Client Data Review: A Tool for CPAs to Manage QuickBooks Clients More Profitably

Client Data Review allows you to quickly identify and fix QuickBooks client errors, including locating discrepancies in prior period balances, correcting unapplied payments and credits and incorrectly paid payroll or sales tax liabilities, and quickly reviewing list changes.  Here's how it works...

Client Data Review (CDR) is available in the Accountant Edition of QuickBooks Premier and QuickBooks Enterprise.  It actually stores the status of the QuickBooks company file upon completion of each review, thus, allowing CDR to identify specific client changes the next time you want to review each clients books.  CDR has a special tool to troubleshoot and fix client errors, which saves a tremendous amount of time required to search transaction details to find the discrepancies.  Review notes remain with the client's file so you can read them in the future; the Client does not see these notes.

Here are some of the Cleanup and End of Period Tasks you can perform:

• Troubleshoot account balances

• Review list changes

• Correct errors with accounts receivable transactions

• Correct errors with accounts payable transactions

• Find incorrectly paid payroll liabilities

• Reconcile clients accounts

• Locate discrepancies from the last reconciliation

• Set a closing date and password

• Review QuickBooks references

Troubleshoot Account Balances

Clients often change transactions from the prior period.  QuickBooks automatically displays differences between your saved balances and the current QuickBooks file for the same accounting period.

Click the differences to see the “Transaction Change Report”

QuickBooks even suggests adjustments

 Review List Changes

You can review changes to Chart of Accounts, Items, Fixed Assets, and Payroll Items

Added

Mark changes as reviewed so only new changes will appear next time you perform a client data review.

Unapplied Payments or Credits

You can easily apply unapplied payments and credits as shown below with unapplied credits to the left an open invoices and charges to the right. Select Unapplied payment and open invoice and click apply.

Find errors clients made because they incorrectly paid payroll or sales tax liabilities

Additional Common Review Tasks that can be launched directly from CDR

• Opening the working T/B

• Reviewing A/R and A/P aging reports

• Adjusting sales tax payable

• Adjusting inventory and quantities on hand

• Running P/R checkup, review employee default settings, enter after the fact P/R

• Reconciling Accounts

• Setting closing dates and QuickBooks preferences 

You can even customize the cleanup tasks to see only tasks you want to see.

QuickBooks remembers where you left off so you can continue when you return.  When you are finished just mark the review complete.  You can still open a completed review or open a new one.

Robert Guild is certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor in Austin, TX who conducts CPE courses for CPAs and individual training and group classes to QuickBooks users. His company at www.QBCoach.biz, maintains a sixteen-station QuickBooks lab, providing hands-on training. You can contact him directly at rguild@QBCoach.biz or follow him on twitter at QBPro