Neat and QuickBooks® Online Integration (Scanning / Paper Document Management)

Nicole Odeh for Intuit  Accountant News Central writes: Paper, paper everywhere! It was the bane of my existence as a bookkeeper and financial expert.

In this profession, the goal with our clients is to get their information where it needs to be, in an easy-to-understand format that makes sense to the non-professional. This becomes wildly difficult, however, when this information is largely contained in a mess of paperwork, haphazardly shoved into a shoebox or folder straining to hold its contents.

In the Early Days of my Business

One of my first clients owned a small market that specialized in locally sourced foodstuffs. I would travel an hour to meet up IN THE MARKET, discuss how business had been and leave with an entire milk crate of bank statements, invoices, point of sale receipts, employee new hire paperwork and timesheets. All of these things and more were now in the crate, and I would have to bring them back to my office to manually enter everything in QuickBooks®and file all of the paper, in case he needed them.

Then, I stumbled upon a game changer. Discovering Neat changed my business, as my client can now get me information on a timely basis, I am able to enter it faster and more accurately, and our monthly meetings are now focused on higher-level business processes. Suddenly, my contribution to his business now holds real value!

Neat’s scanning products and software alleviated so much of the paperwork pain. By using them in my practice, I regained hours that used to be spent on more menial, tedious tasks. I no longer have to shuffle through piles of paperwork looking for one specific piece (that I hope was correctly filed), or sit in a client’s office wasting time with the tedium of scanning page after page of documents.

The company was even featured in a recent article, so you know they are doing something right!

Making my Practice Neat

The Neat line of products allowed my clients to scan from their office (no more traveling to pick up that one piece of paper you need), while the software keeps it all in a digital format that makes those hunts for a small piece of specific information a quicker and more successful proposition. By using Optical Character Recognition technology, Neat allows you to see all of these receipts from anywhere, while much of the necessary information one needs from them is already inputted.

I started to scan almost everything. There was the obvious use of inputting clients’ receipts, invoices and payroll documents, but then I started doing employee files and other documents needed for records. I just made new folders for those, and they became easily accessible. It was a different type of service I could now offer clients; not only were we increasing my ability and access to their financial records, but I was also giving them a product that meant they had to deal with less paperwork throughout all aspects of their business.

And now, it is only getting easier!

Even with the convenience of the NeatReceipts scanner I would use in a client’s office, it was still a new piece of hardware that had to be installed at their location. Most clients back then still had separate bookkeeping software, into which I had to feed this information (though this was still much easier than it used to be).

Those were small issues to be sure, but new technology has come along to even fix those!

Connecting to the Future of Accounting

Accounting professionals can now set their clients up with a NeatConnect scanner that does not need to be hardwired into an office, as it only requires a Wi-Fi connection. With that connection, it feeds information directly into Neat’s cloud service.

Imagine that! We have gone from shuffling through those shoeboxes of receipts to taking information from virtually any location and feeding it directly into a space safe from any catastrophe that could happen at home, the office or on the computer.

Not only that, but the information from Neat can also be linked directly with QuickBooks Online, removing even another time-consuming step from our workflow!

Using Neat with QuickBooks Online

You can use Neat to quickly create expense reports from your receipts, and then submit them to QBO for reimbursement. You can also match images of receipts in Neat to credit card transactions in QBO for enhanced recordkeeping. Finally, you can even send invoices in Neat as bills to be paid in QBO to stay on top of your finances.

This presents wonderful opportunities to market to new clients, especially ones who may not be anywhere close to using best processes for their business. You can now enter their establishment and show them a system that allows them to scan in all that buried paperwork and get it flowing directly into QuickBooks Online, allowing you to remotely deal with the work from there.

I know that sounds good, but it gets even better. Neat is currently offering a great deal for accountants. You can get a NeatConnect for only $299 – and that even includes a year of their premium cloud service. Click here to learn more about this opportunity to simplify your business and maximize your time.

Key Points to Remember:

• Eliminate manual data entry by automatically extracting key information with Neat.
• Integrate seamlessly with QuickBooks Online for a more efficient workflow.
• Collaborate remotely with clients by sharing files and commenting on items.
• Get started with this great savings for a limited time only.