Looking forward to meeting you all in Zoom! If you have specific questions that you would love for me to include, post here or send me a message!

Hi Sharon- Do you plan to do more of these this year?  We’re new to the community so searching for training to help with Skimmer and QBO.  

Thanks,

Alysia

Hi Alysia! We don’t have any live workshops scheduled at this time, but I’m happy to help. I have several videos in the Pool Deck along with an online course available for folks using Skimmer and need help with QuickBooks, etc. More information at poolservicequickbooks.com

Let me know if I can answer any questions.

Thank you Sharon! We are seeing invoice numbers change as they flow from Skimmer to QBO….is that ‘normal’ or is there a setting or fix we can do?  It’s making reconciliation between Skimmer and QBO challenging but I didn’t know if we just didn’t have it set up correctly and/or if there was a fix or are least a report that would show the mapping of before and after invoice numbers?

Hi Alysia, you’re correct, the invoice numbers in Skimmer and in QBO do not match, but you can easily reconcile by using the method shown in the video. Hope that helps! 

Thanks Sharon- Is there a best-known method to reconciling all payment types, not just checks?  Or is this the best process for all?  I was hoping to be able to reconcile (at a total level) that all paid invoices, regardless of payment type, matched between Skimmer and QBO to ensure the sync captured all paid invoices in QBO. 

The short answer is, no, you won’t be able to reconcile all paid invoices in a “total level,” and for good reason. The online payments in Skimmer are actually going through the payment processor, Stripe. Instead of paying a monthly fee to use the payment processor, fees are only deducted when used. Therefore, you’ll receive online payments (credit card and ACH) via “batches” with the processing fees deducted.

Simple Example : $100 paid invoice - $3.00 payment processing fee = $97 deposited into your bank (not based on actual processing fee calculation)

Therefore, you will want to reconcile online payments per batch using the Billing Payments reports in Skimmer and the QuickBooks Bank Deposits.

Here’s more detail on reconciling online payments when sending invoices from Skimmer:

IMPORTANT - Check your Skimmer QuickBooks Online Integration Settings.

This is an example of manually reconciling Skimmer Online Payments in QuickBooks (useful if there’s a tech glitch or syncing error). It also explains how the automation process works:

Here’s my recommendation for best practices in reconciling payments in QuickBooks Online:

1. Mobile deposits reconciled independently (as shown in the video above)
2. Physical checks/cash deposited in a bank by physically going to the bank: use the QBO Bank Deposit to record and print to take with the set of checks depositing physically in the bank.
3. Online payments received in Skimmer - per batch as shown in the videos below:

Does that help? Make sense?

Thank you Sharon! We’re working through the instructions you provided for reconciliations, thank you so much. 

Another question- Since invoices only flow to QBO once paid, if we are paying sales tax on an accrual basis, do we need to run both a QBO and Skimmer accrual sales tax report and add them together? Note we do have some sales that occur directly in QBO and never go through Skimmer.  And if we do, will the sales tax be double counted once the invoice is paid and now flows to QBO? We want to make sure we aren’t double counting/double paying as things flow between the systems.   

Re: Another question- Since invoices only flow to QBO once paid, if we are paying sales tax on an accrual basis, do we need to run both a QBO and Skimmer accrual sales tax report and add them together? Note we do have some sales that occur directly in QBO and never go through Skimmer.  And if we do, will the sales tax be double counted once the invoice is paid and now flows to QBO? We want to make sure we aren’t double counting/double paying as things flow between the systems.  

This is a great question! I’m answering this cautiously without seeing your QuickBooks settings, so please take this as “food for thought” and not a definite answer. 

1. Use your Skimmer Sales Tax Summary for calculating your sales tax report since unpaid invoices are not synced in your Quickbooks account.
2. In QuickBooks, do you have your sales tax center activated?

• If no, record sales tax in QuickBooks with a sales tax account that you created in QuickBooks (not an automated one created by QuickBooks via the sales tax center)
• If yes, QuickBooks creates a sales tax liability account on your behalf and you’ll need to record your sales tax payments in the sales tax center of QBO, most likely with adjustments. 

Sales Tax Center location in QBO - what it looks like when NOT activated:

Based on the fact that you said you do have some sales that occur directly in QBO, I have a feeling that your sales tax center is activated. I would do a manual calculation between the two systems to see what you should be paying. Once the paid invoices sync into QBO, I do believe QBO will calculate the sales tax again on the paid invoices that you already paid sales tax on unpaid invoices calculated in Skimmer prior to payment. Ugg. This is the messy part and not a perfect fix in QBO. 

Sales Tax Center location in QBO - what it looks like when it IS activated:

I would take a look at the sales tax liability report created by Skimmer, export as a spreadsheet for easier data sorting/calculation to see what is really happening and make the necessary adjustment in the sales tax center each month. 

WHERE to make needed adjustments to your sales tax liability report. (A typical journal entry will not work due to the QBO “gated” settings.)

Not sure that helped, but again, due to the automations in QuickBooks, this is not a rock solid answer without actually seeing your QuickBooks and what you have activated, etc.