QuickBooks has a little-used function that can help QuickBooks users communicate with their customers. It is the ability to create letters in Microsoft Word as templates.
These letters can be saved as templates in QuickBooks and created with fields that will fill in with QuickBooks data. QuickBooks comes with a number of such letter templates already created.
Let’s look at how we might use this feature to speed collection on customer accounts.
This feature is available from the Company drop down menu. Select Prepare Letters with Envelopes. From that selection a sub-menu opens listing several types of letters available.
We will choose Collection Letters.
Above is the first screen for creating letters with overdue amounts in QuickBooks. There are three selections in this screen.
As you can see, we will create letters for both active and inactive customers. We will create a letter for each overdue customer, not for each overdue job.
That means if we had a customer with two job or projects and both jobs or projects were overdue, only one letter would be created, not two.
As can be seen in the above graphic, QuickBooks only found one customer that met the criteria we set in the first setup screen. Greg Aackerman has a balance of $750.00 that is past due. QuickBooks will create one letter with this information.
When selecting the letter type off the main menu for letters, we selected Collection Letters. There are several templates for collection letters. This screen allows us to select the style we want.
We will choose the Friendly collection letter template.
This screen asks for the name and title that should be used in the signature portion of the letter.
Click Next and QuickBooks will open Microsoft Word and create the letter.
The arrows point out the information coming from QuickBooks, even though the letter is open in Excel.
If multiple customers in QuickBooks fit the criteria we had set in the setup, multiple letters would be created in the one step.
Hector Garcia, CPA
Certified Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor
12401 Orange Drive #136
Davie, FL 33330
954-414-1524
hector@garciacpa.com
One Response
Great post Hector!