QuickBooks® 2010 For Dummies®

Chapter 19. (Almost) Ten Tips for Business Owners

In This Chapter

• Supply your own signature

• Don't sign a check with a scrawl

• Look over canceled checks before your bookkeeper does

• Select a QuickBooks bookkeeper

• Understand that cash-basis accounting doesn't work for all businesses

• Know what to do if QuickBooks doesn't work for your business

• Keep things simple

If you run a business and you use QuickBooks, you need to know the information in this chapter. You can get this information by sitting down with your certified public accountant (CPA) over a cup of coffee at $200 per hour. Or, you can read this chapter.

Sign All Your Own Checks

I have nothing against your bookkeeper. In a small business, however, people — especially full-charge bookkeepers — can bamboozle you too darn easily. By signing all the checks yourself, you keep your fingers on the pulse of your cash outflow.

Yeah, I know this practice can be a hassle. I know that you can't easily spend three months in Hawaii. I know that you have to wade through paperwork every time you sign a stack of checks.

Tip

By the way, if you're in a partnership, I think that you should have at least a couple of the partners co-sign checks.

Don't Sign a Check the Wrong Way

If you sign many checks, you may be tempted to use a John Hancock–like signature. Although scrawling your name illegibly makes great sense when you're autographing baseballs, don't do it when you're signing checks. A clear signature, especially one with a sense of personal style, is distinctive. ...