Two weeks ago, we received an invite from one of the reputable Transport and Haulage Companies in Nigeria. This company is a group with three (3) subsidiaries: one is a spare part importation and engineering department, the other provides transport services while the third provides logistics services to FMCGs.
The three (3) departments use QuickBooks Enterprise to manage and track cash flow on a daily basis. However, there are some challenges: improper posting of transactions that resulted in several imbalances, and wrong ending figures in the books of account.
In resolving this, we conducted a full review of their QuickBooks entries and discovered that despite the fact they have been using the software for more than 5 years, their transactions were not treated the way they ought to be treated in the accounting software. This, coupled with similar challenges from clients in other industries, led us to conclude that a lot of QuickBooks users in Nigeria are neither exploring nor maximizing the full potentials of the software. We have reviewed QuickBooks Chart of Account, from real estate to hospitality, oil and gas sector, manufacturing, retail, credit company, etc., and we found out that there were irregularities in the Books of Account.
What we found in their books of account:
Upon review of the company’s QuickBooks accounting software, we discovered the following irregularities on the file that manages the transport service section:
- Wrong Set-up of the branches and the buses under management.
- The sales of tickets and branch expenses were wrongly treated.
- Cash deposit by various branches cashier into the bank was wrongly treated.
- Bank balances were in red, indicating that such accounts were overdrawn.
- Cash deposit on tickets sold for the day was not sent or attached to the sales receipt for validation.
- The Class list did not represent branches and as such, profits or losses by branch report were not available.
- Reconciliation of the bank statement will not be easy if “write check” window is used for the cash deposit.
- The customer balances’ did not reflect the actual position of the company
We also reviewed the QuickBooks Enterprise software for the logistics department and discovered the following irregularities:
- The customer centre did not represent the expected data. Some of the balances were negative which was as a result of postings on the payment window with no corresponding invoices.
- Some of the vendors had a credit balance; an advance payment with no corresponding bills or invoice.
- Some expenses were wrongly classified as vendor.
- Staff loans were wrongly classified as customers’ receivables.
- There were duplicates in the account receivables.
- Withholding tax account was wrongly classified as an account receivable.
- Bank Loan was not treated as a current liability.
- Chairman’s current account was not properly classified under the Chart of Account.
As a business owner, you will agree that these are significant issues that could affect the authenticity of the financial report generated by the software, hence we recommend the following:
- Close your book for a particular period.
- Review the Chart of Accounts and re-classify account names to the appropriate account types.
- Train all the account staff in charge of QuickBooks entries
- Do a monthly review of your QuickBooks transactions and ensure that bank balances are reconciled.
All these challenges would have been avoided if they had invited a QuickBooks professional to implement and set up their Chart of Accounts when they installed the software.
Before you set up QuickBooks for your business, as a professional consultant, I will require you to make the following details available for proper implementation:
- Describe your line of business in other to design a customized Chart of Account, this will ensure that accurate financial reports and cash flow statements are generated.
- List of your clients/customers and their respective account receivable balances.
- List of your vendors and their account payable balances.
- List of your banks and their respective balances, (if you have a foreign account, please indicate).
- List of services rendered and products supplied/quantity on hand and cost price.
- List of fixed assets and their balances.
- VAT and Withholding tax payable.
You would be required to tender some of these informations during QuickBooks installations. If you are currently reading this and your bank statement balances do not correspond with your actual bank balances on a monthly basis, then you need a professional QuickBooks support partner!
Feel free to connect with us at info@accountingsoftware.com.ng, bigresourcesolutions@gmail.com or call us at 08105090001, 08084219399.