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Greetings!

I specialize in setting up QuickBooks for pool service business owners and bookkeepers to track financial transactions and provide the reports needed to make informed business decisions. In The Pool Deck, I’ll share information to help you learn new tips and tricks for running your business more efficiently with your software.

I am going to start my first post with one of the most frequently asked questions I get from clients - “If I’m using Skimmer, do I even need QuickBooks?” The answer is YES! This question is typically asked due to frustration with using QuickBooks. They gave up trying to use it or ended up spending more money than expected to have someone else clean it up. If this sounds familiar, here are a few reasons why it’s worth taking another look.

 

So, why do you need QuickBooks? 

 

The answer is simple. It’s the easiest way to know the true financial health of your business. Yes, you can still send invoices from Skimmer (and should) and see the cost of your chemicals and repair parts, but that is only one part of your business. You need a way to track the following to see the full picture:

  • Pool Cleaning Service profit and loss
  • Pool Repair Service profit and loss
  • Bills and bill payments to suppliers of chemicals and parts used in servicing pools
  • Credit card business expenses and payments
  • Reconciled bank accounts and credit card accounts
  • Current value of fixed assets, such as, pool service trucks, office space, etc.
  • Depreciation
  • Loans and loan payments (principal and interest)
  • Owner distributions and contributions
  • Any other customized report that is specific to your business

 

Do you plan to die with your business? 

 

I don’t mean to sound morbid, but most likely, you started or purchased your business with the intention of being profitable and selling it in the future. Having gone through the business purchasing and selling process a few times, I can tell you that when a business is listed with a broker, the only information that a potential buyer can see is your balance sheet and your profit and loss financial reports. If you have not been keeping your QuickBooks updated throughout time, you will have a costly mess to clean up in order to list your business. Why not set up your QuickBooks with reports a potential buyer would want to see now and keep it updated throughout the year?

Here’s an example of a few of the reports a potential buyer wants to see:

  • Comparison of pool cleaning service vs pool repair service profit and loss
  • Chemical sales and cost of chemicals sold
  • Owner “add backs” - any expenses that an owner ran through the business that were not needed for the business
  • Balance Sheet
  • Profit and Loss

Bonus, they are the exact reports YOU need to make informed business decisions today.

Is it possible to set up your QuickBooks to do all of the above without spending endless hours of updates? Yes!  Depending on the size of your business, the answer will vary, but you can definitely streamline the process of updating transactions with automation to save time and avoid the need for a full-time bookkeeper.

I hope this was helpful to get us started on the topic, and I look forward to connecting with our community!

 

Let me know below what topics you’d like me to cover in my upcoming posts👇

 

 

We have been confused as to where to record the money received from a loan, but also the monthly loan payments.  The loan proceeds are not revenue, and it seems that the loan payments should be recorded as an expense.  I haven’t seen a clear explanation of this in Quickbooks.  Thoughts?

Hi Dandec.

Happy to help. 

How to record loans can be confusing. I think your question pertains to a loan that you gave to someone else, but just to make sure I understand the question correctly, are you asking a question about:

  1. a loan in which someone borrowed money from you and you are receiving monthly loan payments, or
  2. a loan in which you borrowed money and you are making monthly loan payments 
  3. both

 

Sharon

Mainly the situation in item 2, I borrowed money, and am now have monthly payments that I pay out. 

Hey Dandec, So sorry for the delayed reply! 

Happy to help. This takes just a bit of set up but worth doing so. This is the way that I document loan payments.

I think this will be easier to explain by video: 

After watching the video, let me know if that didn’t make sense or you have additional questions.

Loan Accounts needed in QuickBooks (screenshots below)

  1. Loan Name - Account type is “Long Term Liabilities” - Detail type is “Other Long Term Liabilities”
  2. Loan Interest Paid Name - Account type is “Expense” - Detail type is “Interest Paid”
Example of Loan Account - Long Term Liabilities - Other Long Term Liabilities
Example of Loan Interest Paid Account

Just google Loan Calculator and put in your loan information to see the principal and interest allocations per payment. Here’s an example: https://www.calculator.net/loan-calculator.html

Each time you make a payment, check your payment schedule to correctly allocate how much of the payment goes toward principal and how much goes toward interest paid. 

 

Make sense?

 

Greetings!

I specialize in setting up QuickBooks for pool service business owners and bookkeepers to track financial transactions and provide the reports needed to make informed business decisions. In The Pool Deck, I’ll share information to help you learn new tips and tricks for running your business more efficiently with your software.

I am going to start my first post with one of the most frequently asked questions I get from clients - “If I’m using Skimmer, do I even need QuickBooks?” The answer is YES! This question is typically asked due to frustration with using QuickBooks. They gave up trying to use it or ended up spending more money than expected to have someone else clean it up. If this sounds familiar, here are a few reasons why it’s worth taking another look.

 

So, why do you need QuickBooks? 

 

The answer is simple. It’s the easiest way to know the true financial health of your business. Yes, you can still send invoices from Skimmer (and should) and see the cost of your chemicals and repair parts, but that is only one part of your business. You need a way to track the following to see the full picture:

  • Pool Cleaning Service profit and loss
  • Pool Repair Service profit and loss
  • Bills and bill payments to suppliers of chemicals and parts used in servicing pools
  • Credit card business expenses and payments
  • Reconciled bank accounts and credit card accounts
  • Current value of fixed assets, such as, pool service trucks, office space, etc.
  • Depreciation
  • Loans and loan payments (principal and interest)
  • Owner distributions and contributions
  • Any other customized report that is specific to your business

 

Do you plan to die with your business? 

 

I don’t mean to sound morbid, but most likely, you started or purchased your business with the intention of being profitable and selling it in the future. Having gone through the business purchasing and selling process a few times, I can tell you that when a business is listed with a broker, the only information that a potential buyer can see is your balance sheet and your profit and loss financial reports. If you have not been keeping your QuickBooks updated throughout time, you will have a costly mess to clean up in order to list your business. Why not set up your QuickBooks with reports a potential buyer would want to see now and keep it updated throughout the year?

Here’s an example of a few of the reports a potential buyer wants to see:

  • Comparison of pool cleaning service vs pool repair service profit and loss
  • Chemical sales and cost of chemicals sold
  • Owner “add backs” - any expenses that an owner ran through the business that were not needed for the business
  • Balance Sheet
  • Profit and Loss

Bonus, they are the exact reports YOU need to make informed business decisions today.

Is it possible to set up your QuickBooks to do all of the above without spending endless hours of updates? Yes!  Depending on the size of your business, the answer will vary, but you can definitely streamline the process of updating transactions with automation to save time and avoid the need for a full-time bookkeeper.

I hope this was helpful to get us started on the topic, and I look forward to connecting with our community!

 

Let me know below what topics you’d like me to cover in my upcoming posts👇

 

 

Good info!! Thank you 
When using quickbooks payments is there a way you could charge some customers a convenience fee? I am not planning to absorb the cost for accepting credit card payments. I mainly use venom, zelle or cash app but planning to get credit cards because of convenience 

Hi Josue! 

In response to Good info!! Thank you 
When using quickbooks payments is there a way you could charge some customers a convenience fee? I am not planning to absorb the cost for accepting credit card payments. I mainly use venom, zelle or cash app but planning to get credit cards because of convenience 

 

I assume by your question that you are currently sending invoices from QuickBooks (not Skimmer) with the option to pay online. If I assumed correctly, here’s the information that I know: 

 

  1. In order to charge a convenience fee to the customers who elect to pay by credit card or ACH, you would need to clarify the messaging before they submit payment, and make sure that it is legal to do so in your state. (https://www.lendingtree.com/credit-cards/articles/surcharges-and-convenience-fees/, https://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/can-a-business-charge-for-using-credit-card/#charge) 
  2. Once you understand the legality for you location, and the messaging required, etc., then the question is in function, can you charge some customers a convenience fee. The answer is, yes, but it will require manual entry. You will need to add a separate line item/service for the convenience fee on the invoice if the customer shares that they prefer to pay by credit card and agree to the convenience fee. 
  3. If you have a conversation with a customer who request to always pay with a credit card, you could set up a recurring invoice with the line item already included and make a manual adjustment to the rate, chemicals, fee, as needed. 
  4. I realize that this was not your questions, but, the easiest solution is to use Skimmer’s invoicing system and increase your prices so that if a customer chooses to pay by credit card, the net payout with the deducted processing fee is not an issue for your business’s bottom line. Using the Skimmer invoicing allows for automated invoices generated in Skimmer and auto charged credit cards with the customers permission.

I understand the desire to not lose out on processing fee money, but the amount of manual labor that is eliminated can quickly more than make up for the processing fees. For example, once we switched to automatically generated invoicing with auto charged credit cards on file, invoicing went from 8-12 hours to 30 minutes. In addition, chasing down payments is eliminated with the exception of declined cards. 

Hope that helps. 

Good info!! Thank you 
When using quickbooks payments is there a way you could charge some customers a convenience fee? I am not planning to absorb the cost for accepting credit card payments. I mainly use venom, zelle or cash app but planning to get credit cards because of convenience 

We considered doing this, but personally, I'm not a fan because I prefer the benefits of earning points from a credit card. On the business side, we simply factored the cost into our rates.

When we started, we conducted a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis of our competition and pinpointed areas where we could excel. One thing that stood out was the ability to accept credit cards, which added legitimacy and helped us improve cash flow as we no longer required customers to mail checks or download apps to make payments. 

Hi Josue! 

In response to Good info!! Thank you 
When using quickbooks payments is there a way you could charge some customers a convenience fee? I am not planning to absorb the cost for accepting credit card payments. I mainly use venom, zelle or cash app but planning to get credit cards because of convenience 

 

I assume by your question that you are currently sending invoices from QuickBooks (not Skimmer) with the option to pay online. If I assumed correctly, here’s the information that I know: 

 

  1. In order to charge a convenience fee to the customers who elect to pay by credit card or ACH, you would need to clarify the messaging before they submit payment, and make sure that it is legal to do so in your state. (https://www.lendingtree.com/credit-cards/articles/surcharges-and-convenience-fees/, https://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/can-a-business-charge-for-using-credit-card/#charge) 
  2. Once you understand the legality for you location, and the messaging required, etc., then the question is in function, can you charge some customers a convenience fee. The answer is, yes, but it will require manual entry. You will need to add a separate line item/service for the convenience fee on the invoice if the customer shares that they prefer to pay by credit card and agree to the convenience fee. 
  3. If you have a conversation with a customer who request to always pay with a credit card, you could set up a recurring invoice with the line item already included and make a manual adjustment to the rate, chemicals, fee, as needed. 
  4. I realize that this was not your questions, but, the easiest solution is to use Skimmer’s invoicing system and increase your prices so that if a customer chooses to pay by credit card, the net payout with the deducted processing fee is not an issue for your business’s bottom line. Using the Skimmer invoicing allows for automated invoices generated in Skimmer and auto charged credit cards with the customers permission.

I understand the desire to not lose out on processing fee money, but the amount of manual labor that is eliminated can quickly more than make up for the processing fees. For example, once we switched to automatically generated invoicing with auto charged credit cards on file, invoicing went from 8-12 hours to 30 minutes. In addition, chasing down payments is eliminated with the exception of declined cards. 

Hope that helps. 

Thank you for your help! That is really helpful. 

Good info!! Thank you 
When using quickbooks payments is there a way you could charge some customers a convenience fee? I am not planning to absorb the cost for accepting credit card payments. I mainly use venom, zelle or cash app but planning to get credit cards because of convenience 

We considered doing this, but personally, I'm not a fan because I prefer the benefits of earning points from a credit card. On the business side, we simply factored the cost into our rates.

When we started, we conducted a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis of our competition and pinpointed areas where we could excel. One thing that stood out was the ability to accept credit cards, which added legitimacy and helped us improve cash flow as we no longer required customers to mail checks or download apps to make payments. 

That's a good strategy and a good point. Thank you so much! 

Thank you for supplying this information! It is very helpful!! I am new to this side of business and nervous to make a mistake! You are appreciated!!

You’re very welcome! Thanks for taking the time add a note! Much appreciated.

Hi @sharonburch ,

Like many others, we had Quickbooks online first, and Skimmer next. We invoiced and processed payments with Quickbooks and now getting Skimmer set up. This line really caught my attention:

“Yes, you can still send invoices from Skimmer (and should) and see the cost of your chemicals and repair parts, but that is only one part of your business.” 

 

From what I understand, the processing fee by Stripe is a little more than Quickbooks, but what I’m gathering is that the workflow to invoice and process payments out of Skimmer is where the value is realized and I’d love your confirmation in that.

We’re doing monthly billing + chems. And if both Skimmer and Quickbooks can do auto-invoicing and auto-charging, is there any benefit from keeping the automated process in Skimmer? I guess I’m wondering if we generate an invoice in Skimmer monthly that adds chem costs, can this be synced over to Quickbooks to grab and then send to customer? Or is there a gap that I’m unaware of and this is all much more cohesive if the invoicing and payments happen in Skimmer?

Hi @rhett hartsfield, Happy to share my two cents. 

 

We’re doing monthly billing + chems. And if both Skimmer and Quickbooks can do auto-invoicing and auto-charging, is there any benefit from keeping the automated process in Skimmer? I guess I’m wondering if we generate an invoice in Skimmer monthly that adds chem costs, can this be synced over to Quickbooks to grab and then send to customer? Or is there a gap that I’m unaware of and this is all much more cohesive if the invoicing and payments happen in Skimmer?

 

The short answer is, no, you’re not able to create an invoice in Skimmer and then send it from QuickBooks. Skimmer invoices don’t sync to QuickBooks until they are paid or marked paid in Skimmer. https://help.getskimmer.com/article/181-quickbooks-online-syncing-your-data

Now we’ll save and send this invoice to the customer. At this point, Skimmer is not sending anything over to QBO. Why? Because it only syncs payments and paid invoices. Right now, this invoice has been generated and sent to the customer, but the customer has not submitted payment yet. So this information will stay in Skimmer Billing until they do so.

In Invoices, we’ll find that invoice and record a submitted payment. Now that a payment has been recorded, will this be synced over to QBO. Yes, instantly.

 

The good news, is that sending invoices from Skimmer and online payments in Skimmer works really well. With the automated payout integration, reconciliation is done for you, making it easy to match payouts in the bank feed with the bank deposit. 

 

I feel like the real perks are beyond just invoicing. Customers love the automated emails and texts in Skimmer that keep them in the communication loop without taking extra time on you and your staff once they are set up. 

Hope that helps!

Thanks so much for clarifying how the invoice invoice sync works! That makes sense and looking forward to diving in.  

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