Communicate with Customers: QuickBooks and Microsoft Word

The pandemic has forced businesses to find new ways to connect with customers. QuickBooks has built-in tools that can help.

Businesses are starting to cautiously re-open in the U.S. (at least partially), but we’re still a long way from “normal.” Because of COVID-19, some companies have done very well. Most, though, have had to make changes to comply with health guidelines and keep their customers and employees as safe as possible. And many consumers and businesses are less willing to spend money until they know more about the country’s path to recovery.

If your business has had to shut down temporarily, or at least scale back operations, we hope you’ve found ways to stay in touch with your customers. Even if you’re struggling, it’s important to communicate with the people who have helped you build your company.

QuickBooks can support you in this effort. Its integration with Microsoft Word makes it possible to create and dispatch letters or emails to customers that can fit a variety of common situations. There are dozens of pre-written templates that you can personalize and send to one or 10 or hundreds of the consumers and companies with whom you’ve built a relationship. Here’s how it works.

Finding Your Message

To get started, open the Customers menu and select Customer Center. To explore what’s available, click the down arrow next to Word in the toolbar, then select Customize Letter Templates. This window will open:

Before you start preparing customer letters, you should see what’s available.

Click the button in front of View or Edit Existing Letter Templates, then click Next. You’ll see the letter templates that are available, divided into types. Spend some time clicking on each type to see what your options are. 

Let’s say you want to send a letter to customers who haven’t been active for a while. Click the button in front of Customer and scroll down to Inactive customer. Select it and click Next. You’ll notice that Microsoft Word has opened and is displaying your letter template, which is now saved to your QuickBooks folder. If it’s in your taskbar tray, click to open it. Read through it and make any changes you want, then save to the current folder and close it. Click Use Template. 

In the window that opens, you’ll select the recipients of your letter. Under Include names that are, you’ll click the button in front of Inactive.  You want to direct your correspondence to customers, not jobs, so click the button in front of Customer. Look at the list that QuickBooks has displayed and make sure all of the entries have a checkmark in front of them. If you want to remove any of them, click the checkmark to turn it off. Click Next.

You can select the customers who are to receive your correspondence on this screen.

Editing Your Letter

In the window that just opened, Inactive customer should be highlighted. Click Next. Enter the Name and Title that should appear in your letter’s signature. When you click Next again, a single Microsoft Word document will open containing all of your letters in one continuous document (each letter will start on a new page). You’ll be able to edit these letters without affecting the original template.

If you want to print envelopes, you’ll click Next. If you want to continue on to edit and send your letters, click Cancel. Your personalized letters should be in your Windows taskbar tray. Open the document and scan through it to see if you want to change anything.

You can edit your customer letters individually.

In the example above, you might want to, for example, delete the customer’s first name so it just reads Dear Mr. Burch. Or, you might want to change the words “Have we disturbed” to something like “worried” in the second paragraph.

If you want to save these letters as edited, you can go ahead and do so. Otherwise, just print them as you would any Word document. Of course, you could copy and paste them into your email system and send them that way. But sending a signed, printed letter during these times provides a more personal touch.

You may have already developed the habit of communicating with your customers outside of exchanging sales forms and payments. If not, consider finding ways to interact occasionally with those individuals and companies that keep your business going. This is especially important right now, as we all wait to see how the recovery will continue to progress. Let us know if we can help in any way during this uncertain period.

SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

Are you staying in touch with your customers during this uncertain period? Even if they’re not buying, let them know you’re there. Here is how QuickBooks can help.

QuickBooks contains templates for letters you can automatically create in Word and send to customers. Ask us how this works. 

Did you know that you can use pre-written letter templates in QuickBooks to create customer correspondence? Here is how this feature works.

Did you know that QuickBooks’ letter templates cover a wide variety of topics? You can personalize them and send them to one or 10 or 100 customers, and as businesses slowly re-open now is the perfect time to utilize this feature.

3 Ways to Receive Payments in QuickBooks Online

Recording customer payments is one of your more pleasant accounting tasks. Depending on the situation, you can choose from multiple ways to do this using QuickBooks Online.

If you made New Year’s resolutions this last January, you’ve probably had to revise them. No one knew what was coming when 2019 turned over to 2020. We hope that despite the turmoil and disruption of the last six months, you’ve managed to stay healthy and keep your small business running.

It’s more important than ever to conscientiously record all of the money coming into your company and ensure that it gets deposited into your account(s). QuickBooks Online offers several ways to accomplish this. Whether you’re receiving payment on an invoice, documenting an instant sale, or selling on the road - the site provides tools to make certain that your receipt of the funds is entered in the correct place.

Delayed Payments

Do you send invoices for products and/or services? If so, there’s more than one way to record payments when they come in. You can, of course, just open the invoice and click Receive payment in the upper right corner. We find, though, that going to the All Sales screen gives us a chance to check the status of other pending transactions. Click Sales in the toolbar, then All Sales.

If your list isn’t very long, you can just look for the invoice number. If not, you can use the Filter tool to find the original form. Click the down arrow next to Filter in the upper left to see your search options here (Status, Customer, etc.). 

If you have a lengthy list of sales transactions, you can search for the one(s) you want in this drop-down window.

Once you’ve found the invoice, look down toward the end of that row. In the Action column, you’ll see Receive payment. (While you’re there, click the down arrow to familiarize yourself with the other options.) When the Receive Payment window opens, select the Payment method that applies. Leave the Deposit to field showing Undeposited Funds and look over the rest of the screen to make sure everything is accurate. Print it if you’d like and/or add an Attachment using the links at the bottom, then Save it. 

Tip: Customers tend to pay invoices faster if you allow them to make payments online. If you’re not yet set up for this, we can help you.

Instant Payments

Your business may collect payments at the time you provide a product or service. When this happens, you’ll want to supply your customers with a sales receipt instead of an invoice (this is also important for your own records). Click the +New button in the upper left and select Sales receipt under Customers to open a blank form. You’ll fill this out just like you would an invoice, by selecting the Customer first, then entering or selecting any data needed for the other fields.

If you don’t anticipate needing all of the fields on your sales forms, you can remove some of them and even add your own. Ask us how this works.

If you’d like to add custom fields to your sales forms, you can do so in QuickBooks Online.

When you’ve completed all of the fields in your sales receipt, you can preview and print it. You can also save and email it to the customer.

Going Mobile

If you generate sales on the road, you can still create sales receipts for customers using the QuickBooks mobile app. Just click the plus (+) sign at the bottom of the screen and select Sales Receipt. The form is similar to the one you’d use on your desktop computer, though the layout is different, of course. 

Having a QuickBooks Payments account is especially helpful when you’re making mobile sales. You can even swipe your customers’ credit and debit cards if you order a card reader from Intuit. We can walk you through this process.

You don’t ever want to record a payment incorrectly, of course, but it’s especially important right now to ensure that you’re accounting for every dollar that comes in. Please stay healthy and safe, and let us know if we can help in any way with your accounting and your use of QuickBooks Online.

SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

Do you know which QuickBooks Online form to use when a customer gives you money? We can walk you through the options that are especially important right now.

Can your business accept credit and debit cards online? This can help you get paid faster, especially during times like this. Let us tell you about QuickBooks Payments.

When you receive payment immediately for a product or service, it’s important that you create a Sales Receipt in QuickBooks Online. Here is how to get started.

You might be surprised by how much you can accomplish remotely using the QuickBooks mobile app. We can introduce you and show you how.