Author: Ndukwe Ukabi

This review of the QuickBooks accounting software, customised for Cooperative Societies will help you understand how to manage operations, automate transactions, as well as how to generate reports.

We have been deploying accounting software for growing businesses in Nigeria, both in premise and remotely, which has exposed us to the diverse cash flow challenges confronting SMEs and how to rightly provide the best solution using a combination of accounting skill and financial software customization. One striking thing in this industry is that every client/business has a unique problem. Today, I will be sharing tips on how Cooperative Societies can run their finance effectively using the QuickBooks.

In deploying QuickBooks for Cooperative Societies, I have discovered that there are core things finance managers of Cooperative Societies need to get right in order to accurately track cash flows, generate a reliable financial report and to ensure an on time decision.

Continue reading “Accounting Software For Cooperative Societies; What To Look For!”

Recent search terms:

• software used for cooperative accounting in dividend preparation (10)
• tips for setting up finance cooperative society (2)
• accounting software for cooperative society (2)
• cooperative accounting software (2)
• software for managing copperative accounts (1)
• how to prepare a coperative account (1)
• Cooperative account software (1)
• co operative accounting software free (1)
• accounting system for cooperative society (1)
• accounting record for a cooperative sosiety (1)
• account prepared by cooperative societies in nigeria (1)

Are you looking for a Serviced apartment management & reservation software? here are useful tips on how to find the right solution and why QuickBooks accounting software is the best.

A serviced apartment business is one that is fully furnished and available for short or long term stay – it’s slightly different from a hotel; in addition to the similar services offered by hotels and guest houses; amenities like TV, bathroom, bedroom, you have a kitchen to cook your meal if you like. It’s actually a great choice for business travellers who are staying for a longer time and are looking for a home away from home.

For startups running a serviced apartment business and are interested in automating their business and accounting system while focusing on growth and sustainability of their business, this guide will help you understand how implementing an accounting software will drive efficiency and improve productivity. You may also refer to my previous article on accounting software for hotels in Nigeria; it contains similar deliverables just that I will be expanding the idea by discussing steps to track the performance of serviced apartment.

In setting up an accounting software for your serviced apartment, you need to ask certain questions before deciding on the best financial application to deploy:

Continue reading “How Serviced Apartment Owners Can Use QuickBooks To Manage Cashflow”

How I setup QuickBooks for Bureau De Change – Learn the simple way to deploy financial software solution for currency exchangers on the cloud or desktop!

What makes a great financial software consultant is not the excellent knowledge of accounting and finance, but the exceptional skills in understanding clients’ IT needs and customizing an existing low-cost off the shelf software that will deliver the right solution. This is the reason BigResources Solutions is the leading accounting software partner in Nigeria – we have deployed more QuickBooks compared to other accounting software.

QuickBooks is not only simple to use, it is flexible in building a custom chart of accounts, tweaking certain account types and redesigning windows. Also, seeing the result of your customization instantly makes it one of the best accounting software used in Nigeria.  One sector where we have demonstrated a high level of competence in QuickBooks customization is in financial service – currency exchange business popularly known as a bureau de change.

Although I have initially posted a general article on accounting software for bureau de change, this review is more detailed as I will be using what implementing QuickBooks for a local bureau de change in Lagos was like, to help you get yours right.

Bureau de change, even though they are into foreign currency transaction, should be treated like a retail based business in other to get your accounting software setup right. This is based on the premise that they buy products too (currencies), and resell to customers. But, if you do not follow the steps outlined here, you might not only end up generating wrong financial report but also experience multiple problems caused by dual accounts that mimic your bank and inventory account respectively where in actual sense, what you have in your domiciliary account (which is where you sell currencies), should be the same as your stock balance (currency on hand).

So in your statement of financial position (balance sheet), you are expected to treat your bank balance as currency stock on hand.

Setting up QuickBooks for BDCs:

• To load all currencies (USD, EUR or Pounds), create an item for each of these foreign currencies, enter quantity on hand (or at bank) and map it to “their individual bank account under asset account”; this is the field that merges the stock and bank account feature in one account head.  The advantage of following this tip is that when you buy more currencies, your bank balances will increase and the quantity on hand will as well increase by units added. Also, when you sell via bank transfer to SMEs or individual customers, your bank balance is debited and stock on hand falls by the same sales value.
• Talking about buying and selling more currencies, I activated exchange rate (used Naira as the home currency) and added normal current account (Naira) and domiciliary accounts (USD, EURO & GBP); this makes it easy for clients to buy currencies from CBN or other BDCs, using the Naira account at official or parallel market rates, into their domiciliary accounts. On sales, the invoice and receipts are there to track credit and cash transactions.
• On inventory report, you can always refer to different reports; stock valuation (currency on hand and their value), stock activities (transaction details of each foreign currency), physical stock count (to check what you have in the bank and the value reported in QuickBooks for reconciliation purposes).
• Adding to sales, you can view account receivables and transaction history of your top customers.
• Also note that you need to update your rate for USD, EURO, GBP manually as exchange rate fluctuates. This gives rise to exchange rate gain/loss or unrealised gain or loss.
• The banking features in QuickBooks let you transfer fund between accounts and also reconcile bank statements.

Finally, the overall report section shows the actual profit or loss position of your bureau de change with trend analysis.

While these will help you get started, faster and in the right way, you can also contact us if you have questions or want us to implement QuickBooks for your BDC.

Send a mail to info@accountingsoftware.com.ng or call 08105090001

Recent search terms:

• domiciliary account reconciliation (2)
• accounting for Bureau De Change (1)

Wakanow.com Travels is one of the fastest growing travel agency in Nigeria. As at when I updated this post, the company had just announced their official presence in Kenya and the UK, a move it embarked on to provide exceptional local travel packages to her growing customers in these countries. 

Wakanow started 8 years and has since grown to become a successful travel and tour startup in Africa. The company’s travel and booking platform are connected to Amadeus – the world’s biggest internal and local reservation system. 

Wakanow offers GDS and non-GDS booking services; you can book travel via the company’s website directly from Amadeus and pay using a debit or credit card or walk into Wakanow travel centres to make a booking and pay cash.

Before the news about Kenya and the UK office opening, the company’s management approached my former company for QuickBooks with a detailed request on what their expectations were.

Continue reading “How I Implemented QuickBooks Desktop On The Cloud (WakaNow Travels)”

Learn more from our implementation experience in the oil and gas sector; a simple guide to deploying accounting software for petroleum companies.

This article is an expanded review of a previous post on accounting software for a petrol station. Following our implementation of QuickBooks accounting software in an oil and gas company, we will be adding more details and what you should know about setting up QuickBooks in the Oil and Gas sector.

Ordinarily, you may think that such oil and gas implementation job requires a bespoke or customised software designed specifically for the oil industry but that’s not the case. We have been using QuickBooks to help our clients organise their books and improve their accounting system for over 4 years, so, it’s quite flexible for us to find a way around to make oil & gas set easy.

Customising QuickBooks for an industry like this is not new, we have successfully implemented this software in a more complex environment like micro-credit and financing, manufacturing and real estate.

Continue reading “How We Deployed QuickBooks In An Oil & Gas Company”

Recent search terms:

• oil and gas accounting systems - small business (3)
• accounting in petroleum company (1)
• accounting software for oil depreciation (1)
• oil and gas company (1)
• which accounting package foes petroleum use (1)

This article contains tips on how to implement an accounting software for fitness centres or gym equipment management business.

Fitness is an evergreen business niche that attracts low, middle or high-income customers every day; a growth that is not unconnected to the need to live healthier, longer by burning fats and eating the right diet.

I have a client in this niche whose sales trend is upwardly growing by 40-50% annually, with no sign of slowing down, people walk in to buy a treadmill, sit-up, the bench, dumbbells, stationary bike, and so on. While some of these customers make cash purchases for personal or family use, others request in bulk for their new or emerging fitness business centre. As more money flows into the fitness industry, there is an urgent need for accountants, CFOs and business owners managing gym centres to accurately account for every penny that comes in and flow so that they can easily measure growth in real time; income, expenses, profit or loss, top customers, etc.

Continue reading “Implementing Accounting Software For Your Fitness Centre”

Recent search terms:

• accounting software for fitness (1)
• accounting software for gym industry (1)

As a business owner or finance office in charge of managing finance for a  bottled or sachet water company (pure-water), key areas you may be interesting in more than anything are how to accurately track sachet water productions, quantity produced, the number of bags distributed to customers or resellers, amount returned and the cash collected by salesmen on a daily basis.

Sachet water business, at times, can be frustrating if you don’t have an effective accounting system that will monitor cash flows, expenses and report the actual stock movements – you may even lose more than you are gaining, especially when your staff are not trustworthy.

In implementing an accounting software for your sachet water company, here is a brief demo on how we can customise QuickBooks Premier for your business: we choose Premier because it comes with a manufacturing feature; a built-in function that assembles your raw materials into finished product – so if you had bought nylon, paid for factory materials or dug a borehole that supplies water, the software can accurately monitor all cost incurred as bill of materials – which is the cost of production.

For companies that have multiple warehouses or store in which stocks are transferred from the main production unit to other stores where salesmen can pick them up for distribution, QuickBooks Enterprise is highly recommended.

How QuickBooks can work for a sachet water business:

• QuickBooks has an inventory feature that lets you set-up all factory materials needed to produce bags of sachet water including cost incurred, quantity produced and available for sale units.
• You can run transfer to track all stock distributions to various outlets or locations by inputting “quantity transferred to or fro” at cost price.
• For sales, you can use the sales receipt to track all bags sold for the day and amount collected which should automatically reduce the quantity on hand at the specific selling location.
• All cost incurred on selling and distributions can also be recorded as cost of sales to ascertain the actual profit on sales.
• Salaries and wages paid to salesmen, including office expenses can also be recorded.
• QuickBooks banking window lets you track your bank accounts, cash transfers, cheque payments, charges and reconcile differences between the bank statement and cash book balances at the end of the month.
• For payroll, you can track all bonus, deductions and PAYEE using journal entries.
• QuickBooks also has a reporting window that reveals the actual position and trend of your business on a real time – profit or loss, statement of financial position, cash flow, sales, expenses and more.

For inquiries on how we can set you up with QuickBooks or for further questions on areas you want us to address, contact us on 08105090001, 08084219399 or mail info@accountingsoftware.com.ng

Recent search terms:

• the role of an accountant in a water factory (2)
• financial statement of bottle water production (2)
• how to manage pure water company (2)
• A nice table to record a sachet water factory (1)
• stock taking of sachet water (1)
• sachet water company account (1)
• Record book that are kept by an accountant in a sachet water company (1)
• how to take opening stock in a sachet water company (1)
• how to produce sachet water sales and expenses book (1)
• How to prepare a table water business account (1)
• how do one prepare a cashbook accounts in a pure water factory (1)
• finance/cashflow/financial asistance of bottled /pure water production (1)
• Accounting Records used in pure water company (1)
• accounting records for bottle water company (1)
• what accounts to be kept in a pure water factory (1)

Private equity firms are private finance firms that invest in high-growth and profitable businesses – They mobilize fund from selected individual or corporate bodies, buy equity shares in small – medium firms ranging from 5% to 20% with the purpose of enjoying steady return on investment for a certain period or selling their investment at a premium.

This article is not about private equity firms but shares useful tips on how a typical accounting software customised for private equity firms should work – using QuickBooks

Investment in shares

In QuickBooks, you can create all the existing equity holding of a firm as an asset (Investment) and add their current value of the shares as an opening balance.

Here is a sample snapshot of how your equity holding:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can also effect changes in the value of your equity holding on a monthly or annual basis and track unrealised profit or loss via “General Journal Entry”

Sales of Equity Shares

On the sale of equity share in a company, QuickBooks can also track the value of transactions (part or outright disposal) and record cash received (direct credit or cash). You can do this via the “General Journal Entry Window”

Finally, dividend earned which could be reinvested or received as cash is not left out – You can use the “General Journal Entry Window” to treat the transaction.

For more guide, read tips on accounting treatment for trading stock here.

If you have questions or need us to present a demo on how QuickBooks can work for your private equity firm or hedge fund, contact us on 0810-509-0001, 0808-421-9399 or send a demo request to info@accountingsoftware.com.ng

Recent search terms:

• Accounting software for private equity (1)

Courier companies are serviced based businesses that help clients or customers deliver parcels, documents or goods to different locations. A good example of a courier company in Nigeria is FEDEX, one of the world’s leading logistics companies serving million of individuals and corporate customers.

In this guide, I will be sharing tips on how accounting software can simply automate your business processes and make daily tasks effective:

• You have a customer dashboard designed to manage your client’s information and show their transaction history. If you maintain an individual account that tracks all transactions – payments and invoices – specific to each client, an accounting software will accurately reveal the current status of your customers – receivables, recent payments, the latest invoice issued and cumulative transaction value.

Continue reading “Accounting Software For Courier Company”

Our QuickBooks Accounting software, which comes with genuine licenses, product numbers and validation code, lets you run your business efficiently. You can opt for the one-off desktop version or subscribe to the online version depending on your needs.

While the desktop version is installed on your computer system, you can as well have it on multi-user platforms where we will network your laptop PCs to a central server or selected administrator system. The Cloud version is managed by QuickBooks which gives you seamless and unrestricted access to your data file, even from your mobile or tablet via QuickBooks mobile app.

To help you understand the desktop version better, here are the different QuickBooks desktop software and their features.

QuickBooks Desktop Accounting Software for Small Businesses In Nigeria

1 – QuickBooks Pro

QuickBooks Pro helps small & mid-sized businesses to manage inventory purchases and sales through purchase orders. The maximum current users allowable on QuickBooks Pro is 3.

These tools are there to make your life easier and give you control over your accounts.

• Lead Centre:
  Enter follow-up notes for sales lead and contacts that can be converted to customers.
• QuickBooks Calendar
  · View daily/weekly and monthly reminders/to-do notes and transaction that is due.
  · Easily print your calendar for staff meetings.
• Customers/Payment/Company snapshots
  · Customise your own dashboard to view important customer information, overdue payments and general company performance.
• Customer collection centre
  · Take control of overdue invoices by making use of the new collection Centre
  · Select and email overdue invoices in batches with the click of a button.
• Report Centre
  · Tag your favourites report for future use and run them at ease with the options to export to Excel or PDF.
• Customer and supplier Centre
  · View customer balances and transactions at a glance for all customers or suppliers.
  Reconciling your VAT, performing bank reconciliation and balancing your books are simple with QuickBooks Pro.

Don’t know the right software for your business, you can contact us for support and advice

For pricing plan, installation, set-up and training, call these lines: 0810-509-0001, 08084219399 – send a mail to info@accountingsoftware.com.ng

Continue reading “Understanding QuickBooks Software & the Right Version for your Business”