You sit down at your desk and do a quick inventory to ensure you have everything ready. Ruler to keep the lines straight – check. Pencil to tick off the amounts – check. New paper in the adding machine, just in case – check. Large coffee – check. Five-hundred-line journal entry ready to enter – check. With one last sigh, the data entry begins.
This was a familiar scenario for many of us in years past, but with today’s technology manual data entry is becoming a thing of the past. Integration software such as Transaction Pro allows large journal entries to be imported into accounting software in a few minutes instead of hours of manual entry time accompanied by stiff fingers, sore necks, and possible fat finger mistakes.
Journal entries, though, are not the only manual entry transaction that can be automated through integration. If you think through any data entry process that you or your staff do on a regular basis that is either a huge time drain and/or just repetitive, then most likely there is a way to integrate it with your accounting software. Once you invest in integration software, why not use it in every way possible?
For example, I recently had a customer with the need to import invoices on a monthly basis into QuickBooks Desktop. In Transaction Pro Importer, we created the mapping to allow the invoices to import into the necessary fields in the layout that they needed. Once this was completed and he saw the amount of time saved with this process, he sat down and began making notes of other time-consuming manual data entry that his staff was handling regularly and reached back out to see how they might also be integrated. In the end, not only were they importing invoices, but also their bank statements, credit card statements, employee expense reports, and the bi-weekly payroll journal entry. He calculated that each of his staff gained six to eight hours a week with the new processes, and he continues to look for other transactions that can be integrated as well.
When first introduced, integration software required the import files to be in a certain layout order with the column header titles being very specific. Sometimes it took as much work to export the data and arrange it prior to import as it did simply to enter it manually. You saved no time. Also, you needed to understand the difference between header data and line data as well as cell formatting and sorting. Not anymore!
Most integration software, including Transaction Pro, recognizes the column header titles no matter what they are and allows them to be mapped to import into the corresponding column in the accounting software. The columns can be in any order and only a few columns are required, giving you the flexibility to import only the data that you actually need and want. Transaction Pro even allows you to import some transactions into QuickBooks Desktop in a “column as rows” format, meaning that each detail line does not need to be on a separate row. Instead, all data for a single transaction is on the same row. Transactions include bills, checks, sales receipts, and invoices.
Every industry has accounting software and records, and accounting always involves data entry. Why not make that data entry an integration process to save you and your staff valuable time for other needs? If you are using QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online, check out Transaction Pro Importer to help you in the process.