USA Quicken and general accounting Help

[SarahBlossom]

Hey guys,
I'm gonna be honest and I hope you'll be ok with me for asking this, but I am really new to accounting and Quicken, although I am somewhat familiar with the programs older version (2005, haha)

My grandpa has a small business and he has asked me to help organize his accounts. He did it all by hand and saved receipts etc up until now. He's got Quicken Home and Business 2015, btw.
He employs 4-5 gentlemen, and has maybe 20 or 30 regular customers for his business (lawn and gardening).
He's got seperate folders for his expenses and salaries for this year and a massive folder of invoices where he's gotten paid.
He's also his list of customers and their payment plans (some that hired him for the whole year).

I am just not sure exactly where to start or how to start in Quicken to add all this up for him. Like I mentioned, I am really new to all this and just want to help him out.

He would like to have it set up so that he can watch the income and spending, keep track of his salaries and so on. All within the company. Would it be a good idea to keep a separate file for his utilities and things like groceries, btw?

I realize this might be a broad question but I really just need advice on how to get going. I'm pretty good with computers so once I got it down I could show him.
I'm sorry...I've started watching some videos on youtube but not really getting anywhere so far.

Thanks for any advice,
Sarah.

 

[smallbushelp]

Hi Sarah,

You really need to learn how to use the software first before you can even begin to enter data. The best way to do that may be to hire an accountant who is familiar enough with Quicken to teach you how to use it and also to help you set up the proper accounts for the business. An accountant can also make sure that your grandpa is paying his employees correctly and filing the right payroll tax forms, and keeping his personal spending separate from his business spending. Yes, it will cost some money but it will be well worth it in the long run - better to pay a professional now than the IRS later. Contact me if I can be of service.

 

[SarahBlossom]

That's good advice, thanks.

 

[bradgilliatt]

H

That's good advice, thanks.

Hello: you actually should know basic accounting first so you bin the transactions to the right accounts as your data entry will determine taxable income. Seeing as this is a very smallbusiness he would be just fine paying bills out of the company profit, you would just need to classify it as a nondeductible draw (it sounds complicated but its just an account number that will be mapped to not be deductible) and not deduct it from business income. Look at it very basic, income is what is customers pay him and expenses are the money he pays to generate that income (gas, equipment, vehicle, wages, business insurance, etx) ....the difference between the two is the profit (what he gets taxed on)

 

[SarahBlossom]

Thanks for the tips guys, really!
It was suggested that Quickbooks would be a better choice to keep track of the business side of things so my grandfather bought that.
I think he just generally wants me to help him work as a backup to keep track on things like money flow and expenses..not really getting into the heavy side of taking care of taxes and forms.