to show up correctly on each MC’s Monthly P&L report which affects their expenses and special payroll. For this reason, ensuring splits are done correctly will make sure that one MC’s expenses are not overly high while the others are not attributing an expense for the service they are using. The instructions on how to do split transactions are found in the Accounting section of the Office Manager documentation (click here). Any other splits that occur in the future will be updated in the Office Manager documentation in the split transactions section. 

• MC’s bring in revenue
• MC qualifies for special payroll by reaching the bucket reserve amount ($5,000)
• Bruce or the Office Manager makes calculations using the MC Master
• Office Manager processes the special payroll around the 15th of the month

Special Payroll is an additional compensation plan for MC’s and is paid monthly. It is the money they have leftover after subtracting their expenses and payroll costs from their team revenue. In order to receive special payroll, their extra revenue after their expenses and payroll costs must build up to at least $5,000 (which amount is held in reserve for each MC in the MC Buckets bank account in Zions). This reserve amount is available if an MC goes negative by having more expenses than revenue they bring in. Once the MC qualifies for special payroll by having this $5,000 amount achieved, Bruce will notify the Office Manager who will add them to the next special payroll. Bruce or the Office Manager is responsible to make the calculations for the amount of special payroll each month using the MC Master. The Office Manager is then responsible to run the special payroll around the 15th of the month.

For questions on how to process Special Payroll in QuickBooks please reference the Office Manager Documentation in the Accounting section (click here)

• Update Vendors list
• Update Transaction Categories list. 

Sebo has two lists that need to be maintained throughout the course of the year. These two lists are the Vendors list  and Transaction categories. The recommended procedure is for the Office Manager to double check these lists each quarter.

Vendor List

Each time we purchase something through Sebo, we purchase that item from a vendor. A vendor is essentially anyone we pay money to in return for something. Because we buy things from new people each year and also have vendors that we work with on a regular basis, this list can get very long and extensive (at one point we had over 900 active vendors!). The Office Manager needs to review this list every quarter to ensure that only relevant vendors are showing up and that one time vendors or vendors we are no longer using are inactivated. Doing this allows easy searching in the vendor category and easier reporting for tracking how much is spent with a particular vendor.  To update the list, the Office Manager logs into QB and selects the expenses tab from the left menu. This will pop a list of all of the vendors Sebo currently uses. The Office Manager will then select any vendors we no longer use and make them inactive. This can be done by selecting the checkbox next to the vendor and under batch actions, selecting make inactive, or by clicking on the vendor individually and hitting edit and make inactive. The vendor will then disappear from the list but can still be accessed by searching for the vendor or by selecting under settings (gear icon on right) to show inactive. All transactions will still remain in the register and can be accessed if needed and the vendor list will now be much simpler and easy to navigate. 

Transaction Categories

This is a list of all products/services that we sell at Sebo. The MC’s use this list when creating invoices and they select a product or service from the approved list that the client will pay for in that invoice. This helps the client know what services we are providing and where their money is going. However, for easy reporting it is essential that MC’s only use the approved list of products and services and not create their own when making invoices. If a particular service needs to be added to the list they should ask the Office Manager if they may create a new item. This ensures that the list does not get too long or redundant. The QuickBooks should review this list quarterly in QB to make sure no new services have been added and delete any that we are no longer using. The Office Manager should then print out the updated list and distribute it to all MC’s in the office as well as email it to everyone for an electronic copy.  

• Understand four QuickBooks entities (software, payroll, merchant center, payment gateway)
• Understand four regular QuickBooks fees (software, payroll, merchant acct, per transaction). 
• Automatic rules set up under Banking → Rules to auto classify transactions
• Office Manager monitors transactions routinely to ensure all are classed correctly

Sebo has four different types of fees that QuickBooks charges us to use their products, depending on which product we are using. For example, QuickBooks has three different entities namely QuickBooks software (the actual computer program we use to track transactions), QuickBooks Merchant Center, and QuickBooks Payment Gateway. 

NOTE: Sebo is considering an adjustment in Sept 2019 to stop using QuickBooks Merchant Center and QuickBooks Payment Gateway and transfer to a different payment processing company save on credit card processing fees. More information about this process will be upcoming. Until then this is the most current information. 

QuickBooks software includes the online program used to do payroll, run reports and do banking and send invoices. The Merchant Center is a separate site that processes all of the transactions that come through QuickBooks specifically, such as when clients pay us through Sales Receipts or invoices in QuickBooks. The Merchant Center shows you a list of all transactions, all fees charged and any holds on your account, and you can also adjust settings from the Merchant Center as well. The login for this site should be in Lastpass and the URL is here https://merchantcenter.intuit.com/msc/portal/home. 

Lastly, the Payment Gateway is the entity that actually processes the transactions and sends the money from QuickBooks to our bank account. The only thing that causes problems with this services is if there is not enough money in the bank account to process fees or if there are problems with connecting QuickBooks to the bank account (bad account information, switching accounts, etc). In this case, QuickBooks may hold the money from deposits and it will not reach our bank account until the issue is resolved. Generally we receive a notice in the mail that this has occurred but because mail is a slow process to receive information, the Office Manager should monitor the transactions and deposits regularly to check for any potential problems. Problems with the payment gateway are rare and unlikely to occur unless you are conducting major account changes (such as the switch to our Profit First model in 2019). Below is a summary of the four different fees QuickBooks regularly charges: 

QuickBooks Software

QuickBooks Software Fees are charged monthly at a fixed rate of $64.35 up to 2019). They should be categorized as vendor: QuickBooks Software and category: Office: QB Software Fees

QuickBooks Payroll

QuickBooks Payroll fees are charged monthly and are the fees to process our payroll. They vary by payroll and were somewhere around $100 in 2019. The amount varies based on number of employees that get paid each month. These transactions are categorized as vendor: QuickBooks Payroll Service and category: Personnel: QB Payroll Fees. 

QuickBooks Merchant Fees

This is the monthly fee we are charged each month to have a merchant account which allows us to accept payments by credit card. This fee comes out automatically around the 25th of the month and is fixed at $19.95 (in 2019). They are categorized as vendor: QuickBooks Merchant Fees and category: Office: QB Merch Acct Fees. 

Transaction Fees

QuickBooks also charges a small fee per transaction that is around 3% (they use this to pay credit card processing fees and as profit to QuickBooks). These are called Transaction Fees.  These vary by transaction and a list of them can be found in the merchant center. They are recorded as vendor: QuickBooks Payments and category: Office: QB Merch Acct Fees.

QuickBooks has automatic rules set up to classify most of these transactions automatically, however the QuickBooks should check each month to ensure they are all correct. Common problems include the software fees not listing a vendor, the merchant fees showing up as QuickBooks Payments instead of QuickBooks Merchant fees (this is important so we distinguish the $19.95 monthly fee from the per transaction fees for reporting purposes). The income account also has an issue where the transaction fees show up in the income account automatically even though they are not being synced from a bank to that account and no fees are charged from that account (all transaction fees come out of the Op Ex account). The Office Manager needs to manually delete these transactions each time they reconcile the income account to ensure the account is correctly balanced. Generally these transactions will say “System recorded fee for QuickBooks Deposit” and they are just QuickBooks trying to be smart and auto generate the transactions before they actually happen. They need to simply be deleted from the Income Account Register. (Make sure to only delete the income account fees, not the Op Ex fees that are brought in from Zions; those are what actually happened and the income account fees are the fees QuickBooks is making up). 

Sebo Finances

This document is found in Bruce’s Google Drive and includes information on the yearly budget, reconciliation reports and who is responsible, questions for accounting, regular transfer and expenses information and other Profit First items. This is reviewed regularly by Bruce and the Office Manager to make sure all the info is accurate. To access this document, click here. 

MC Master

The MC Master is used to calculate revenues and expenditures by MC as well as special payroll and bucket contributions for MC’s and MCIT’s. The Google Sheet takes data from Liquid Planner, the Client Billing System sheet, and several sheets such as the Month GYR to calculate the expenses and revenues. Payroll Numbers are taken from the P&L Current and Last Month reports in QuickBooks. This document is updated monthly when running special payroll and during Bruce’s time set aside each month on the 15th for important tasks. Only Bruce, Jonny and the Office Manager are authorized to make changes to this document.  To access this document, click here. 

Sebo Finances Monthly Tracking

This doc began as a temporary system  used to track our expenses by category as we were implementing the Profit First system. It will continue to be refined in the future as we continue to master Profit First and will be a supplemental resource to the Sebo Finances sheet, emphasizing the regular expense tracking and the monthly profit first transfers. The sheet includes information on the different account budgets and annual expenses from that account as well as information on monthly payroll, monthly credit card payments, an Op Ex account budget tracker, a Trips/Fun account tracker, the Profits First Calcs sheet and potentially a quarterly summary sheet. For more information on these individual sheets see below or ask the office manager. The main purpose of this system is to better understand our monthly expenses, how they are distributed and if our ratios are in range. To access this document, click here. 

Payroll Tracking Sheet

This is simply a  place for the office manager to record the amount paid for payroll each time it is run and it calculates the monthly total payroll which feeds into the quarterly summary sheet and tells us what percent of the money allocated for expenses in that month goes toward payroll. The office manager updates this sheet each time they run payroll and american funds contributions. 

Budget Tracking Sheet

This is still being refined but is meant to be a way to track the op ex account monthly alloted budget to see where that money is being spent and to help make sure that we are spending by our budget and allocating money in the op ex account correctly for future expenses (computers, assets etc). This is in a rudimentary stage right now and will be refined going forward. 

MORE INFO COMING SOON

Quarterly Summary Sheets

This is meant to be a snapshot of the expense data for the quarter and is updated from the different sheets. Right now the formulas are still a little complicated and further improvements are needed to make this system useful. But it is designed to show what our expenses were for that month compared to the budgeted amount for the month as well as the ratios for how much expenses are paid toward payroll, MC Expenses, and Sebo Expenses. 

MORE INFO COMING SOON

Trips/Fun Tracking Sheets

This has yet to be created but is designed to be similar to the Budget tracking sheet for the Op Ex account in tracking what we spend from the trips and fun account and if we are in budget for those different expenses. Further improvements need to be made to refine this and make it useful going forward. 

MORE INFO COMING SOON

Our current accountant’s name is Brynn and she works for Davies Allen accounting firm. Her information can be found in Bruce’s email and if after discussing an issue with Bruce you still cannot find a solution you may contact her. She has some special permissions in QuickBooks that allows her to make adjustment journal entries and alter settings, and we are charged a small fee for using her so questions are infrequent but she is a resource when needed. Consult Bruce before utilizing her. Reach her at Brynn Seamons – brynn@daviesallen.com.